"Ask ATI" dev thread

[Kano]

Then do bugfix releases not only monthly especially when the error is a major regression like in the last driver. Do you think ignoring is the best way to solve something? It was the first driver with FireGL support and now they still have to hack the pciids of older releases...

[Berniyh]

Well usually you don't get drivers every X month but as soon as there are problems with the current one or when new hardware is out. For 8800 GT it took a bit long (compared to former new cards) to get updated drivers but you could at least adopt that there will be _public_ beta drivers and ones marked as stable. Next will there will be new ATI cards, I hope you don't forget the ASIC for that in the new driver. Also you should think about crossfire and multi gpu support - NV has SLI and mulit gpu running on Linux since long time.

Naah, please no new features, just get the current ones running without too many bugs.

(I would say, that presenting crossfire for linux together with hybrid crossfire would be perfect, but I guess, that hybrid crossfire will be presented too soon.

[bridgman]

Do you think ignoring is the best way to solve something?

Sorry, what did I say to make you think that ?

[Kano]

Well that was about "you probably noticed the release numbering changed a while back". I saw that ATI "skipped" one driver and increased the Q&A. But:

The last driver 7-12 demonstrated why ATI makes me sick:

"Connecting a display device that supports 1680x1050 to a system running Linux may result in a maximum display resolution of 1280x1024 only being available"

this may not be in a driver release note, no and never. It was 4 weeks ago and no bugfix was released. The 7-11 driver had a "warning" like

"AMD recommends that this release of the AMD Catalyst? Linux software driver not be used for distribution packages. Distributors should continue to use the AMD Catalyst? Linux driver version 8.40.4"

But this 7-12 driver deserves that even more and is implicit remommended. All drivers since 8.39.4 have got at least beta quality (I don't like 8.40.4 due to the googleearth bug). No driver on the new codebase renders correctly (try gl2benchmark) and bugs which are definitely a major regression should be fixed immediately.

[homerhomer]

Throw me a bone!

Dear AMD/ATI

I want to be your customer.

I have been using AMD CPU procs for at least 10 years. I have been the defender for old bullshit like AMD not being compatible and whatever else arises to smear the name. I believe in the best deal for my situation (Capitalist style!). And through all the backlash AMD has always came though for me. ATI on the other hand has been not.

This sort of "build it yourself" attitude got me to Linux and where I'm today.

My question to ATI is, why does the software ruin good Hardware? I understand that this is a simple way of looking at everything, but really at this point in time I can't recommend ATI hardware to my friends. This is not only from the Linux side of things but I have heard grips from VISTA too.

What I do like is that they are making there drivers open source. On the contrary, this makes me feel that ATI is letting the community fix the issues that they can't get straight. I'm excited that the drivers will finely work, and I'm concerned that ATI can't figure it out themselves.

What I would love to hear is AMD/ATI's commented to Linux and the even more so the end user. How about a contest to Linux users? How about a special offer? or maybe even something that says Thanks we appreciate you as a customer.

How about a little more for this relationship?

- BTW, I'm still happy with AMD and I can only hope that they gets ATI up to speed.


Thanks

[knutbert]

What's special about Mobility Radeon X1900?

Hello,

there's one thing I've been wondering about ever since I bought my Laptop equipped with a Moility Radeon X1900:

The Mobility X1900 has not shown up in any of the release notes I've seen - not even as unsupported hardware. Also it's not among the cards listed in the driver download section of the ATI/AMD support pages.

So what's the deal with the Mobility X1900?

Is it just a OC'ed version of, say, the Mobility X1800 - or is there more to it?

And most important of all: Are there any differences as opposed to the other X1xxx cards that will be important when it comes to running the fglrx driver?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Regards,
knutbert

[djdoo]

@bridgman:

My friend you haven't answered me

Is there going to bee any XV or XvMC support for AVIVO cards under 64-bit soon??

And what about EXA? How to use it??

[bridgman]

Actually, we haven't answered any of the questions in this thread yet. We printed off a big list, and the devs will be going through them and feeding the results back to Michael as the basis for a Q&A article (at least I think that's the plan).

I still don't think we're going to talk much about specific future plans but we should be able to give you a general idea.

[Berniyh]

Actually, we haven't answered any of the questions in this thread yet. We printed off a big list, and the devs will be going through them and feeding the results back to Michael as the basis for a Q&A article (at least I think that's the plan).

I still don't think we're going to talk much about specific future plans but we should be able to give you a general idea.

You answered mine, well... sort of.

[Svartalf]

Sorry, what did I say to make you think that ?

It's not what you said, but rather the mixed results everyone keeps seeing from AMD that leads them to believe that the company's sort of ignoring us.

I don't see it that way, mind, but I know where this is coming from, John. And the glacial pace of things actually getting done with the fglrx driver and the tech docs getting released isn't helping the situation any.