"Ask ATI" dev thread

[phoen1x]

please fix it

Could someone from amd/ati check these two bugs http://ati.cchtml.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1700 and http://ati.cchtml.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1794 ? Driver works fine with that chipset in windows. And this is not kernel or whatever issue, it is driver issue since 9.9 version. Catalyst 9.8 and older versions like 9.4 work fine.

[Dandel]

I'm actually wondering approximately how long it will be for the OpenCL headers and libraries will be bundled with the linux drivers package, without having to download, install and configure Stream sdk.

[emergence]

AMD/ATI linux devs, there is a bug related to the drivers regarding tearing. The bug still exists with catalyst 10.6. Any ideas as to when it will be resolved?

The bug was opened 1.5+ years ago:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fglrx-installer/+bug/303697

The last message in that bug report confirms that this is a driver issue:

Here is what I have found since I first reporting my problem. It turns out this is a Catalyst Driver issue. On a different computer running Ubuntu 10.04 and with a Radeon HD 4890 I was able to get solid graphics performance with no screen tearing using the latest open source ati driver. However, on the same machine with 10.04 and the Catalyst driver, I am seeing screen tearing.

Just to recap my other machine has a Radeon HD 5870 and I am seeing tearing with the Catalyst driver. Unfortunately, however, the open source ati driver does not currently support the Evergreen series of GPUs, so I am stuck with this pitiful driver. I am now hopeful that my problems will be solved later this year when 5xxx series cards are supported in the open source graphics stack.

I'm looking forward to Ubuntu 10.10 and beyond. I think this problem won't be fixed until that time and any future AMD/ATI GPUs I would advise staying away from until the open source driver can support them out of the box. It is my understanding that this screen tearing issue is rooted in something fundamental to the proprietary Catalyst driver and is not going away any time soon.

I myself have an HD5850 and with compiz and metacity I'm getting tearing when dragging windows. My previous post alluded to this same issue and was told that 2D rendering was being rewritten. Catalyst 10.6 has not resolved my issue.

[Prescience500]

Is there any hope or plans to further open your divers as of this point in time?

[bridgman]

Dandel:

There is work being done to provide a run-time install of OpenCL independent of the development kit, but I don't know the schedule.

Emergence:

I would not have expected 10.6 to have any effect on the tearing you mentioned. The 10.6 release was the first time we turned on the new 2D code by default and it is still being worked on. The point I made about the new 2D code was not that it would "magically fix everything" but that putting a lot of work into building a tear-free infrastructure around the old accel code would not be a good use of time because we would have ended up tossing much of it when we switched to the new accel architecture anyways.

Prescience500:

Yes, but it would be in line with the work that has been done so far, ie opening up more of the code which interfaces to the rest of the system, not opening up the core.

[myeyespy]

when might 2+ monitors be supported?

Any ideas when 2+ monitors per card might be supported? I currently have 4 x Nvidia 6600gt and I am dying to make the switch and upgrade my monitor setup..

No interest in eyefinity single desktop, just "old" "normal" style 2+ support per card

[bridgman]

I don't think we ever supported >2 displays per card, unless some of the displays were showing the same image. AFAIK the Evergreen series are the first ATI products to support >2 independent displays per GPU.

Or are you talking about a dual-GPU card such as one of the FireMV products ?

[ungoliant]

I just upgraded to Catalyst 10.6, and was very happy to see how Direct2D has improved. I have now decent 2d performance, wich is very nice. But, the only 3 games I play, Quake Live, Savage 2, and Heroes of Newerth, have all stopped working. Savage 2 and HoN don't even start, and Quake Live does, but shows really broked graphics with white skins and surfaces.

This is really frustrating, since I have to choose between a fluent desktop or a working game station, and I simply use both...

Are you aware of this problem? any ETA on fixing OpenGL (which i'm guessin is the problem here)?

Thanks.

[myeyespy]

What I meant was basically any new eyefinity capable card supporting 3 monitors or your lovely 6 x minidp and the new powercolor eyefinity 5770 with 5 minidp. Right now one can only use 2 monitors per card, we are dying to upgrade our rigs here at work!

[bridgman]

I just upgraded to Catalyst 10.6, and was very happy to see how Direct2D has improved. I have now decent 2d performance, wich is very nice. But, the only 3 games I play, Quake Live, Savage 2, and Heroes of Newerth, have all stopped working. Savage 2 and HoN don't even start, and Quake Live does, but shows really broked graphics with white skins and surfaces.

This is really frustrating, since I have to choose between a fluent desktop or a working game station, and I simply use both...

Are you aware of this problem? any ETA on fixing OpenGL (which i'm guessin is the problem here)?

Thanks.

I don't *think* anyone has reported 3D problems that serious with 10.6, but I could be wrong. Are you sure you did a complete uninstall of the previous driver before installing the new one ? If you don't then you can end up with a mix of old and new files and that almost always causes some kind of Bad Thing.