On Donnerstag 16 Oktober 2008, Hal Martin wrote: > Volker Armin Hemmann wrote: > > On Sunday 28 September 2008, Hal Martin wrote: > >> Hello all, > >> > >> I am contemplating building a new computer with an AMD/ATi graphics > >> card. I've been following the subject of ATi driver quality in linux for > >> a while, but I realize that the experiences I read on Google search > >> results are, shall we say, biased, as many people who have perfectly > >> working cards don't go out and comment on how great their drivers are. > >> > >> So, do any of you have newer (HD series) AMD/ATi graphics cards? > > > > HD3870 > > I just picked up the HD3850, which is a nice card by all measures. > > >> What drivers (AMD closed source, or open source) are you using? > > > > fglrx - the closed source ones. > > I installed these drivers (from portage) and tried them. > > >> Are they stable? > > > > yes. Switching between vt and X works, and restarting X too - but the ati > > scripts in /etc/acpi have to be removed. > > With desktop effects turned off 2d is fast and snappy and video is ok. > > With desktop effects turned on 2d is fast except manually resizing > > windows and xv-video sucks. Luckily kde 4.1 makes it easy to switch ;) - > > and I don't need xv ;) > > I had a horrid time with the fglrx drivers. I use two displays, and > while it was a breeze to setup (even easier than on an NVidia card) the > result was horrid. I can't drag windows from one display to another, the > windows wrap within the display. The fglrx_gears program renders > something that I don't believe heralds from this planet; while glx_gears > renders the same thing I get on my NVidia card only 10% slower (which is > expected given the performance difference between the 7900GTX and the > HD3850.) > > Trying to exit X11 causes a complete system lockup, requiring a hard reset. > > >> How is the performance? > > > > very good. I play ut2004 and vegastrike 0.5. With a but. See above. > > I couldn't get any Wine apps that use 3D to work. Call of Duty 4 refused > to start, citing that the video card didn't support alpha blending. > > >> Any noise issues with your card when it's idle? Under load? > > > > the fan is very quiet in KDE or playing games. Only in the menus of > > ut2004 or on a vt it turns up - but is still very bearable. > > aticonfig --odgt > > > > Default Adapter - ATI Radeon HD 3870 > > Sensor 0: Temperature - 51.00 C > > My card is incredibly, nay, unbelievably loud until you throttle the fan > manually from aticonfig, which, I might add, is absent from the Catalyst > control centre gui. After throttling the fan down to 3% the card settles > around 45.00C and is quiet enough to bare. > > My attempt to uninstall the portage based ATI drivers (which are > slightly dated,) and install the official drivers from ATI proved to > wreck my system beyond comprehension. 'eselect opengl list' no longer > includes ATI, only xorg-x11. I have no ability to start X11 anyone, and > no fan control, meaning I now have a jet engine residing in my computer.
never ever install drivers without an ebuild. If you need the latest driver just copy&rename one. That eselect stopped to work is the logical conclusion. Deinstall the driver, change an ebuild, try again. > > There must be something I'm doing wrong. I've heard that ATI drivers > aren't supposed to lock up your system when you exit X11, is this still > the case? Was this ever the case with two monitors? for some people it locks up, for others it doesn't (like with nvidia). I solved the lockup issue for myself by removing the ati scripts from /etc/acpi. > Is there any way to get the ATI driver to automatically set a reasonable > fan speed, or must I do it manually? It does for my card.
