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AMD Launches New ATI Linux Driver

Posted by kdawson on from the soon-it-will-all-be-faster dept.

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."

5 of 262 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Are they open? by corvair2k1 · · Score: 4, Informative

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

  2. If you want Linux and open by AHuxley · · Score: 5, Informative

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

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  3. Re:3D is important; Do what Linus does: buy Intel by plague3106 · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  4. Re:And? by WhiteWolf666 · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

    --
    WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
  5. Re:Is the driver open-source? by arodland · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.