video acceleration/drivers?

[osmorphyus]

hi,

i have an ATI 9600SE 128MB video card.

i installed the pro. driver, and it says "no prop. drivers installed".

i want to know if ubuntu is taking full advantage of my video card, but unlike windows we dont have a way to see which hardware is installed (device manager) or which driver is running it.

how can i find out if my system is taking full advantage of my video card? i have to shut off visual effects because it slows down so much with them on, leading me to think that the card is not fully being utilized.

hoep someone can help.

-regards.

[darkksyde.]

Which ubuntu are you using?

[osmorphyus]

the newest release, 9.10

"You are using Ubuntu 9.10 - the Karmic Koala - released in October 2009 and supported until April 2011."
from "about ubuntu"


-regards

[darkksyde.]

Any version of *buntu since 9.04 has to use the open source ati driver which is pretty crappy. If you want to use the official driver you have to go back to 8.04 or 8.10.

[osmorphyus]

oh wow, thats lame.

is this going to be worked on eventually, that you know of? that anybody knows of?

is there a list of old school cards that will work to their full potential on this current version?


man, was the 8.x version the "hardy heron" release? because if it is, i had horrible video driver support back then... i was stuck in an over-scanned 640 x 480 display mode. imagine the horror.

-regards.

[darkksyde.]

oh wow, thats lame.

is this going to be worked on eventually, that you know of? that anybody knows of?

is there a list of old school cards that will work to their full potential on this current version?


man, was the 8.x version the "hardy heron" release? because if it is, i had horrible video driver support back then... i was stuck in an over-scanned 640 x 480 display mode. imagine the horror.

-regards.

I dont have a card that old so im not sure. The open drivers are ok, they just need more work. Nvidia cards apparently work great, so maybe you should upgrade. Ati dont support that card on windows anymore anyway.

[osmorphyus]

thanks for the tip. ive never been an ati guy myself, this is my old ladys box, her brother built it a few years ago now.

if the nvidia drivers work, ill just ebay an old-school PCI card then. im sure i can find one for a couple bucks and have it before xmas. damn, what a bummer tho. i guess i understand why the cards driver wasnt developed, but i swore i had read that it worked for ubu. i suppose they meant an older version of ubu!

theres no reason to invest any real amount of money into this box. after the new year ill start building a new system, but that wont be until tax time, here.

-regards.

[darkksyde.]

You can probably get a pci gforce 5200 for about $5-10

[tcchris]

With that card , you will be using the opensource Radeon driver .
You can edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf to gain better performance .
there is documentation on the web .
I have a 9600xt that works pretty well for what it is .

[osmorphyus]

With that card , you will be using the opensource Radeon driver .
You can edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf to gain better performance .
there is documentation on the web .
I have a 9600xt that works pretty well for what it is .

hmm, sounds very interesting. thanks for the tip! ill start googling around about this! if you have any other info, id appreciate it!