Domain: phoronix.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to phoronix.com.
Comments · 898
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The different versions and URLs
- 8.42
: is currently *being* released, links are not updated everywhere. But a few google request may bring you to forums where it is already available. For exemple, Phoroinix have published a link to the driver they did test. I think the release is not official yet because of the reported problems with 2.6.23 kernel. The same google search can also bring out patches to circumvent those problems and even howtos about using the new AIGLX for desktop compositing. - 8.41
: Is the previous release. It was mainly centered around bringing RadeonHD support on linux. Thus some bugs may have managed to slip by with older chipsets. IT IS available on the ATI website. But it comes with a caveat explaining the situation, that this driver is mainly targeting Radeon HD and that it's "use at your own risk" with previous chipset generations. You're still free to try it on X800XL if you want (Phoroinix did it in their). - 8.40
: is the latest release using the older code base. Currently it is what has been the most widely tested and debugged for older chipset, so that's why it's the first thing you land on. - There's a nice wiki about ATI on Linux, with distro specific pages, links to the latest bleeding edge versions and such.
GPL drivers are currently standard on most distribution for cards up to R4#0 (Radeon X8#0). If you want bleeding edge you can get them from freedesktop's git repository.
GPL drivers for R500 and up are currently being created. You can get the currently couple of working pieces from its corresponding irregular devel companion.
You either have to wait more time until it's trivially offered as the first choice on the ATI selector (for the binary drivers) out of the box with major distros (for the GPL driver).
Or you have to accept "bleeding edge" mean, understand that all those drivers are fresh from the oven, not thoroughly tested thus maybe not ready for the public at large, and that you need a little bit of google before assembling the necessary pieces, or use specialised resources like the afore mentioned wiki. - 8.42
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The different versions and URLs
- 8.42
: is currently *being* released, links are not updated everywhere. But a few google request may bring you to forums where it is already available. For exemple, Phoroinix have published a link to the driver they did test. I think the release is not official yet because of the reported problems with 2.6.23 kernel. The same google search can also bring out patches to circumvent those problems and even howtos about using the new AIGLX for desktop compositing. - 8.41
: Is the previous release. It was mainly centered around bringing RadeonHD support on linux. Thus some bugs may have managed to slip by with older chipsets. IT IS available on the ATI website. But it comes with a caveat explaining the situation, that this driver is mainly targeting Radeon HD and that it's "use at your own risk" with previous chipset generations. You're still free to try it on X800XL if you want (Phoroinix did it in their). - 8.40
: is the latest release using the older code base. Currently it is what has been the most widely tested and debugged for older chipset, so that's why it's the first thing you land on. - There's a nice wiki about ATI on Linux, with distro specific pages, links to the latest bleeding edge versions and such.
GPL drivers are currently standard on most distribution for cards up to R4#0 (Radeon X8#0). If you want bleeding edge you can get them from freedesktop's git repository.
GPL drivers for R500 and up are currently being created. You can get the currently couple of working pieces from its corresponding irregular devel companion.
You either have to wait more time until it's trivially offered as the first choice on the ATI selector (for the binary drivers) out of the box with major distros (for the GPL driver).
Or you have to accept "bleeding edge" mean, understand that all those drivers are fresh from the oven, not thoroughly tested thus maybe not ready for the public at large, and that you need a little bit of google before assembling the necessary pieces, or use specialised resources like the afore mentioned wiki. - 8.42
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The different versions and URLs
- 8.42
: is currently *being* released, links are not updated everywhere. But a few google request may bring you to forums where it is already available. For exemple, Phoroinix have published a link to the driver they did test. I think the release is not official yet because of the reported problems with 2.6.23 kernel. The same google search can also bring out patches to circumvent those problems and even howtos about using the new AIGLX for desktop compositing. - 8.41
: Is the previous release. It was mainly centered around bringing RadeonHD support on linux. Thus some bugs may have managed to slip by with older chipsets. IT IS available on the ATI website. But it comes with a caveat explaining the situation, that this driver is mainly targeting Radeon HD and that it's "use at your own risk" with previous chipset generations. You're still free to try it on X800XL if you want (Phoroinix did it in their). - 8.40
: is the latest release using the older code base. Currently it is what has been the most widely tested and debugged for older chipset, so that's why it's the first thing you land on. - There's a nice wiki about ATI on Linux, with distro specific pages, links to the latest bleeding edge versions and such.
