AMD 8.41 Display Driver Preview

[Kano]

Well speed is only one issue of the ATI drivers. Others are AIGLX, which would be really nice for Distributions without Xgl like Debian. Xgl is a really awful hack, you can use it with any card, like even on old GPUs to try things like water effect, but running 2 Xservers the same time usally leads into problems. One not yet mentioned problem that has not been solved for years (!) is the fact, that custom modelines are ignored or even lead to system crash. Thats a bit sad when you want to use a resolution that the monitor will never report with dcc like 1280x960. I would like to see a fixed driver for that issue too...

[d2kx]

Kano, many news only mentioned the performance part, but AMD is not going to improve the performance, but to improve their driver. That includes more. Don't forget that.

[HighHo]

Kano - AIGLX is to be expected in the 8.42 release in October, not really too far off just have to hope it makes it.

[Kano]

I hope some of the beta testers will try something like:

# 1280x960 @ 85.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 85.68 kHz; pclk: 149.43 MHz
Modeline "1280x960" 149.43 1280 1376 1512 1744 960 961 964 1008 -HSync +Vsync

As nobody cared for years I would not expect it...

[rob2687]

Is the device support the same as the old one where it only supports the 9500 onwards?

[Michael]

Is the device support the same as the old one where it only supports the 9500 onwards?

The new driver architecture supports the R300, R400, R500, and R600. So yes, the same except for the added R600 support. However, temporarily in the 8.41 release there is no workstation FireGL support.

[Kano]

Did you try the ChipID override for FireGL GPUs?

[Thetargos]

Does ATI/AMD do the same to the FireGL GPUs as nVidia to their Quadros, in terms only enabling in the driver certain features on the FGLs but the regular GPUs also have them? I simply ask due to the chipID thing (I remember I had to change mine a couple of times as it was being erroneously recognized)

[Kano]

I guess so, but can not verify. I extracted all ATI driver infos (from log file) up to 8.33.6 and there have been the same chip codenames for FireGL and Radeon cards.

[spielc]

I agree but since there was never any mention about what vid-card, motherboard, cpu, version of linux, driver revision being used I don't think I'm getting carried away by complaining about someone who seems to like to complain about something they don't even know how to reseached their hardware and bugs/config tweaks to get it going properly. I know that I did complain a little too and I am sorry but those "1337 h4x0rz" out there should stop trying to be so 1337s and maybe try actually to read and learn things instead of using a "Go-button" approach to everything then complaining that things don't work and the company involved sucks worst than antying else in the universe.

I like Nvidia and ATI, my new laptop I chose nvidia since at the time it was fully supported. So other than this, uhoh should search this forum for some tips on getting that "corruption" fixed. Every problem I have encountered to date I could resolve by simply using goolge and my two eyes. I don't come in a forum and start complaining about how a company that never gave a rats ass about linux all of the sudden does an about face and this guys is bitching???

Now WTH is up with that, and I'm being looked down at because I feel very strongly that AMD/ATI is making a great choice by doing what they are doing and having the opinion of people who just hate the world and everything in it and nothing is said about them. Ok then, I am sorry and will keep quiet, I guess getting praise from the consumers is something that AMD is NOT looking for, great now that means they will go full steam ahead in linux right???

Well he has a point and this point is that ATI/AMD fucked it up themselves. They left us out in the dark for too long and that's why most of us long time ATI-linux-users still aren't convinced if somebody says "the new driver is so much better than the old one... speed improvement, aiglx-support will come soon..." (no offence Michael!!) Btw. i'm still not 100% convinced that the new driver will be so revolutionary i'll believe it when i see it PERIOD. The main problem is that there are some bugs that were reported MONTHS ago (i know the public bugzilla is not the official one but at least SOME devs or the dev could have a look at the reported problems once in a while) and ATI just ignored it. That's what most ppl have been so pissed about (including myself)...

If they finally managed to get their stuff together and created a product that is finally able to compete even in linux, i'll be one of the happiest guys on earth but i won't believe it till i actually get to see it myself