Any plans for an IGP roundup?

[Luis]

Hi,

Many of us non-gamers are quite interested in integrated solutions for graphics. Requirements are usually watching videos, some Desktop 3D effects, Google Earth, or maybe a Tux Racer game from time to time. For that, IGPs are enough.

Up to now I've been with Intel because of the good open source drivers, and I'm more than pleased with it. But now that I'm planning to buy a new computer I'd like to know better about the other options.

Are there any plans to compare IGPs on Linux with different drivers? Something like Nvidias's 7050 with nv, nvidia and nouveau, AMD x1250 with radeon, fgrlx and radeonHD, and Intel's GMA X3000 (or GMA 3100 even) with intel driver. Would be nice to compare all those options in the above discribed scenarios.

Thanks!

[Michael]

Are there any plans to compare IGPs on Linux with different drivers? Something like Nvidias's 7050 with nv, nvidia and nouveau, AMD x1250 with radeon, fgrlx and radeonHD, and Intel's GMA X3000 (or GMA 3100 even) with intel driver. Would be nice to compare all those options in the above discribed scenarios.

I don't have any X1250 in stock right now, but I can see about doing a comparison of some sort on the rest.

[Luis]

I don't have any X1250 in stock right now, but I can see about doing a comparison of some sort on the rest.

That would be great, thank you!

[WonderClown]

I can tell you already that fglrx doesn't support XVideo on the X1250 (I have one), so it's not going to do very well on video benchmarks. I have recently switched to the new RadeonHD driver, which also lacks XVideo, but somehow provides smoother video than the most recent fglrx even without acceleration. Subjectively speaking, I'd say it is slightly snappier overall with basic desktop stuff (no 3D, no compositing window manager or fancy desktop effects). It also seems more stable -- I just started running it yesterday, but no crashes yet, and none of the odd video corruption I experienced occasionally with fglrx.

I am sure that once RadeonHD starts adding hardware accel, it will be more than good enough for non-gaming purposes. Even now, as I said, I can get scaled video without accel that's good enough -- of course, I have a dual-core CPU, which means I can dedicate a full core just to doing the software scaling.

[Luis]

Thanks for the info. This is one of the options I'm considering. I new it wouldn't be doing very well just now, but I'm willing to be patient and help testing now that AMD released information about its cards.

Great to hear that the RadeonHD is already working well with it. On my old i845GL and my pentium 4 2.6Ghz I can watch HD video using x11, so even without acceleration video shouldn't be a problem with good drivers.

Things like Google Earth, Compiz or Tux Racer are not too important, but I'd like to have them working at some point.

Would be nice to see how it compares to Nvidia 6150 or 7050 with its different drivers.

I've tested a laptop with an Intel x3100 and it works really good with videos, Google Earth, Compiz, etc...

[greg]

I have both a notebook with older ATI IGP (X200M) and a desktop machine with GeForce 7050 IGP. The GeForce IGP is in a totally different league, compared to the ATI one. I'm not sure if this because of drivers only.

With the NVidia IGP, Compiz works very well, also in high resolutions, like 1680x1050 which I am using ATM. With ATI it's sluggish even in 1024x768.

I'm quite sure NVidia IGPs are the way to go for Linux.

[WonderClown]

I'm quite sure NVidia IGPs are the way to go for Linux.

You seem to be quite sure based on rather limited evidence. Perhaps you should consider a career in the clergy.

Not that I'm saying you're wrong. But "quite sure" seems to be a bit extreme unless you have some other data you didn't bother to mention.

[Melcar]

My 200M performs rather well. It does get bogged down with Compiz, but if I reduce the effects to a minimum it performs rather decently.

[greg]

You seem to be quite sure based on rather limited evidence. Perhaps you should consider a career in the clergy.

Perhaps I am just a bit too much surprised, in a positive way, by my NVidia-based IGP. An any case NVidia is a very good IGP choice, as the Linux support is excellent. That can't be said at all about ATI's current IGPs. I've also heard about Intel's IGPs being problematic (Xv etc.).

[Luis]

I think that it's all about drivers. I have a very old intel IGP and it works fine with compiz.

In theory (and in Windows), the newer ATI x1250 is as fast or faster than NVIDIA 7050, but with bad drivers it just can't compete with NVIDIA under Linux. However, the situation with ATI's drivers is changing, so there is some hope.

Personally, I see proprietary drivers just as a temporary solution. In the long run I want Free drivers, so from this point of view ATI is a better bet than NVIDIA. I'll wait until the spring to see how the open source drivers of both ATI and NVIDIA evolve, and if they can stand up against Intel's.