AMD Radeon HD 4290 On Linux

[discordian]

I know multiple people running a 785G (the exact same chip as the 4290 btw, just running at lower clockrates), none of them share the sentiment of the reviewer.
Firstly the resolution they run is 1280 x 1024, I guess it has to do with both the PC and the Monitor being totally unexplainable from the same market-segment (value).

And then it totally suffices for light gaming, even rather modern gamers run (Avatar , Sims 3, etc), albeit some need lowered details or dropping resolution to 800x600. I was surprised myself how playable and decent looking those games where, its even better with games 2-3 years old.

[Kano]

You can not reduce the res on a tft without making it look really bad. Maybe you need glasses

[discordian]

There is no competing solution with AMD HW yet. You will have to wait for Bobcat, which will be a very serious competitor, if decent drivers follow. Yes, I strongly believe in the HW, but I have great fears for the drivers...

Then you still need (FOSS) drivers for HW video decoding?
The chipset is fine, its just that you need to wait for FOSS drivers to mature and gain the functionality. I dont see what a new CPU would improve?

[discordian]

You can not reduce the res on a tft without making it look really bad. Maybe you need glasses

On top of the ones I already got?

Really bad is subjective, I bet most people dont see the difference between a movie running 720p on a 1080p set and one running with full resolution. That is if the TV does a halfway decent job of scaling.

[Jimbo]

Some important points that could be interesting for this type of card:

- power consumption numbers
- Pointing that it is s very good alternative , like intel, to OSS strictly enviroments or OSS enthusiasms.
- Some 2d benchmarks (opensource and fglrx).

HD 4650 is not an alternative is other league.

[gbeauche]

Then you still need (FOSS) drivers for HW video decoding?
The chipset is fine, its just that you need to wait for FOSS drivers to mature and gain the functionality. I dont see what a new CPU would improve?

FOSS drivers for HW video decoding are only available to Intel platforms. Other solutions you could dream of won't achieve the same level of features or performance, unless UVD specs are released and proper implementations available.

BTW, most importantly with Bobcat, it's not a simple CPU, it's a SoC. You meant HTPC, something that has to be power efficient. The current 3-chip solution from AMD is not competitive. An Atom+ION looks better, though the CPU is weak.

So, as it was suggested, you should draw your requirements in order: HTPC, FOSS, box size, fanless, power consumption, etc.

[Kano]

@discordian

you wanted to use a 4:3 res (800x600) on a 5:4 tft (1280x1024), by default thats not even correct aspect ratio scaled. also i see a diff between 720p and 1080p on my 1920x1200 tft.

[bridgman]

The performance numbers for the different chips look reasonable, given the difference in shader power and pixel throughput :

4290 - 40 shader ALUs, 4 ROPs
2400 - 40 shader ALUs, 4 ROPs (but dedicated video RAM instead of system RAM)
4550 - 80 shader ALUs, 4 ROPs
2600 - 120 shader ALUs, 4 ROPs
3650 - 120 shader ALUs, 4 ROPs
4650 - 320 shader ALUs, 8 ROPs
etc...

[haplo602]

@discordian

you wanted to use a 4:3 res (800x600) on a 5:4 tft (1280x1024), by default thats not even correct aspect ratio scaled. also i see a diff between 720p and 1080p on my 1920x1200 tft.

you know you can run in a window ? I mean who's strictly talking about fullscreen here ?

[AdrenalineJunky]

you know you can run in a window ? I mean who's strictly talking about fullscreen here ?

I for one wouldn't consider windowing it to be an acceptable solution - watching a movie in a window would be annoying, playing any sort of serious game would be even worse.

But in all honesty who buys a 1080p display, pairs it with an integrated graphics and expects good results in gaming...

I also have a hd3200 that I used for a while before getting a 4650, and for integrated graphics I was very pleased. Poor xvba support is definately the sore spot - but how about some tests of how it handles different video formats/resolutions when paired with a low cost processor on both open source and propriatary drivers, as well as some gaming on a more resonable resolution, as those would be far more relevant to the uses people will actually use integrated graphics for, a bunch of 1920x1080 game benchmarks are nearly useless as real world metrics