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pacho2
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Joined: 04 Mar 2005
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Location: Oviedo, Spain

PostPosted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 9:50 am    Post subject: Help about knowing Inspiron 15R compatibility with Gentoo Reply with quote

Hello

I am interested on a new Inspiron 15R laptop with:
- Intel® Core™ i7-3537U
- AMD Radeon™ HD 8730M 2G

I only show this from specifications because I am a nvidia user due a lot of problems with proprietary ATI drivers in the past. I would like to know:
- How ATI drivers work now on linux
- At least with nvidia laptops, it's now common to the get using optimus technology, but I have no idea about this ATI laptops. Are they also able to use integrated Intel card? (I guess that i7 processor will include one intel video card also, or is there some "special" intel processors series without that integrated card?

The other question is about UEFI booting, would I need to do some "magic" to get it working or Dell Bioses allow me to disable UEFI boot?

Thanks a lot
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Navar
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Joined: 20 Aug 2012
Posts: 353

PostPosted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 3:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

pacho2,

http://ark.intel.com/products/72054/Intel-Core-i7-3537U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_10-GHz that CPU has an HD 4000.

I'm using a Radeon 7850 2GB on desktop. My experience so far with the newer fglrx drivers has been mostly positive, except for some serious bugs on one release related to their power controls. If you want to read some pro-con argumentative rants, http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/16snkx/atiamd_releases_latest_proprietary_linux_driver/ ;)

Depending on your intended use, you could always just use the Intel HD 4000 side and probably have zero issues if you're mostly looking for solid 2D acceleration.

I'm not directly familiar with Nvidia's Optimus technology other than a number of people are fairly unhappy for now. But isn't that always the case off and on with nvidia/intel/ati.

ATI's variant of it is marketed as PowerXpress I believe and caused me some grief on one driver. However, 2 of out of 3 on beta/testing stage closed source video drivers isn't bad. ;) Generally no weird stability issues or artifacts. I am using just one display though. This is a bit dated and it's from Phoronix, http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTI3Mg, but it may help you determine more.

In my experience, Dell's track record with laptop BIOSes back in 2006 were somewhat evil on the poplular Inspiron 9400/1705 (LBA support was 6 years in past to almost non-existant, e.g. needed old school boot partition at front for multiboot). You'll probably have to really dig around to find out if they support disabling UEFI properly, but I would hope by now they will.

Then there is the matter that Dell is trying hard to take themselves private with Microsoft being a major player. You might want to re-consider another brand unless the deal is too good. :)
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pacho2
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Joined: 04 Mar 2005
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Location: Oviedo, Spain

PostPosted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 9:43 am    Post subject: Ok Reply with quote

OK, thanks a lot :)
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