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Re: [PLUG] The state of ATI vs. nVidia on Linux
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On Thursday 30 April 2009 2:33:56 am Gordon Dexter wrote:
> I'm preparing a parts list for a new computer.
>
> In general, what are you choosing these days? The more principled ATI,
> since they released their specs? Or the generally more practical
> nVidia? How good are ATI's open source drivers, and how much are they
> expected to be improved upon in the short- and long-term?
>
> What would you advise in my case?
I just made this same decision. Here's what I decided, and the results so
far:
AMD X4 (quad core, but only DDR2 memory) because it got me 4 cores at lower
cost. (Intel is probably faster,but the system costs go up 20+%)
My motherboard came with integrated ATI 3300 chip ("780 series"). This has
been a big disappointment so far, but things are looking better for the
future. Basically, there is no 2D acceleration for this chip yet with the
opensource RadeonHD driver, but it seems to be improving fast. Just today I
installed the latest version 1.2.5 (I think) that claims to support 2D
acceleration. As far as I can tell, X __thinks__ its accelerated, but any
normal human being wouldn't think so. Screen scrolls are painful, and there
is no "sideways" RandR support.
Some of my problems may be that I haven't found the right settings, but I've
done all the things mentioned in the X.org and Gentoo Wikis. I only installed
it last night, so I still need to muck around with it before declaring defeat.
The latest RadeonHD driver is really designed to run with the 2.6.30 kernel,
which is not out yet, so I'm hoping that it improves when the kernel gets
released sometime in the next week or so.
I was unsuccessful loading the binary ATI driver, and the other radeon driver
"radeon" left me with a blank screen.
One bad note for ATI is that Novel just laid off one of the RadeonHD
developers, so progress will be slower in the future.
If you want a fast system __Today__, I'd recommend going with the binary
nVidia driver. if you want a "pure" system and are willing to wait a month or
so (at least), then go with ATI
--
Casey Bralla
Chief Nerd in Residence
The NerdWorld Organisation
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