ATI and Linux compatibility

[Jimbo]

They were reporting the issue with two screens so I'd say it was just "big desktop" mode.

Xinerama is definitely a last resort for sure and one of the things ATI does better then nVidia (the ability to do more than two screens without Xinerama on a consumer card)

I have no idea about 2 displays or 4 displays thing, but I guess is problematic on ati and nvidia. Anyway this is not opengl at all.

[Jimbo]

I should say that the reported problems were indeed with KDE 4.4

No, seriously is working fine. I am using it since 4.3.2 or 4.3.3 I don't remember exactly.

[mugginz]

I have no idea about 2 displays or 4 displays thing, but I guess is problematic on ati and nvidia. Anyway this is not opengl at all.

That particular one may not be but none the less it still makes in a non-viable choice while it displays that behaviour. For those who don't use multiple screens it obviously isn't an issue for them.

Multi-screen is one of my requirements and so the driver must have no issues with that for my own use.

nVidia has no problems with dual monitors with compositing faultlessly and can do more without compositing but it's not something I'm prepared to do without. You can work around the Xinerama & no composited desktop probable with nVidia but it introduces other issues, not that those issues really affect me much though.

[mugginz]

No, seriously is working fine. I am using it since 4.3.2 or 4.3.3 I don't remember exactly.

Most fglrx issues seem to be quite card model series specific though. Issues for 3000 series cards seemed to be mostly resolved and seems to be mostly the same for 4000 series cards, not so much for 5000 series though. I'll be after a 5870 myself, otherwise a GTC 285 depending on what happens with fglrx and how quickly it happens.

For now though I cannot in good conscience recommend a 5000 series ATI card for Linux use right now. That's likely to change in the future but as some found out only after spending their money, it's best to wait for proper support before buying.

[Jimbo]

For now though I cannot in good conscience recommend a 5000 series ATI card for Linux use right now. That's likely to change in the future but as some found out only after spending their money, it's best to wait for proper support before buying.

Based on the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) I have read from you, it is better that you doesn't recommend at all.

[mugginz]

Based on the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) I have read from you, it is better that you doesn't recommend at all.

No based on the real world experience of others.

[Jimbo]

No based on the real world experience of others.

Most times you choose who to believe and who not, some users reported a good experience with ati but you dont believe them. Reading about others problems can miss inform you if you don't have a good idea about it. When something goes wrong is easy to make a lot of noise.

[mugginz]

Most times you choose who to believe and who not, some users reported a good experience with ati but you dont believe them. Reading about others problems can miss inform you if you don't have a good idea about it. When something goes wrong is easy to make a lot of noise.

No I took on board what they were saying. A lot of people were saying things like, "Oh, my ATI card works fantastic" and then later would say "Except I had to do this particular workaround, and apply that patch, oh and XV colours look wrong, etc, etc."

There has been little unqualified statements as to whether Evergreen cards work without ANY problems to the same level as nVidia cards. Given the amount of issues that were had with 10.4 beta, and with 10.4 final not having been out for long it certainly warrants caution, but not total pessimism either.

Thankfully 10.4 final has sorted a lot of issues. People obviously are still having to use the backclear patch, etc, or manually enable Direct2D. Al stuff I don't want to be asking of end users. The more technical users may find hand configuration, etc annoying but doable though. If nVidia didn't exist, obviously it wouldn't be the end of the world to be recommending ATI but with a reliable, and fully operational by default high performance driver for nVidia cards ATI has to reach a higher level than just "mostly works"

[Hans]

That particular one may not be but none the less it still makes in a non-viable choice while it displays that behaviour. For those who don't use multiple screens it obviously isn't an issue for them.

Multi-screen is one of my requirements and so the driver must have no issues with that for my own use.

nVidia has no problems with dual monitors with compositing faultlessly and can do more without compositing but it's not something I'm prepared to do without. You can work around the Xinerama & no composited desktop probable with nVidia but it introduces other issues, not that those issues really affect me much though.

For a multi-screen solution, I would recommend you Ati. I use two monitors without any problems with fglrx due to prober xrandr support. And yes, both screen have compiz running just fine.

Well I own a nvidia card also (7600 gt), but I haven't played that much around with multi-screen with that.

[mugginz]

For a multi-screen solution, I would recommend you Ati. I use two monitors without any problems with fglrx due to prober xrandr support. And yes, both screen have compiz running just fine.

Well I own a nvidia card also (7600 gt), but I haven't played that much around with multi-screen with that.

I currently using an nVidia 9800GT which is performing faultlessly with multi monitor, composited, video playback 3d, easy drivers no mess no fuss. The nVidia blob also supports randr 1.2 but I believe not 1.3 (though haven't needed anything in that area). Because this setup just works, and works well, I'm not keen on switching to a solution that requires patches to be applied and configuration to be micro-managed.

Some people have been working around issues by using the FOSS drivers for some things and then switching to closed for others depending on what they're doing but that's obviously sub-optimal. UVD's not really a happenin thang without much effort either. I'm keeping an eye on things but given fglrx's history absolute caution and scepticism is surely warranted.