ATI Radeon HD 5850/5870 On Linux?

[BillBroadley]

It may not be popular, but I don't really care because it's the honest truth...

Have you even read the last few phoronix.com summaries for Linux Catalyst releases? They're less about actually news and reporting, and more about negative slanting ans fanning the flames. Absolutely no mention of what's added and what's fixed - just a bunch of complaining about Xvba when truthfully most non-experts don't even know what the hell it is. No balance whatsoever.

With the lack of journalistic integrity we've seen as of late in regards to AMD/ATI, I would suspect this would be the last website to get a tech preview. I mean seriously, in the end you'll only highlight the bad and gloss over everything that's good.

I've been on the nvidia side for quite awhile and I have to say I kinda agree with phoronix. As a nvidia user under linux I'm used to compiz, google earth working, full screen video playback. Even on fairly old hardware mid range from a few generations ago. In fact similar even works on the rather slow intel embedded chipsets. I bought a new quad core phenom, with the radeon 3300 (785g I believe) only to find that compiz, google earth, and full screen video playback do not work well. ATI seems to be trying hard, publishing tons of docs, some support for the opensource folks. But still seems lacking with a decent driver (binary or otherwise).

Anyone out there there with a ati 4770, how does it work with google earth (full screen), video playback (full screen) and compiz?

[curaga]

Otherwise seems nice, but what the heck is with the near-200W power draw for a single card? 27W idle? Damn, that's what my current card uses at max

[energyman]

Who cares having a linux support for HD5850 / 5870 ?
Find first a game that can already overload an HD4870 / 4890 AND that runs natively with linux !

That's not to say ATI shouldn't give that linux support on the same day as the windows support...

vegastrike is able to overload a 3870 and put some heavy load on 4870s. So there you are.

[whizse]

I'm comparing with the rating of my power supply, the consumption of the rest of my system, and my expectations for fan noise. The idle efficiency improvements are impressive, but I just don't think that a "high-end" card is a reasonable choice for this box. Ideally I'd like to get a fanless card, but more realistically I'm hoping for "mid-range" or "mainstream performance" or whatever they're calling it, with power under load in the neighborhood of 100W and a single-slot form factor.

Yeah, I'm actually looking for something similar.

The HD 4770 with passive cooling a couple of manufacturers showcased a while back would have been nice, but it doesn't seem like these ever went into production?

[Pepazdepa]

It may not be popular, but I don't really care because it's the honest truth....

What a funny situation I was considering Phoronix to be site with conection to ATI.

[Joe Sixpack]

Good thing you're here to show them how to set the standard, by highlighting both the good and the bad sides of phoronix.com..

That aside, I'm looking forward to seeing how fast the open source driver will be able to pick up the 5XXX-series. Also to seeing if AMD will be able to release documentation for it soon.

Nice try.

The topic was about AMD, and how they didn't provide phoronix with a sample. Not about Linux as a whole, not about phoronix as a whole. If you don't see it, no biggie - but that's an invalid comparison and a rather childish rolling of the eyes.

[anbog]

It may not be popular, but I don't really care because it's the honest truth...

Have you even read the last few phoronix.com summaries for Linux Catalyst releases? They're less about actually news and reporting, and more about negative slanting ans fanning the flames. Absolutely no mention of what's added and what's fixed - just a bunch of complaining about Xvba when truthfully most non-experts don't even know what the hell it is. No balance whatsoever.

With the lack of journalistic integrity we've seen as of late in regards to AMD/ATI, I would suspect this would be the last website to get a tech preview. I mean seriously, in the end you'll only highlight the bad and gloss over everything that's good.

Good thing you're here to show them how to set the standard, by highlighting both the good and the bad sides of phoronix.com..

That aside, I'm looking forward to seeing how fast the open source driver will be able to pick up the 5XXX-series. Also to seeing if AMD will be able to release documentation for it soon.

[smitty3268]

The midrange part is due out in Q4, so maybe a couple months. I doubt it will be fanless, though. Low end cards based on r800 are scheduled for Q1 2010.

[Ex-Cyber]

Heh, one review listed "low power consumption" as a pro, I guess it depends on what you're comparing with

I'm comparing with the rating of my power supply, the consumption of the rest of my system, and my expectations for fan noise. The idle efficiency improvements are impressive, but I just don't think that a "high-end" card is a reasonable choice for this box. Ideally I'd like to get a fanless card, but more realistically I'm hoping for "mid-range" or "mainstream performance" or whatever they're calling it, with power under load in the neighborhood of 100W and a single-slot form factor.

[rbmorse]

You mean there's something good?