Current state of the binary?

[crispy]

Well I activated the binary driver in ubuntu. Not sure what version, but it was definitely bugged. Started XBMC and it just filled the rest of the screen where XBMC wasnt displayed with random artifacts. I played some video and it seemed fine. Removed the driver again and went back to the open source one which is doing the job nicely, although not super high FPS for xbmc, but definitely enough to not be the least bit disturbing when using it. Also tried a couple wine games with the binary. Don't even wanna comment

I have fallen in love with the open source one. It just worked out of the box!

[gbeauche]

Its probably been answered throughout earlier threads if you compile all the talk together, but how, in short is the state of this binary driver?

Awful.

* How is videoplayback?
-- Tearing?
-- Hardware accelerated decoding?
--- What apps can take advandage of this?
-- Possible in the future to have a standalone decode library?

Tearing? There is way to get no tearing at all without the OpenGL (+vsync enabled) path but you, as a "standard" Linux user, won't be able to use it. HW video decoding is supported through XvBA and xvba-video (VA-API driver) but this doesn't work yet on Radeon HD 5xxx series cards. All VA-API applications will work. According to some ATI Stream SDK slides that leaked, there is something like "OpenDecode UVD access" support in the future. I would just say: don't believe marketing slides...

[gbeauche]

-- Possible in the future to have a standalone decode library? [B]No way that's gonna happen. You have ffmpeg now and a few others, but other hardware decoding is gonna remain in seperate libraries because of patent shit.

The lack of public information about HW decoding support for ATI on Linux is *not* due to "patent shit". AFAIK, only ATI & Intel have "secured" video playback capabilities. e.g. Bluray et al.

[gbeauche]

* Yes, it's possible to have a stand-alone video decoding/encoding library if your card supports opencl.

How? Where? Thanks.

[Spitfire]

Is there any reason to buy an ATI card at the moment? I got to get a new one, and it seems to be the better choice if you compare performance/price to Nvidia cards. But if what you say here is true, it seems to be even worse than it was when I stopped being around here.

I admit it was fun to follow the progress of the new drivers in the beginning, but it's getting kinda annoying. If there's still no real progress, I guess it won't happen in future either.

[Kano]

Buy ATI only if you use win for games and videos.

[Pfanne]

Buy ATI only if you use win for games and videos.

or if you want to support amd for investing into open source
i know they the closed source drivers are behind nvidias in about every aspect and its not a practical choice, but if hes using linux he might buy an ati card for ideological reasons.
oh and fglrx is slowly improving with every release.(ok they like to introduce annoying bugs with every other release)

[pingufunkybeat]

Is there any reason to buy an ATI card at the moment?

You get source with the drivers and full specs.

Buy ATI only if you use win for games and videos.

Videos?

If you can do without hardware decoding, videos are perfect using open drivers.

[Kano]

You don't need to "support" oss driver development because thats impossible as every buy is counted for win anyway because ati sold the chip only to oems.

[evanjfraser]

or if you want to support amd for investing into open source

That was the idea when I bought my 5750 last year, but it's still not supported by the open source driver. VA-API still doesn't work with it, and I STILL have tearing issues during movie playback (with/without GL).

Since upgrading from my Nvidia 7900, I've completely stopped playing games under Linux.

AMD has been an unmitigated failure for me under Linux. I'm a total open source advocate, but it's time to face the reality. If AMD were serious about Linux support, it would be better than this.

Maybe I'm just moody today, but even I want to sell up and buy an Nvidia card now.