[MLUG] Good news for ATi users

[Jack Smith <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

I have an ATi x1900 and was *very* pleased to see this sitting in my inbox this morning:

This is an automated message reminding you of your subscription on the Phoronix Forums.

We also wanted to let you know that Advanced Micro Devices has officially announced their new Linux driver this morning, which is a overhaul of their existing Linux graphics driver. The AMD fglrx 8.41 (Catalyst 7.9) driver introduces Radeon HD 2000 "R600" support as well as massive performance improvements for all supported generations of ATI graphics processors. This new driver is not available today, but it will be made available within the next week. Though at Phoronix we have been using and testing this new driver now for a number of weeks.

Below are the articles we have just published today about this new ATI/AMD Linux driver.

AMD 8.41 Display Driver Preview -- Our first article on this new driver are simply the technical details such as noting this driver has been actually in development for over a year, the AIGLX support that is coming next month, and other relevant information.

Read More: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=10955

ATI R500 Linux Performance -- With an X1300PRO, X1800XL, X1800XT, and X1950PRO in hand we compared the ATI 8.40 and 8.41 display drivers.  The performance improvements for the Radeon X1000 series range from 50% to 90% faster.

Read More: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=10970

AMD: Accelerating Open-Source Drivers? -- Not today, but in the near future AMD will be making an announcement about accelerating efforts within the open-source community. What does this mean? Open-Source ATI Drivers? We will tell you in due time.

Read More: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=10977

I never had problems with getting the x1900GT to work, but the performance wasn't so hot and there were sometimes hiccups (e.g. the 64-bit XVideo bug that was fixed about 4 months ago.) I'll have to give the driver a spin once it actually becomes downloadable from AMD's site (that and a very long-standing job finishes, which may take some time.) The editor of Phoronix, Michael Larabel, has contacts at AMD and is able to get pre-released versions.

I guess the biggest issue here is that it's nice to see another company actually want to put real resources into Linux drivers. It's very refreshing.

--Jack


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