On Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 2:52 PM, Mark Knecht <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 1:25 PM, Alex Deucher <[email protected]> wrote: >> On Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 3:27 PM, Mark Knecht <[email protected]> wrote: >>> On Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 11:50 AM, Alex Deucher <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> On Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 1:28 PM, Mark Knecht <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>> Hi, >>>>> Sorry for the sort of vague nature of the questions here. I'm >>>>> starting to look around for a new card. I would prefer fanless if >>>>> possible and that limits my choices quite a bit. >>>>> >>>>> In terms of performance with the Open Source ATI drivers how are >>>>> the 5500 and 5600 series of chips? Are they well supported? Mostly I'm >>>>> 2D with the hope of a little bit of gaming maybe once a month for a >>>>> few hours. I'd like reasonable 3D performance down the road even if >>>>> it's not there now. >>>>> >>>>> I haven't found any 5700 or higher fanless cards yet but I haven't >>>>> looked very hard. >>>>> >>>>> How is the driver support these days for the 5500 and higher based >>>>> cards? Anything I should watch out for? Any plans to support or not >>>>> support either the 5570 or 5670 series? Is the 5670 noticeably better >>>>> for gaming? I presume they're all about the same for getting KDE up on >>>>> the screen? >>>>> >>>> >>>> Evergreen cards (HD5xxx) have modesetting support only at the moment >>>> in the open source driver. Acceleration support has been started and >>>> will come eventually. >>>> >>>> Alex >>>> >>> >>> Hi Alex, >>> So by modesetting do you mean width by height and bits/pixel, but >>> nothing else? >>> >> >> modesetting means that you can use all the outputs on your card, >> enable dualhead, etc. >> >>> I don't know how to assess whether a card is usable in that state. >>> The Wiki does pretty clearly seem to stop at the HD4xxx series: >>> >>> http://wiki.x.org/wiki/radeon >> >> http://wiki.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature >> is probably more useful. >> >>> >>> I have no history of how long it takes to see acceleration start to >>> be usefully functional. If I bought one of these cards today not >>> caring about gaming then: >>> >>> 1) Is it useful and reasonably pleasant running a KDE desktop in a >>> VERY high end processor machine? I expect it is. >> >> even without acceleration the driver is very usable for basic desktop tasks. >> >>> >>> 2) How long might I wait to see 2D and then 3D start to be useful for >>> games? 3 months? A year? I understand that never is a possibility but >>> I'm not worried about that outcome. >> >> A few months I'd say for initial 3D driver. Richard has already >> started on the 3D driver and EXA/Xv support shouldn't take too long. >> Fortunately we can leverage a lot of the work previously done for >> r6xx/r7xx. >> >> Alex >> > > Those answers and date estimates are completely acceptable. I'm there > to help with running driver tests if you need it and can make it > simple enough for a monkey on a rock. (me) > > I'm off to see what I can get a Fry's hoping don't have to mail order. > > Cheers, > Mark >
OK - I found a 5770-based card for a reasonable price so I've got it in the machine and will work to start it up with X tomorrow. thanks for your guidance. cheers, Mark _______________________________________________ xorg-driver-ati mailing list [email protected] http://lists.x.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg-driver-ati
