How Old ATI GPUs Can Be Faster On Open Drivers

[crazycheese]

OK, you lost me there. How did this go from "IBM/Oracle/Novell/RedHat" to being about me ?

Not you as professional, but you as representative of your company. You are employed by AMD/ATi?

Is your question to me rhetorical or of real interest? My answer is that I fail to see AMD/ATi interest in Unices on desktop other than "just for fun" or "hobby".

Otherwise you would combine selling of consumer AMD/ATi cards to selling* of software in Unices.

And if the question was rhetorical - there won't be any commercial(means monetary profit from it) AMD success on linux desktop.

Selling* can be defined as selling copies(corporate proprietary commercial), selling services(corporate opensource commercial), selling (group or individual) human support(opensource commercial).

[crazycheese]

With customers like you, AMD does not need competitors. Do AMD a favor and switch to Nvidia.

Im NOT amd customer if I buy and use their card. You follow?
Do yourself a favor and read here.

[crazycheese]

I am waiting, and I am going to buy Llano, exactly because AMD openness. Otherwise I would have gone nv. Crazycheese, bare in mind that previous christmass we celebrated gears on r600c. The last year was a fantastic progress.

Yeah, Drago, I bare in mind I had to purchase outdated card to get opensource drivers working.

Close your eyes and imagine following: Windows cease to exist. AMD releases new hardware. Bingo - they cannot sell it! At least whole next year! And even if someone buys it - it won't change the situation even a bit!

[pingufunkybeat]

Close your eyes and imagine following: Windows cease to exist. AMD releases new hardware. Bingo - they cannot sell it! At least whole next year! And even if someone buys it - it won't change the situation even a bit!

This is indeed possible, and would suck for AMD.

Now think of the following scenario: Nvidia stops supporting Linux, like they did with some of their chips recently (Optimus). Nvidia doesn't care, all Linux users with nvidia hardware are screwed.

Which scenario is more likely?

[crazycheese]

This is indeed possible, and would suck for AMD.

Now think of the following scenario: Nvidia stops supporting Linux, like they did with some of their chips recently (Optimus). Nvidia doesn't care, all Linux users with nvidia hardware are screwed.

Which scenario is more likely?

More likely is Linux cease to exist. Nvidia has been trolling over the internets recently with hiring another developer btw. But you are mixing subjects:

Windows cease to exist - AMD looses all customers in windows and all customers in linux.
Windows cease to exist - Nvidia looses all customers in windows, but barely anyone in linux. Because their blob is way more advanced than AMD and in opensource area AMD does not seek in any possiblity to help normal people(non-coders) develop its drivers by voting with money(what market by definition is).

Remember we are focusing on desktop area here.

Seriously, you have 500$ budget on gfx card that you want to use in linux (not windows) for gaming, htpc, work - which chip brand would you prefer? AMD and waiting half year for support with bugs and reduction of features and selling card in next 5 years? Or you mean opensource driver that starts to work in 5 years yet again having reduction in features? How about nvidia and 10 years of card working?

And then, where will your 500$ go? Opensource amd - no. Catalyst on linux - no. Windows only driver - yes. Nice big cup of wtf.

[Drago]

Yeah, Drago, I bare in mind I had to purchase outdated card to get opensource drivers working.

Close your eyes and imagine following: Windows cease to exist. AMD releases new hardware. Bingo - they cannot sell it! At least whole next year! And even if someone buys it - it won't change the situation even a bit!

Well, you just want to argue here. Gallium is a new architecture. It needs to gain momentum. It needs time to pass. You saw how r300g got ~70% of Catalyst. r600g is much younger, but that didn't stop AMD to provide zero day support for Bobcat APU. The delay window for HD69xx was what.. ~2-3months! And I think these windows will got smaller, when:
- there is already reference drivers (r300g,r600g)
- the FOSS devs get familiar with Gallium3D
- Gallium3D gets polished

[Drago]

I ment HD6xxx without 69xx.

[pingufunkybeat]

Windows cease to exist - AMD looses all customers in windows and all customers in linux.

It would suck for AMD, but not for AMD customers.

If Nvidia stops supporting Linux, it sucks for Nvidia's Linux customers.

Seriously, you have 500$ budget on gfx card that you want to use in linux (not windows) for gaming, htpc, work - which chip brand would you prefer?

Honestly?

For work: AMD, clearly
For htpc: Intel
For gaming: Nvidia

Since I work 95% of the time and play older games 5% of the time, that's a very easy decision.

[crazycheese]

Well, you just want to argue here.

Everything I want is when I buy AMD card the money which I play goes into drivers I use. Which is only possible with one of the following receiving money:
- crossplatform OS or
- crossplatform drivers or
- correct association between product and technology
- independent funding(which means I should be able to get discount from AMD if I purchase only hardware, but no their software, and part of the hardware that is I cannot use).

[crazycheese]

It would suck for AMD, but not for AMD customers.

If Nvidia stops supporting Linux, it sucks for Nvidia's Linux customers.

Yeah, because they write their own drivers?
Cmmon, write me hardware please in your big spare time.

Honestly?
For work: AMD, clearly
For htpc: Intel
For gaming: Nvidia

Since I work 95% of the time and play older games 5% of the time, that's a very easy decision.

For work you use CPU.
Or cheap multimonitor amd card with proprietary driver. Which you will have to replace every 5 years and that will crash your desktop periodically.

For htpc - nvidia has way better hw acceleration in linux. Kudos to Intel for some work though.

For gaming... yeah. What was definition of desktop again? Seems AMD is interested in home linux experience with opensource drivers just as you(sorry).