From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([69.77.167.62] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1KqNRC-0004uo-SW for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:38:27 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id A50E3E05A0; Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:37:50 +0000 (UTC) Received: from hades.rz.tu-clausthal.de (hades.rz.tu-clausthal.de [139.174.2.20]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1202EE05A1 for ; Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:37:50 +0000 (UTC) Received: from hades.rz.tu-clausthal.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by localhost (Postfix) with SMTP id 6CA0921CB9B for ; Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:37:47 +0200 (CEST) Received: from tu-clausthal.de (poseidon [139.174.2.21]) by hades.rz.tu-clausthal.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 45F2521C98B for ; Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:37:47 +0200 (CEST) Received: from [139.174.197.94] (account wevah HELO energy.localnet) by tu-clausthal.de (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 5.2.8) with ESMTPSA id 37954017 for gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org; Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:37:47 +0200 From: Volker Armin Hemmann To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] State of ATi drivers in Linux -- IMO, it's horrific... Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:37:44 +0200 User-Agent: KMail/1.10.90 (Linux/2.6.27-gentoor4; KDE/4.1.69; x86_64; ; ) References: <48DFF578.9070000@gmail.com> <200809290034.10422.volker.armin.hemmann@tu-clausthal.de> <48F6AE09.6090307@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <48F6AE09.6090307@gmail.com> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200810160937.44409.volker.armin.hemmann@tu-clausthal.de> X-Virus-Scanned: by PureMessage V5.4 at tu-clausthal.de X-Archives-Salt: 0cc30c70-152a-4afc-9fef-cb9b83b6d292 X-Archives-Hash: 2ad49f79dc4edb0ec2725cba54a9ead4 On Donnerstag 16 Oktober 2008, Hal Martin wrote: > Volker Armin Hemmann wrote: > > On Sunday 28 September 2008, Hal Martin wrote: > >> Hello all, > >> > >> I am contemplating building a new computer with an AMD/ATi graphics > >> card. I've been following the subject of ATi driver quality in linux for > >> a while, but I realize that the experiences I read on Google search > >> results are, shall we say, biased, as many people who have perfectly > >> working cards don't go out and comment on how great their drivers are. > >> > >> So, do any of you have newer (HD series) AMD/ATi graphics cards? > > > > HD3870 > > I just picked up the HD3850, which is a nice card by all measures. > > >> What drivers (AMD closed source, or open source) are you using? > > > > fglrx - the closed source ones. > > I installed these drivers (from portage) and tried them. > > >> Are they stable? > > > > yes. Switching between vt and X works, and restarting X too - but the ati > > scripts in /etc/acpi have to be removed. > > With desktop effects turned off 2d is fast and snappy and video is ok. > > With desktop effects turned on 2d is fast except manually resizing > > windows and xv-video sucks. Luckily kde 4.1 makes it easy to switch ;) - > > and I don't need xv ;) > > I had a horrid time with the fglrx drivers. I use two displays, and > while it was a breeze to setup (even easier than on an NVidia card) the > result was horrid. I can't drag windows from one display to another, the > windows wrap within the display. The fglrx_gears program renders > something that I don't believe heralds from this planet; while glx_gears > renders the same thing I get on my NVidia card only 10% slower (which is > expected given the performance difference between the 7900GTX and the > HD3850.) > > Trying to exit X11 causes a complete system lockup, requiring a hard reset. > > >> How is the performance? > > > > very good. I play ut2004 and vegastrike 0.5. With a but. See above. > > I couldn't get any Wine apps that use 3D to work. Call of Duty 4 refused > to start, citing that the video card didn't support alpha blending. > > >> Any noise issues with your card when it's idle? Under load? > > > > the fan is very quiet in KDE or playing games. Only in the menus of > > ut2004 or on a vt it turns up - but is still very bearable. > > aticonfig --odgt > > > > Default Adapter - ATI Radeon HD 3870 > > Sensor 0: Temperature - 51.00 C > > My card is incredibly, nay, unbelievably loud until you throttle the fan > manually from aticonfig, which, I might add, is absent from the Catalyst > control centre gui. After throttling the fan down to 3% the card settles > around 45.00C and is quiet enough to bare. > > My attempt to uninstall the portage based ATI drivers (which are > slightly dated,) and install the official drivers from ATI proved to > wreck my system beyond comprehension. 'eselect opengl list' no longer > includes ATI, only xorg-x11. I have no ability to start X11 anyone, and > no fan control, meaning I now have a jet engine residing in my computer. never ever install drivers without an ebuild. If you need the latest driver just copy&rename one. That eselect stopped to work is the logical conclusion. Deinstall the driver, change an ebuild, try again. > > There must be something I'm doing wrong. I've heard that ATI drivers > aren't supposed to lock up your system when you exit X11, is this still > the case? Was this ever the case with two monitors? for some people it locks up, for others it doesn't (like with nvidia). I solved the lockup issue for myself by removing the ati scripts from /etc/acpi. > Is there any way to get the ATI driver to automatically set a reasonable > fan speed, or must I do it manually? It does for my card.