GPL drivers are currently standard on most distribution for cards up to R4#0 (Radeon X8#0). If you want bleeding edge you can get them from freedesktop's git repository.
GPL drivers for R500 and up are currently being created. You can get the currently couple of working pieces from its corresponding irregular devel companion.
You either have to wait more time until it's trivially offered as the first choice on the ATI selector (for the binary drivers) out of the box with major distros (for the GPL driver).
Or you have to accept "bleeding edge" mean, understand that all those drivers are fresh from the oven, not thoroughly tested thus maybe not ready for the public at large, and that you need a little bit of google before assembling the necessary pieces, or use specialised resources like the afore mentioned wiki. - 8.42
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Re:that sounds good but..
BTW, a few weeks ago, I read an article about some MoBo manufacturers considering adding 512MB-2GB of flash memory to boot an embedded Linux desktop from the BIOS for disk-less web-browsing and other stuff...
Considering? Done! In stock!
a BIOS with embedded Linux does not seem that far-fetched, we only need 1GB firmware hubs to plug into Intel's chipsets and hope we will not need to flash our 1GB BIOS too often.
People have been replacing the traditional BIOS with Linux for about eight years now, so yeah, I would say it's feasible. :) Would make more sense to just embed a flash drive for the userspace filesystem and just put the bootstrap and kernel in the firmware proper. -
Re:Have they made it any easier yet to encrypt you
The first link is for an overview of the encrypting the disk for Gutsy, the second is the
page of installation CD links, look for "alternate":
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=873&num=1
http://releases.ubuntu.com/7.10/
cc -
Re:Disk-on-Chip Linux
If they could come up with a dedicated Linux Bios combined with a Disk-on-Chip setup, it would make an impressive little computer.
Yeah, but who would do such a thing? http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=870&num=1 -
Re:Disk-on-Chip Linux
ASUS has done almost what you're asking for.
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Re:But...
I know you're kidding, but as a matter of fact, it is supported under Linux by a couple different drivers.
A good review of the 2900 XT under LinuxIn fact, you have options.
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Re:But...
I know you're kidding, but as a matter of fact, it is supported under Linux by a couple different drivers.
A good review of the 2900 XT under LinuxIn fact, you have options.
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Re:But...
I know you're kidding, but as a matter of fact, it is supported under Linux by a couple different drivers.
A good review of the 2900 XT under LinuxIn fact, you have options.
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Dell want open source drivers
According to phoronix (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=850&num=1) a major OEM, probably dell, is insisting that "hardware suppliers must either have an open-source driver available or be able to provide an open-source driver within the next twelve months". Looks like Dell selling ubuntu is providing traction.
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Re:Already here.In addition to the domains where open-source is already firmly established (the Internet, as you mention, and many embedded device spaces, too), there are indeed many new domains where open-source is becoming more and more "necessary." Consider this (admittedly brief) writeup on a talk given by "Intel's Chief Linux and Open-Source Technologist." The writeup says:
He also mentioned that a major OEM is requiring that by next year their hardware suppliers must either have an open-source driver available or be able to provide an open-source driver within the next twelve months. The likely company that comes to mind is Dell but Dirk refused to comment any further.
If the speculation is correct (that Dell wants all hardware to have open-source drivers available within 12 months), that's a big deal. Such a push is an example of the benefits of open-source being pushed into a new market (in this case, the desktop commodity hardware space). -
Re:There won't be an open source driver
You must be thinking of a different ATI than me. Before this, ATI never released any specs for r300/r400/r500/r600. They did share some r200 docs with a few X devs under an NDA: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=743&num=1
That has always been the problem with ATI, they didn't share the specs so open source drivers could be written and, unlike Nvidia, the binary driver was also complete crap. -
Re:There won't be an open source driver
ATI hasn't announced anything new. They've simply brought attention to the fact that they will support open source efforts, as they always have.
