Thinking of going ATI - Thoughts?

ck42 · l33t Joined: 31 Jul 2003 Posts: 789

I've always stuck with nvidia based cards on my Linux boxes....basically for driver reasons.
But, it appears that things have really gotten much better for ATI based cards....based on stories I've read over the last couple months.

So, question is - For those of you out there that know more about this than I, should I continue to steer clear of ATI cards for now or have the driver issues really cleared up to the point that there shouldn't really be any big problems (compared to running an nvidia based card)?

overkll · Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 4:10 pm Post subject:

I'm curious too, especially since shopping for laptops. Seems that most of the low-midrange laptops come either with Intel Accelerated Grapics (BARF) or ATI/AMD graphics.

Are the proprietary AMD/ATI catalyst drivers any good? Can they be used for Compiz? Or do the ATI drivers still suck?

phaseburn · Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 7:17 pm Post subject:

ATI drivers have, in the past (as you mentioned) been horrid.

It's quite true they are getting better, and will continue to do so, but I don't personally believe they are at the same level as nVidia's drivers right now. I do firmly believe this will change in the next 6 to 12 months, but today, it isn't there yet.

I'm not certain if you can run Compiz on ATI but I believe you can. I don't use it, as I have Xinerama enabled for dual monitors which doesn't work with Compiz for anything.
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-PhaseBurn

cyrillic · Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 7:26 pm Post subject:

I think the main reason to switch from nVidia to ATI now is because of the open-source drivers, not fglrx.

My main machine has a Radeon x1300 (r5xx) that works great with x11-drivers/xf86-video-radeonhd , and is also supported by x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati and the kernel's "radeon" DRI driver.