ATI may be passing nvidia in linux soon than we though

[PurposeOfReason]

I'm actually two days late on this but I haven't seen any threads so why not?

For those following hardware it has been a crazy past year with core i7, now i5, and ATI showing off it's new cards. As well as boasting being the first dx11 card, it's bringing eyefinity with it. 6 monitors per card, a possible 24 monitor setup with 4 cards. But what is really fun is that their pre-production catalyst driver for linux will support it. While that means they'll rule the multi monitor setups, it may be that they'll be putting out some decent support.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzUyNQ

[racerraul]

I hope so... I want nothing more than to get all the processing power out of my HD3200 setups.

[WalmartSniperLX]

This would be amazing. I was so sick and tired of poor ATI performance in linux. Finally they're making some sense. They have been pulling it together for the last few years.

[PurposeOfReason]

A better video, on windows though. Watch from 0:55 to 1:10. That is true multimonitor (watch how things get maximized) support and if it comes to linux ... :KS:KS:KS:KS


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkwVw-azZ0M

[Swagman]

But in here in the real world...

I'll never have that much space for multi monitor setups in my home so I'll have to stick to my ONE good 26" Samsung monitor and use a graphics card that can be made to use the best of that card. (In Linux)

And at the moment that's....

nVidia

[racerraul]

But in here in the real world...

I'll never have that much space for multi monitor setups in my home so I'll have to stick to my ONE good 26" Samsung monitor and use a graphics card that can be made to use the best of that card. (In Linux)

And at the moment that's....

nVidia

Yup!

[ssri]

All of these new features won't be worth a damn if the drivers are in such a ****** state. Note, this applies to all GPU manufacturers, which ATI/AMD seems to be the posterboy. Granted, the open-source drivers are coming along nicely, they will not unseat nvidia anytime soon, especially in 3D performance. For myself, as an ATI user (sufferer/prisoner) I have no need bleeding edge 3D performance. However, it would be nice, nay essential (in my case), to have powerplay features and video-out working. Without those two implemented, I will be forced to stick with Catalyst 9.3 for the duration, which is looking like Jaunty (see kernel support up to 2.6.28). :(

[madjr]

aw i thought this was about the open driver

[Ric_NYC]

It didn't pass Nvidia in my computer.
I still can't play hd flash videos on Youtube. I still can't use VirtualBox when I install fglrx .

[3rdalbum]

It wouldn't surprise me if 6 monitors per card was relatively easy to do on ATI's end. What's not quite so quick and easy to implement is decent 3D performance, video decoding on the GPU, and the ability to run 3D applications and videos on a composited 3D desktop, all without causing instability to the host system. In all those counts, Nvidia is ahead.

And you know what? All those things I mentioned that Nvidia is ahead on, are most of the things that people actually want.

[markbuntu]

Thing ati has demonstrated that have not showed up in the linux drivers

xVBA

hybrid crossfire

displayport

multigpu with compositing

Demos are one thing but they just make people angry when they do not actually show up in the drivers.

[sena_akada]

using linux with ati is like using a different os than using it with nvidia. i will never ever touch another ati product again.

[toupeiro]

Thing ati has demonstrated that have not showed up in the linux drivers

xVBA

hybrid crossfire

displayport

multigpu with compositing

Demos are one thing but they just make people angry when they do not actually show up in the drivers.

+100



using linux with ati is like using a different os than using it with nvidia. i will never ever touch another ati product again.

Pretty strong words. ATi has always had better hardware than NVidia, it's always taken longer for the drivers to leverage it all. This is even the case with Windows. Once the linux drivers can support the hardware at least as well as it can on windows, I will switch back to ATi. I hate how my top of the line NVidia card is obsolete in less than 60 days, and how an ATi card reaching driver maturity (6 months - 1 yr) can closely hold its own against the current NVidia hardware.

[sena_akada]

+100




Pretty strong words. ATi has always had better hardware than NVidia, it's always taken longer for the drivers to leverage it all. This is even the case with Windows. Once the linux drivers can support the hardware at least as well as it can on windows, I will switch back to ATi.

after the hell i went through with ati, those are very polite words.

[toupeiro]

after the hell i went through with ati, those are very polite words.

I doubt your hell was any more than anyone elses hell. NVidia has had its share of QC issues as well over the last 2 years in manufacturing. I'd prefer to deal with driver issues than iffy GPU's... Your hell doesn't negate what I said, but do what you want for the reasons you have, of course. :)

[sena_akada]

I doubt your hell was any more than anyone elses hell. NVidia has had its share of QC issues as well over the last 2 years in manufacturing. I'd prefer to deal with driver issues than iffy GPU's... Your hell doesn't negate what I said, but do what you want for the reasons you have, of course. :)

i cant argue with that. ati cards do live longer than nvidia.

[Skripka]

+100




Pretty strong words. ATi has always had better hardware than NVidia, it's always taken longer for the drivers to leverage it all. This is even the case with Windows. Once the linux drivers can support the hardware at least as well as it can on windows, I will switch back to ATi. I hate how my top of the line NVidia card is obsolete in less than 60 days, and how an ATi card reaching driver maturity (6 months - 1 yr) can closely hold its own against the current NVidia hardware.

AMD/ATi makes great silicon. But cards are NADA without drivers...and given ATi's LONG history of craptastic drivers (across OSes), it will likely be years before there is a driver for ATi boards that competes with Nvidia...and more than likely, that ATi driver will not be written by ATi themselves.

Calling how I see it, I'd like to be wrong-but given a decade or so of precedent (and awful beta-quality final release drivers) to look back at-I don't think I am.

[khelben1979]

But in here in the real world...

I'll never have that much space for multi monitor setups in my home so I'll have to stick to my ONE good 26" Samsung monitor and use a graphics card that can be made to use the best of that card. (In Linux)

And at the moment that's....

nVidia

And in the real world here, I'm sitting with an old 19" CRT display from LG. And the best thing about it is... it's still working.

[toupeiro]

AMD/ATi makes great silicon. But cards are NADA without drivers...and given ATi's LONG history of craptastic drivers (across OSes), it will likely be years before there is a driver for ATi boards that competes with Nvidia...and more than likely, that ATi driver will not be written by ATi themselves.

Calling how I see it, I'd like to be wrong-but given a decade or so of precedent (and awful beta-quality final release drivers) to look back at-I don't think I am.

I think the whole point of this thread is, the community has seen some unprecedented positive change in Catalyst linux drivers, which sort of defeats the purpose of bringing up its bad history? Anyone whose used ATi and Linux for any amount of time at all knows the history, but unless you've got some modern ATi hardware to throw the new catalyst drivers at, I wouldn't be so quick to discount these findings.

[misfitpierce]

HD Flash videos seem to work pretty good for me in firefox as long as you don't move the mouse around while in fullscreen with compiz on. ATI 200m here with opensource ATI driver atm.

[JDShu]

For now I use Nvidia, but once the open source drivers have decent 3D support, I'm switching to ATI. I hear that day will be coming soon.

[gymophett]

ATi has been great on my notebook!
It installed flawlessly in the hardware drivers option.
Compiz runs magnificent!

[kpholmes]

When they do let me know because my 2 ati 4890 GPUs are sitting in the closet while my nvidea 7890 is in my pc :(

[markbuntu]

When they do let me know because my 2 ati 4890 GPUs are sitting in the closet while my nvidea 7890 is in my pc :(

The 4890 will work with the latest drivers from ati. The 4890 was not out when the driver for Jaunty was released.