They never supported open source efforts in the past. This is the first time they have provided documentation and been willing to answer questions without an NDA (and sometime they were reluctant to talk even with an NDA).
As always, there will be 3d drivers for paleolithic versions of their cards, and 2d for everything else. If you actually want to use up to date cards, you'll have to use the closed drivers.
Actually, this should be very helpful to the efforts to create open drivers for all ATI cards.
http://airlied.livejournal.com/50613.html
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=838&num=1 -
Re:Great
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NjA1Mw We're supposed to expect more 3D specs shortly.
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Re:Doesn't bode wellMaybe, but This looks rather promising.
From that article:
AMD will be providing NDA specifications, an open-source library, and there is a new open-source graphics driver as a result. AMD will continue producing a closed-source proprietary driver; however, they are opening the source-code to a critical library with accompanying GPU specifications for X.Org developers. To get the ball rolling, AMD is also funding the development of a new open-source R500/600 driver. -
Phoronix says it will be an NDA
Phoronix says it will be an NDA.
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Is This Really Open?
ATI/AMD's New Open-Source Strategy Explained says that the specs will actually still be kept secret under NDA's. Does this really qualify as "Open"?
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Re:It's Just Business
Well, Dell was said to be pressuring AMD/ATI for better video drivers. Business indeed!
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Re:Hmmm
That link is mangled and had no markup, try ATI/AMD's New Open-Source Strategy Explained.
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ATI/AMD's New Open-Source Strategy Explained
"Rumors and speculations have been flying around for months about ATI/AMD opening up the source-code to their Linux display driver or providing their GPU specifications to community developers. This for the most part had started after Henri Richard's statement at the Red Hat Summit earlier this year. Well, those rumors can finally be put to rest. AMD will be providing NDA specifications, an open-source library, and there is a new open-source graphics driver as a result. AMD will continue producing a closed-source proprietary driver; however, they are opening the source-code to a critical library with accompanying GPU specifications for X.Org developers. To get the ball rolling, AMD is also funding the development of a new open-source R500/600 driver." http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=10979
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"The embargo is lifted"
AMD will be providing NDA specifications, an open-source library, and there is a new open-source graphics driver as a result.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item =826&num=1 -
Re:Ungrateful...Yeah... that's not cool. It seems like cards with hypermemory or turbocache are hit and miss on both sides.
But geez, Phoronix keeps hinting at open specifications or an open source driver, it's driving me mad (for example, see here). I have only used nvidia cards thus far (because performance was my top priority--games, CAD, etc. really need it), but that could quickly change if AMD does either of the above. If they do, surely someone from the community will fix those problems for you (if they still exist in 8.41).
I would love to get into coding drivers for graphics cards and help fix things myself, but... I've only done very simple firmware for CAN and serial chips in an embedded AVR system (no OS). I need a good book (preferably free
;-) ) on Linux device drivers, I think. -
Re:Three things.
Better hardware support
Specifically, open-source drivers for everything.
I've been super-frustrated over the past few months with ATI's FGLRX driver (I used to be able to suspend and resume, but not any more), and my card (X1400) doesn't work with the open-source Radeon driver.
One major success story: the Avivo driver for X1xxx cards. The newest driver in Ubuntu (and Debian) is only a few months old, but its 2D performance is already better than FGLRX! Once they get Suspend/Resume and some rudimentary 3D (just enough to run Compiz), I will be a VHP (Very Happy Penguin).
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AMD/ATI reputation
See AMD/ATI graphics drivers Slashdot greatest hits for some further details. I would love to see better (and ideally Free) Linux support from their drivers (yes there is some Linux support out there but I'm told if you have the very latest ATI/AMD HD X2xxx cards then you will have no 3D on Linux). This is not too surprising because for around 6 months after launch there was no X1xxx Linux support. The drivers have DEFINITELY improved over time (the number of crashes due to binary ATI drivers has fallen) but while AMD/ATI are still doing stuff like refusing to get back to developers or AMD/ATI are allegedly misappropriating developer code I feel very uneasy and currently I would be wary of buying a machine with a new AMD/ATI graphics card for use with Linux.
