Older ATI card and Jaunty

[sydbat]

I have an older ATI card (x-600 series) and know that it is unsupported by ATI/AMD as of the Jaunty release. However, I would like to upgrade to 9.04 and want to know how the open source drivers have turned out for older cards like mine.

Are they usable? Do they have full 3D acceleration? Would it be simpler to just go out and buy a new card?

Thanks in advance.

[Iendicis]

I have a Radeon 9200 Mobility that stopped being able to do 3D in 9.04. It can support Compiz just fine, but OpenArena, which in 8.10 ran without a hitch, has turned into a Powerpoint presentation.

Mine's older than yours (two generations back) but that might be helpful somewhat.

[wpshooter]

I am using an ATI9600X Radeon and it is working fine under 9.04.

Of course, I am not a gamer and I do not do any fancy graphics stuff, just e-mail, internet basically and does all I need.

One thing though that seemed strange to me is that when I installed initially using the ALTERNATE CD version of 9.04 the video card performance was slower than then I subsquently went back and installed instead from the LIVE CD version of 9.04 !!!

[astro4travel]

I also have an ATI-9600 All-In-Wonder card. I originally upgraded to Jaunty and tried to install the "ATI Catalyst Center" system from sympatic and when I tried to reboot, the system crashed. I was just left with a blank screen. So, I uninstalled "Jaunty 9.04" and reinstalled "Intrepid 9.10". It runs fine there. I think I will have to wait until I either get a new computer or new card before I upgrade again!

[sydbat]

Thanks for your responses thus far!

I have a Radeon 9200 Mobility that stopped being able to do 3D in 9.04. It can support Compiz just fine, but OpenArena, which in 8.10 ran without a hitch, has turned into a Powerpoint presentation.

Mine's older than yours (two generations back) but that might be helpful somewhat.I do play Open Arena and Urban Terror every now and then, so those just becoming a PPS would be frustrating.

I also do various audio/video editing, Open Office Presentations, GIMP, etc. If these would be impacted, maybe I should think about a new card or staying with Hardy for the time being?

[Iendicis]

If these would be impacted, maybe I should think about a new card or staying with Hardy for the time being?

Yeah, you could spend a bit and get a nice, cheap card for the time being (I'd go with nVidia, because ATI may have dark days ahead, but that's just me) or just stick with 8.04 and its backports, which usually works just fine.

[sydbat]

Iendicis, may I ask why you say "ATI may have dark days ahead"? Have I missed something?

I've seen a couple of nVidea cards for about $50 that could work. I will probably have to upgrade it soon anyway, as I plan on moving to the next LTS when it arrives.