AMD Launches New ATI Linux Driver

Michael Larabel writes "AMD has issued a press release announcing 'significant graphics performance and compatibility enhancements' on Linux. AMD will be delivering new ATI Linux drivers this year that offer ATI Radeon HD 2000 series support, AIGLX support (Beryl and Compiz), and major performance improvements. At Phoronix we have been testing these new drivers internally for the past few weeks and have a number of articles looking at this new driver. The ATI 8.41 Linux driver delivers Linux gaming improvements from the R300/400 series and the R500 series. The inaugural Radeon HD 2900XT series support also can be found in the new ATI Linux driver with 'the best price/performance ratio of any high-end graphics card under Linux.' While this new driver cannot be downloaded yet, in their press release AMD also alludes to accelerating efforts with the open-source community."

Comments

Re:Hey AMD, A tip for you.

[Lumpy]

Um no 3d, no Xv acceleration, makes it useless to even have a video card outside the built in cheapie no 3d no acceleration anything card.

nv driver is good for install or limp mode only.

Re:Are they open?

[corvair2k1]

NVIDIA has long since had a handle on your "latest/nonstandard kernel" problem. It builds its own interfaces to conform to the kernel's.

Re:Is the driver open-source?

[Anonymous Coward]

There's tons of games that run on Linux that tax 3D graphics to no end...

UT2004, doom3, quake4, .........

Not to mention Cedega offering options for 'windows-only' games

If you want Linux and open

[AHuxley]

Please try and support The Open Graphics Project.
http://wiki.opengraphics.org./tiki-index.php?page= AboutOpenGraphics

Re:If you want Linux and open

[TeknoHog]

If you want Linux and open, you can use Intel's graphics chips right now. They have opensource drivers in the stable kernel and X.org trees. If you need badass performance for the latest games, I don't think OGP will be much better than Intel. But for example, my oldish Centrino laptop runs things like Tuxracer and Quake 3 smoothly, so the basic 3D stuff definitely works.

On the other hand, I do appreciate a good hardware hack, but that's a completely different realm from most Linux geeks' needs. A completely opensource (software) system is easy to have right now, but with an open graphics chip you'd still have most of your hardware closed.

Re:If you want Linux and open

[init100]

Or you might want to try this: AMD to open up graphics specs

Re:Hey AMD, A tip for you.

[non]

at the risk of being offtopic:

with Ubuntu you have a choice of three different NVidia drivers; new, normal, and legacy. you should probably use normal 'nvidia-kernel-' & 'nvidia-glx-'. if, on the other hand, you have a brand spanking new card, you will need the beta drivers direct from nvidia and you will have to install them yourself. in the event you choose to go that road do *not* install the linux-restricted-stuff - it will interfere with the drivers, and remember to re-install the drivers from recovery mode every time you upgrade the kernel more than a minor version (Ubuntu point releases, ie. 15-27 ->16-31 won't cause a problem).

Re:3D is important; Do what Linus does: buy Intel

[plague3106]

Intel graphics are also shit compared to Nvidia or ATI.

Also, I don't think your number "prove" most linux installs are desktops. Many probably still are just servers.

Re:And?

[WhiteWolf666]

I know what the "proof" will be; or at least, the start of a trend.

Full AIGLX support in 8.42 (the article is discussing 8.41). The claim at Phoronix is that AMD has claimed AIGLX is going in at 8.42.

Continuing the trend would be MPEG-4/H.264 Xvideo support in 8.4x or 8.5x, preferably within the next 6 months or so (keep in mind that the Radeon 2X00 series have excellent video capabilities).

If they hit those two goals, I'll most likely purchase 2-3 ATI cards for my Linux boxes; the AIGLX and Xvideo things are a big deal to me, and Nvidia cards don't currently accelerate MPEG-4/H.264.

Re:Hey AMD, A tip for you.

[Zebedeu]

I still cant get a old Geforce4 card working on my wifes ubuntu PC That's not only a problem with the Linux drivers, as I had exactly the same happening to me in my mothers Windows XP computer. It appears that nVidia stops testing their drivers with old iterations of their video cards, though it would be at least helpfull if they acknowlodged the problem and made available on their website old versions that are know to be working.

In the end I made it work by searching for old versions of the nVidia drivers on the internet. Perhaps if you try an old version of the linux drivers you will be luckier.

Re:Any video accel lovin'?

[DirkGently]

I'm very curious to see what comes about from the myth-vid branch of development. The devs are making a solid attempt at moving away from XvMC and using the 3D engine, as that's what nVidia does in the Windows drivers for their "PureVideo" stuff. It's got a lot of promise and opens up a lot of better deinterlacers beyond bob & weave. However, because ATI drivers have stunk so badly (and because they already own nVidia cards), that's what the devs are working with. For the forseeable future, if you want it to work, that's also what you buy.

As an aside, I've had excellent luck with XvMC for both SD and HD, though I ended up sacking the HD because the Bob deinterlace was kinda ugly and I had the CPU to spare.

Re:Hey AMD, A tip for you.

[pato101]

If I'm at home I have to ssh in from another machine and kill X so I can use the thing again, or if I'm anywhere else I have to reboot (keyboard and mouse are frozen as is everything on the desktop, ctrl-alt-backspace doesn't do anything). Next time try Alt+Print_Screen+K (search for Raising Skinny Elephants is Utterly Boring at the wikipedia)

Re:Any video accel lovin'?

[Mad Merlin]

fglrx currently has Xv acceleration using the GPU on R500 series cards, and it works well enough that I can watch 1080p H.264 content with no dropped frames. It's the one (and only) thing it currently beats the Nvidia drivers on.

Re:Put up or shut up...

[Brandybuck]

Ditto. I am a FreeBSD users. There are no drivers for newer ATI cards on FreeBSD, because ATI refuses to open source their drivers. I have been hearing rumours of open source drivers for a year now, but nothing. At LWCE the AMD guys said we would see some imminently, but nothing.

I am building a new system in the next month or two, and if ATI still hasn't come out with open source drivers, I'm going with Intel instead.

Re:Are they open?

[eviltypeguy]

Incorrect.

Solaris now has DRI support for chips such as the Intel 915 since October of last year at least:
http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/xwin-discuss /2006-October/000356.html

Re:Is the driver open-source?

[arodland]

Another interesting thing about the Intel driver is that due to being pretty much the most capable open-source driver around, it gets a lot of attention from XOrg way, including being compatible with the latest nifty standards. If I want TV-out on ATI, I have to use a driver that's been in continuous beta for the past four years and reboot the machine with the TV plugged in so the card notices it. If I want TV-out on NVidia I have to put weird crap in my X config file and then run nvidia's custom settings app to configure displays. Okay, better. If I want TV-out on Intel I use xrandr -- from the commandline or from any of the GUI utilities already out there... and it works. Bang. Just like that.

Re:3D is important; Do what Linus does: buy Intel

[AaronW]

And from my quick reading on this it looks like it may have been addressed in the kernel and in fact may have been a bug introduced into the kernel.

http://lists.openwall.net/linux-kernel/2007/04/30/ 530

-Aaron