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AMD/ATI reputation
See AMD/ATI graphics drivers Slashdot greatest hits for some further details. I would love to see better (and ideally Free) Linux support from their drivers (yes there is some Linux support out there but I'm told if you have the very latest ATI/AMD HD X2xxx cards then you will have no 3D on Linux). This is not too surprising because for around 6 months after launch there was no X1xxx Linux support. The drivers have DEFINITELY improved over time (the number of crashes due to binary ATI drivers has fallen) but while AMD/ATI are still doing stuff like refusing to get back to developers or AMD/ATI are allegedly misappropriating developer code I feel very uneasy and currently I would be wary of buying a machine with a new AMD/ATI graphics card for use with Linux.
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Re:1650 pro 512mb AGP cheap (no linux)
The Avivo guys (open source r500 drivers) would appreciate it I would think:
http://gitweb.freedesktop.org/?p=avivo/xf86-video- avivo.git;a=summary
http://www.phoronix.com/?page=project&q=AvivoDrive r -
the finger is the best position
I don't think its the posture of the hand (it has evolved to move around after all), but the grip you need on one tightening up the muscles and tendons whist doing so. Think how much RSI you'd get resting your hand on a table all day.
Still, this is an interesting alternative: for $25 you get an optical mouse that is attached to your finger so the laser is aligned with the finger, no grip required (though clicking the buttons with your thumb may not be as good as, say, tapping the end on the table). -
Re:Give ATi some credit
In some areas, the closed linux binary driver maintains feature parity with the Windows counterpart.
Meanwhile the 3d performance is consistently between a third and a half that of the Windows counterpart. Even the top of the range ATI parts consistently get hammered by mid-range Nvidia cards.
Have a look at this page from the Phoronix ATI Linux year in review :
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item =611&num=6
You would think that having released that many driver revisions, the performance would have varied a bit in one direction or other simply by accident. But no, absolutely static with perhaps a slight downward trend. Feel free to look up the benchmarks for more recent releases if you honestly think there will be the slightest difference.
Combined with the fact that they have obviously diverted a great deal of development effort into producing a shitty control panel applet that nobody wanted and which does fuck all, while ignoring the demands for GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap support, the only conclusion one can draw is that ATI's Linux support not only sucks but sucks deliberately. -
Re:Presure for legit DX10 on XP?
you can still compare games on different platforms, just not *DX10* based games. There's a short performance comparison under XP/Vista/Linux here for example : http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&ite
m =681&num=1 -
Linux is better for games than vista
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Re:This is a worthy cause
Interesting timing. I have a E6600 system on order with a $50 Asus EAX550 video card based on the hoary ATI R300 core so I could run an open source video driver. Plenty fast enough for 2D and potentially some low-end (non-game) 3D. I tried hard to find something newer and faster, but failed. Matrox has a fully open source driver for some of its older cards, expensive, with lamentable performance, and the second head wouldn't drive the required frequency, which completely negates Matrox's long standing reputation for excellent finals. What I used to like about Matrox is you always knew what you were getting, even if it was a little behind the curve. Then the day came when Microsoft update pushed a new Matrox driver that eliminated multidesk support with narry a "this might screw you over" or "really do this?" I was in the middle of a deadline push and lost half a day discovering that Matrox had fed this into the Microsoft update pipeline in full deliberation. It proved faster to buy an ATI product than research alternative multidesk implementations in software. Still, I have a fondness for what Matrox used to stand for back when NVidia was setting benchmark records with finals that rendered fifty tints of pastel grey.
