ATI Radeon HD 5850/5870 On Linux?

[Kano]

Save your money and get a GT300 next year if you really use it mainly for Linux and not only part time.

[energyman]

Originally Posted by Kano

Save your money and get a GT300 next year if you really use it mainly for Linux and not only part time.

if it ever comes out, you mean?

[rohcQaH]

Originally Posted by Munchkin

I need to run:

- two monitors @ 23" @ 2048 x 1152
- compiz fusion

as bridgman said, the 5870 is officially supported by the 9.10 driver, which has been out for a while. Both multi-monitor and composition are supported. 3D gaming isn't a problem either, unless you're talking about wine.

While Kano is rightly hinting that nvidia's binary drivers are in some ways more mature than fglrx, waiting for an unreleased piece of hardware would be a waste of time. All public knowledge about the GT300 is based on nvidia's press releases, and those releases contain obvious lies. It seems that their promises are mostly a marketing move to stall buyers until nvidia's next generation cards are finally ready. Whether they can actually deliver (and if, when) must at this point be considered "unknown".

[Munchkin]

Originally Posted by rohcQaH

as bridgman said, the 5870 is officially supported by the 9.10 driver, which has been out for a while. Both multi-monitor and composition are supported.

Well he said "should"... a lot of things should work.

I don't want to waste lots of money on a card that *may* work.

Waiting for nvidia will take too long.

[rohcQaH]

Originally Posted by Munchkin

Well he said "should"... a lot of things should work.

yeah, he's always careful with his wordings. Probably because he didn't verify it himself.

But the release docs say:

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ca..._910_linux.pdf :

ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 Series

and if that didn't work, you'd have seen a lot of complaints in here.