AMD Catalyst 9.12 Hotfix released

[BlackStar]

Nvidia's driver also underclocks the GPU and VRAM when it's not being utilized by default, something I haven't seen any of ati's cards to hands free in Linux.

Fglrx downclocks just fine on Linux. My 4850-based system consumes the same amount of power between Linux and Windows.

Power management is obviously a WIP for the open source drivers.

Also what does a hands free have to do with power management? Last time I checked, a hands free was an accessory for mobile phones.

Finally, nice ad hominem against Q. He's a sidux user, so don't believe what he says.

[Kano]

Power usage does not matter for hardcore oss ati users, nor the completely reversed point of view for video accelleration. I try to use the max possible out of a given card, therefore i allow the install of fglrx very easyly for my system (even for legacy cards). fglrx has of course huge problems with xv, so when you really need an application that has got no opengl output then you really have lost. Then you have to switch between ati oss for xv and fglrx for more demanding Linux games all the time or boot another os for games. But a strong ATI believer will just praise the current state and dream of better days.

[RealNC]

I remember "trolling" two years ago about the OSS drivers and got flamed that I should be patient since they should be ready somewhere in summer 2009. Now it's 2010 and we still have to use fglrx

[barbarbaron]

I remember "trolling" two years ago about the OSS drivers and got flamed that I should be patient since they should be ready somewhere in summer 2009. Now it's 2010 and we still have to use fglrx

Let me remind you at this point that its not the worst case scenario... The worst case is AMD dropping support again for some "old and rusty" gpus... And considering that AMD is failing heavily in workstation linux market, its only a matter of time now...

Hmmm, going back to the past, nice

http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/enterprise-linux/amd-will-deliver-open-graphics-drivers/

[Kano]

why do you need future visions when you could buy 2nd cards MUCH cheaper when the "future" is the current time especially for oss drivers buying new highend hardware is the worst idea you can have got. Even the absolutely cheapest card with the chip series you want to test is enough for that.

[damentz]

and this pc works fine! very fine ubuntu10.04 runs very very good.
with a moddet x800 passiv cooled no noise a ssd drive and passiv cooled power unit... yes very nice to watch movies ... the 3Ddesktop runs fast..
and no fglrx is needet!
next week a frend buy this old pc from me to watch dvd's and play music on his flat-tv...
you can sell good old amd opensource driver powered hardware to a high price!

Any archaic hardware that is not in production will cost more to buy, because they are now rare.

But, to put into perspective - I have a Geforce 8400m in my laptop with an atrocious 64bit memory bandwidth interface and 128mb of video ram. It performs faster than your x800 at a fraction of the cost, specifications, and power usage. Whose graphics card is more valuable? You might think nvidia's card is because the nvidia drivers are more complete and efficient for the Linux desktop than the open source radeon ones.

the OGL version is not so important! you do not need the lastest GSGL version!

That's a case by case basis and the answer is usually yes. If your driver version of OGL is less than the application requires, you can't use that application. Your freedom for which games you can play is cut sharply.

in fact some key features of ogl3.2(wine-extensions) are in the mesa right now...
in fact OGL2.0 is very nice if you have some non-gsgl OGL3.2 features to.

Those extensions are implemented in software and are not optimized for performance (basically it's useless from a user stand point). It would be nice to revisit this when Gallium 3D implements newer versions of the OpenGL api.

radeon do have good Xviedeo support and nvidias solution for viedeo decompression is only waste of energy watch at the phoronix artikles XViedeo+cpu use less powerconsuming than the nvidia joke.

That's fine to think that way, it's your fault if you shoot yourself in the foot and can't watch HD videos and movies on your netbook. You also accidentally get support for playing real games, using desktop compositing, and using this netbook on future, more demanding, operating systems.

I also looked at the phoronix article again. The VDPAU solution uses 0.3 more watts than the XVideo solution over the course of the benchmarked video. This accounts for maybe 30 seconds less battery life... can anyone here do the math for something this immeasurable?

You would have to be very retarded to buy the intel gma netbook solution because you think xvideo is more power efficient. However, if it cost 1/3 or 1/4 less than the nvidia ion solution, that's a little more reasonable.

buy a faster cpu is greener than using nvidia 'joke' vdpau!

No, buying a faster processor uses lots of power. You buy a low profile discrete graphics card and let it do the decoding and filtering - it's more efficient that way.

linux kernel 2.6.34 will have full powersaving features for the radeon driver!

Me and everyone else interested in the open source drivers for amd have been waiting for something like this for several years already. I suppose another year after distributions begin utilizing the new kernel and user space catches up is completely acceptable.

some sidux features are realy nice.. but right now i use kubuntu! --

Good, things are heading that direction.

[damentz]

Qaridarium, thank you for this enlightening reply on what you believe is true. There is no doubt that you are not qualified to speak on behalf of the open source radeon driver.

Every line of yours contradicts the reality of what is currently available through a Linux distribution or upstream git.

You don't know what you're talking about - I'm done here.

[barbarbaron]

Shhhh... Don't argue with Quasimodo or he will crush your 8400m with his X800's cooler!

[tball]

On topic:

I really like the 9.12 hotfix release.

1. I am able to make use of xvba acceleration, which indeed is fast. Some small glitches with some hd movies still, though. But hey. It isn't officially released yet.
2. I can actually play games with wine now all my source games works with highest graphic settings (without HDR lightning. That is terrible slow). Yes wine runs perfectly well actually.
3. My opencl works Wauu, this is going to be cool playing with sooner or later.


So all in all a great release AMD. The day when xvba stabilizes and opencl is released is soon here Actually if you think about how much fglrx has changed since jan 2008, its quite impressive.

My next card will definitely be and AMD/ATI again.
Mostly because I got all the features I want and I have free oss drivers available.

EDIT:
Oh and I almost forgot. Damn I love xrandr 1.2 support. Using the native gnome screen tool to change hdmi/vga/laptop screen settings is just nice to have. Though this has worked since fglrx 9.8 or something, but worth mentioning I think.

[damentz]

nice :-) and in the word of Kano :"if you wana working driver buy a 3dFX card"

s/3dFX/nVidia/

Please, say more so I can substitute more of your lies. I don't even have to look for them, they jump out at me.