Since I collected these links just two days ago, I might as well include them:
http://www.skynet.ie/~airlied/talks/ols06/ols2006. odp -- DCC 2006, MIME problem, but opens with evince directly
http://www.skynet.ie/~airlied/talks/ddc05/ddc_pres .sxi -- DCC 2005, didn't read this one myself
http://free3d.org/
http://intellinuxgraphics.org/
http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item =576&num=1
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item =463&num=1 -
Re:This is a worthy cause
Interesting timing. I have a E6600 system on order with a $50 Asus EAX550 video card based on the hoary ATI R300 core so I could run an open source video driver. Plenty fast enough for 2D and potentially some low-end (non-game) 3D. I tried hard to find something newer and faster, but failed. Matrox has a fully open source driver for some of its older cards, expensive, with lamentable performance, and the second head wouldn't drive the required frequency, which completely negates Matrox's long standing reputation for excellent finals. What I used to like about Matrox is you always knew what you were getting, even if it was a little behind the curve. Then the day came when Microsoft update pushed a new Matrox driver that eliminated multidesk support with narry a "this might screw you over" or "really do this?" I was in the middle of a deadline push and lost half a day discovering that Matrox had fed this into the Microsoft update pipeline in full deliberation. It proved faster to buy an ATI product than research alternative multidesk implementations in software. Still, I have a fondness for what Matrox used to stand for back when NVidia was setting benchmark records with finals that rendered fifty tints of pastel grey.
Since I collected these links just two days ago, I might as well include them:
http://www.skynet.ie/~airlied/talks/ols06/ols2006. odp -- DCC 2006, MIME problem, but opens with evince directly
http://www.skynet.ie/~airlied/talks/ddc05/ddc_pres .sxi -- DCC 2005, didn't read this one myself
http://free3d.org/
http://intellinuxgraphics.org/
http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item =576&num=1
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item =463&num=1 -
Re:nVidia CAN'T OPEN SOURCE DRIVERS
The r200 driver surpassed fglrx in quality and performance...
WTF are you smoking?
The R200 driver is utter shit. No support for things like FSAA or anis. filtering and the 3D performance is abysmal even compared to the already shitty, half broken proprietary ati drivers (when they still "supported" the chip). Whoever has written the driver under NDA fucked it up.
Same goes for the R300 (up to R481) driver. For anything 3D/GL they're unusable. A joke.
When I asked wether the intel drivers for the new chipsets (x3000 in particular) will support FSAA people shrugged (don't wanna tell any names here...). So even people who actually have full access to all the info about a chip can't do a proper free driver.
Why is that?
As for nouveau. It's nothing more than replacing a shitty 2D driver with a shitty 3D driver.
So throw out Mesa, DRM/DRI and X (yes.. they all stink) and make something proper from scratch (and we all know how much "those" people like to start over from scratch..). But who am I to tell people what to do, right? An anonymous fucktard who doesn't appreciate the effort of the free software developers, right? Well, anything graphics related (and sound related.. with alsa on top) on free operating systems is crap right now and it seems it's not going to change.... ever. It's only getting messier each day... -
Re:nVidia CAN'T OPEN SOURCE DRIVERS
The r200 driver surpassed fglrx in quality and performance...
WTF are you smoking?
The R200 driver is utter shit. No support for things like FSAA or anis. filtering and the 3D performance is abysmal even compared to the already shitty, half broken proprietary ati drivers (when they still "supported" the chip). Whoever has written the driver under NDA fucked it up.
Same goes for the R300 (up to R481) driver. For anything 3D/GL they're unusable. A joke.
When I asked wether the intel drivers for the new chipsets (x3000 in particular) will support FSAA people shrugged (don't wanna tell any names here...). So even people who actually have full access to all the info about a chip can't do a proper free driver.
Why is that?
As for nouveau. It's nothing more than replacing a shitty 2D driver with a shitty 3D driver.
So throw out Mesa, DRM/DRI and X (yes.. they all stink) and make something proper from scratch (and we all know how much "those" people like to start over from scratch..). But who am I to tell people what to do, right? An anonymous fucktard who doesn't appreciate the effort of the free software developers, right? Well, anything graphics related (and sound related.. with alsa on top) on free operating systems is crap right now and it seems it's not going to change.... ever. It's only getting messier each day... -
But other sites have been doing this for a while
You can always get good info on hardware under linux on Phoronix. They've got lots of experience with linux builds and games and wine to give good information.
