How The ATI Catalyst Driver Has Matured Since The RV770 Launch

[mugginz]

don't waste your time on the past the future will be more successful.

That's one thing I do agree with you on Qaridarium, that ATI will at some point in the future be an excellent all round choice for Linux users. For both those who wish to use the FLOSS drivers or fglrx.

But, and it's a very big but... What Panix, and I, and others are concerning ourselves with, and what stops us from buying ATI cards at the moment is that we need to live in the world in which we live in at the moment. We can't teleport into the future.

We evaluate on what functionality and experience we can expect right now. I'm fairly confident that ATI cards have a very bright future in the consumer graphics card space for Linux users, so much so that I continually find excuses to put off a card purchase on the basis of seeing what new stuff is happening on the ATI front, waiting for fglrx to become water tight. I might be vocal about its flaws as they are now, but you can see that they're putting effort into it and with effort and customer feedback it only stands to reason that things will improve to the point where nVidia have a real fight on their hands.

So you may wonder why people aren't prepared to buy on the basis of possible future functionality and performance, but some need their machines to perform right now.

[mugginz]

"We can't teleport into the future"

you can't ? sorry for that.

do you need some help to fix your problem ?

You don't have a DeLorean I can borrow do you?

To buy hardware is all about the Future because you don'T buy the hardware for the Past and the here and now is the past tomorrow!

do you want to be wrong tomorrow? do you want to be wrong in the future with your hardware buyed right now?

To buy Nvidia now is the biggest mintage of a investment for the future you can do!

do you wana be that stupid?

Nuthin stupid about buying stuff that works right now. I did just buy a new graphics card. I hope I didn't do anything silly.

[Panix]

What card did you get, mugginz?

I object to Q's assertion that you're buying based on the future. Unless he's the 2nd coming of Nostradamus, I'm not sure you can assess what will be supported, what will work etc. etc. You can try to predict or more accurately, ANTICIPATE what the state of things will be but that's all.

Even if ATI/AMD is reporting A or B will work, that doesn't guarantee... it's just a framework. The other problem with 'buying based on future guarantees' is that you are waiting for X amount of time that you may or may not know the waiting period. Also, you have a card that is not working 100% or is not optimized despite the hardware potential or attributes of said card.

I still don't see AMD/ATI illustrating any type of priority or dedication towards Linux. It's not changed much from, say, a year ago. Regressions in the benchmarks or tests confirm this. I don't care what resolution they used. The other problem that people keep shrugging off is the number of complaints or posts of their difficulties with their card and the drivers. It seems the drivers are difficult to deal with. There's artifacts, tearing, black screens etc. etc. and it seems like it's difficult to solve or work on. I'm not sure if recent Nvidia cards and drivers deliver such complications but given the number of posts both here and in specific-distro forums (e.g. Ubuntu Forums), one can only assume that there's still major problems that need to be dealt with. There needs to be a priority to address these instead of the constant focus on Windows.

[mugginz]

What card did you get, mugginz?

You'll never guess.

[mugginz]

You'll never guess.

[mugginz]

I bought a 5870. I hope I don't regret it.

I'll be running it through it's paces and will have a full report of what I find.

[Panix]

I bought a 5870. I hope I don't regret it.

I'll be running it through it's paces and will have a full report of what I find.

I hope you don't either. I'll be reading your report.

I don't think I'd go higher than a 5770... although I think a 5850 is the best overall buy for the money but that's just my opinion. But, I don't have that kind of money for a card right now, unfortunately. I'm stuck building a budget system right now that became necessary out of the blue.

'Hope your card works out for you... I would like to change my mind on my perspective still... always have.

[mugginz]

... although I think a 5850 is the best overall buy for the money but that's just my opinion.

I agree. The 5850 is great value... if it works

'Hope your card works out for you... I would like to change my mind on my perspective still... always have.

I hope I can provide a good indication of what you can expect with an ATI card and whether or not you should buy one.

[mugginz]

Sadly it would seem that fglrx is indeed full of fail.

[emergence]

I'm a 5850 owner on Catalyst 10.6. Sadly, it's not the best buy. Suffering from tearing when dragging around windows. Have a horizontal tear on my secondary screen when movement starts occurring (playing video etc...).

If I had a chance to buy a graphics card again, I would buy a nVidia. If I had a chance to buy only an ATI card, I'd buy an old card that the open source drivers support.