ATI Radeon HD 3400, 3600 Series

[phoronix]

Phoronix: ATI Radeon HD 3400, 3600 Series

AMD has today announced the ATI Radeon HD 3400 and 3600 series graphics processors, which are the budget-minded siblings to the Radeon HD 3850 and 3870. The graphics cards currently now shipping in these series are the HD 3450, HD 3470, and HD 3650. When the Radeon HD 3850 and 3870 were introduced, there wasn't same-day Linux support but it had arrived both in open and closed-source forms relatively quickly, but is that the same story for these lower-end solutions? Will the DisplayPort interface on these graphics cards be supported under Linux? In this article, we have answers to these questions.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=11728

[Uchikoma]

Well, it's good to see that the open source team is getting the needed information for basic support.

As for missing the crossfire support...its not something I really mind. However, for hybrid, it would be nice to have that support.

[l8gravely]

Good to see lower end ATI cards!

This is good news! I'm looking to build a new system and I wanted to go with ATI cards to help support their support of OpenSource drivers. I really don't want proprietary ones in my system if I can help it.

I'm currently running a Matrox G450 AGP and it's showing it's age. The lack of any OpenGL support is really starting to hurt me, esp in such programs as Stellarium.

But still, for me, the 2-d graphics is the key issue. I'm still on a CRT, so razor sharp text is key, that's why I got the Matrox in the first place. Yes, I'll upgrade to LCD at some point.

So when you do test these cards, I'd love to see 2-d display characteristics looked at, esp compared (if possible) to the older classic cards which did a great job in this area.

Honestly, as a non-gamer and Linux user, I'd like to see less emphasis on gaming FPS numbers, and more on how well these cards handle more office oriented tasks. Though video editing in Kino or some other program should also be considered and tested, to see if there's any help.

Thanks for your work, I'll keep checking, can't wait for a review! The price points just look too good.

John

[Luis]

So when you do test these cards, I'd love to see 2-d display characteristics looked at, esp compared (if possible) to the older classic cards which did a great job in this area.

Honestly, as a non-gamer and Linux user, I'd like to see less emphasis on gaming FPS numbers, and more on how well these cards handle more office oriented tasks.

While I second that request (I'm not a gamer either), I do understand that when testing discrete graphic cards from NVIDIA and ATI/AMD they look mostly at games and FPS, since those cards' only purpose (or almost) is gaming.

That's why I requested some time ago an IGP roundup that focused more on things like:

- How easy are they to set up?
- How stable are they?
- How good are they for HD video playback?
- How good for normal desktop effects?
- How about Google Earth?
- And Tux Racer? (He, a little basic gaming from time to time can't hurt anyone :-) )

All the above with Free and non-Free drivers to see the differences/benefits of both.

However, I'm not sure what's the target of the lower end discrete graphic cards. Are they for gamers who can't afford better ones or buying the latest games? Or are they for non-gamers who need extra power for some special task (HD Video editing?,..)?

[Kano]

hd video depends highly on the codec. If you encode em using xvid, mpeg2, pure mpeg4 not h264 or wmv it should work relatively easy. The problem begins with h264, even latest ffmpeg code is much slower than similar windows codecs, therefore there are projects like:

http://code.google.com/p/coreavc-for-linux/

You can not use more than xv usually on linux so you need a really powerful cpu. If you have lots of time recode to xvid or mpeg4...

[Ole-Martin Broz]

ye, dont expect to see some hybrid action just yet ?

well is just that the 3870 X2 is 2 3870 @825 mhz 1800 mhz mem, abit diffrent from the 3870, but the cool thing, it behave like a single card, and the Hybrid cf is also transparent for the game, just as the 3870X2 which ran CF in non cf supported games.

we might see amd doing something smart here .
NOTICE: i dont say the driver doesnt do it, but might be a chance we will see CF support when it comes to X2 and hybrid cf. i surely hope my 3870 X2 will work correctly under linux.