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"Razer has a great reputation"
Riiiiight....
Phoronix still has yet to hear back from Razer Inc on whether they plan to port their drivers to Linux, release specifications, or do anything else to help the Linux community. http://phoronix.com/?page=news_item&px=MTQ1Nw== -
Re:Unanswered Question.
The OpenChrome project may support DeltaChrome for AGP and GammaChrome, Chrome S25 & Chrome S27 for PCI Express one day.
I'm vaguely following progress and here are the useful / relevant posts so far.
http://wiki.openchrome.org/pipermail/openchrome-us ers/2005-November/000038.html
http://wiki.openchrome.org/pipermail/openchrome-us ers/2005-November/000043.html
http://wiki.openchrome.org/pipermail/openchrome-us ers/2005-November/000048.html
and
http://wiki.openchrome.org/pipermail/openchrome-us ers/2006-March/000821.html
are relevant to DeltaChrome products
http://wiki.openchrome.org/pipermail/openchrome-us ers/2006-February/000648.html
http://wiki.openchrome.org/pipermail/openchrome-us ers/2006-February/000649.html
talk about all the non-integrated S3 Chrome products.
Until then I'm stuck with my 256MB Radion 9250 for which we may one day get XVMC (yay MythTV)
http://airlied.livejournal.com/17114.html
and for which we have open source 3D drivers that apparently don't perform that well,
http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=6482
but that can change.
Although that sounds a bit negative I love these cards, they're cheap and drive my desktop at 2560 x 1024 flawlessly, in Linux or Windows and the OS drivers seem very reliable, my only complaint would be the lack of a second DVI port and the slightly undersized heat-sink sapphire permanently glued onto the GPU, even with that I'm happy enough that I plan to build my next system around one using the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 and some dual core Athlon 64.
If / when the OpenChrome project supports the standalone GPUs I'll finally have an alternative to the undeniably ageing R200 RV280 chip. -
Re:Unanswered Question.
That would be pretty cool - that's what I was hoping someone would reply to my comment with a link to!
:-) [Phoronix] GNU/Linux Hardware Reviews, Articles, & Gaming -
Re:Unanswered Question.
Is there a linux tech site that reviews hardware under different flavors of linux? That would be a useful site. Especially if they dived into driver compatibility issues on different distributions.
Try http://www.phoronix.com/ -
Re:Drop the nternet myths
Thanks for pointing that out. I checked out what Gentoo has to offer (Since that's my distro of choice) and they have an ebuild available for r350, r300, r250 and r200 chipsets; I had it backwards. However, they do not appear to support x800 and x18xx products. If you go the ATi route you are still behind by at least a generation.
For reference as far as performance goes, compare this ATi x300 benchmark to this nVidia GeForce 6600GT benchmark. Unfortunately I could not find a GeForce 6200TC comparison as that chip is much closer to the x300 in price. The ATi card is about $40 cheaper than the 6600GT on Pricewatch now, but the performance difference is in the range of 2x-5x in favor of the 6600GT across the board. In Enemy Territory, the 6600GT gets over a hundred FPS at 1280x1024 high quality (HQ) while the x300 gets a dismal 20 at the same settings. In Doom 3, the 6600GT manages to get 50 FPS at 1280x1024 in HQ while the x300 gets less than 10 at 640x480 in HQ. The 6600GT gets 53FPS in the Quake 4 1280x1024 low quality benchmark, while the x300 gets 21 in low quality. Unfortunately Phoronix didn't include a UT2004 benchmark for the 6600GT, but I think we can guess who wins there.
If performance isn't important, then you may as well get a Matrox G400 or something. Hell, XGI might even be a good choice since they might even go the open source route with drivers. -
Re:Drop the nternet myths
Thanks for pointing that out. I checked out what Gentoo has to offer (Since that's my distro of choice) and they have an ebuild available for r350, r300, r250 and r200 chipsets; I had it backwards. However, they do not appear to support x800 and x18xx products. If you go the ATi route you are still behind by at least a generation.
For reference as far as performance goes, compare this ATi x300 benchmark to this nVidia GeForce 6600GT benchmark. Unfortunately I could not find a GeForce 6200TC comparison as that chip is much closer to the x300 in price. The ATi card is about $40 cheaper than the 6600GT on Pricewatch now, but the performance difference is in the range of 2x-5x in favor of the 6600GT across the board. In Enemy Territory, the 6600GT gets over a hundred FPS at 1280x1024 high quality (HQ) while the x300 gets a dismal 20 at the same settings. In Doom 3, the 6600GT manages to get 50 FPS at 1280x1024 in HQ while the x300 gets less than 10 at 640x480 in HQ. The 6600GT gets 53FPS in the Quake 4 1280x1024 low quality benchmark, while the x300 gets 21 in low quality. Unfortunately Phoronix didn't include a UT2004 benchmark for the 6600GT, but I think we can guess who wins there.
If performance isn't important, then you may as well get a Matrox G400 or something. Hell, XGI might even be a good choice since they might even go the open source route with drivers. -
Re:Drop the nternet myths
Thanks for pointing that out. I checked out what Gentoo has to offer (Since that's my distro of choice) and they have an ebuild available for r350, r300, r250 and r200 chipsets; I had it backwards. However, they do not appear to support x800 and x18xx products. If you go the ATi route you are still behind by at least a generation.
For reference as far as performance goes, compare this ATi x300 benchmark to this nVidia GeForce 6600GT benchmark. Unfortunately I could not find a GeForce 6200TC comparison as that chip is much closer to the x300 in price. The ATi card is about $40 cheaper than the 6600GT on Pricewatch now, but the performance difference is in the range of 2x-5x in favor of the 6600GT across the board. In Enemy Territory, the 6600GT gets over a hundred FPS at 1280x1024 high quality (HQ) while the x300 gets a dismal 20 at the same settings. In Doom 3, the 6600GT manages to get 50 FPS at 1280x1024 in HQ while the x300 gets less than 10 at 640x480 in HQ. The 6600GT gets 53FPS in the Quake 4 1280x1024 low quality benchmark, while the x300 gets 21 in low quality. Unfortunately Phoronix didn't include a UT2004 benchmark for the 6600GT, but I think we can guess who wins there.
If performance isn't important, then you may as well get a Matrox G400 or something. Hell, XGI might even be a good choice since they might even go the open source route with drivers. -
XGI may release OSS display drivers for video card
Phoronix reports that XGI may be releasing drivers for their upcoming Volari 8300 graphics card. If that happens, make sure you give it a good look. If sales are good enough, other hardware manufactures may follow.
"...today we have much more head-turning news and that is XGI's intent of releasing their complete display drivers for their Volari 8300 product. Yes that is right, XGI Technology is presently investigating the benefits of opening up their entire driver development process as well as the various open-source models through which to release their software. In addition, the code may be released as soon as the middle of next month when the 8300 part reaches market, or so we have been told. Although we will not share all of the specifics as to their drivers open-source intentions, as all of the details are presently being worked out, we are most reasonably certain that the complete code package will be released, and in a GPL-like fashion. By Christmas of this year, if not Q1 of 2006 when the XGI Volari 8 parts are widely available, we can probably expect to see an official announcement from XGI."
Phoronix's report is here.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item =323&num=1 -
These things rock
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NVIDIA LINUX DRIVERS LEAKED!!!!
STOP THE PRESS!! NVIDIA Linux drivers are leaked!!!.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item =315&num=1 -
NVIDIA LINUX DRIVERS LEAKED!!!!
STOP THE PRESS!! NVIDIA Linux drivers are leaked!!!.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item =315&num=1 -
Seeing as how TFA is /.-ed
Seeing as how TFA is
/.-ed
Here is a review of the D-Link DGL-4300 Gaming router. They even test the unit with PCs running Fedora Core 3.