ATI Proprietary Linux Driver 8.18.6 is out

Message

noob007 · Post by **noob007** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 4:25 am

The newest driver from Ati. just released today. And here's the release notes https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9448/1m ... .18.6.html
Anyone tried the newest driver yet? any improvement?

xanas3712 · Post by **xanas3712** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 2:18 pm

It seems decent at least. The last driver, even with putting in my own refresh settings would only work reliably at 1024x768. The new one will set the proper video modes if I setup my refresh manually and use the proper option to disable automatic settings (apparently my monitors won't give info properly).

I am getting between 20-50 fps in World of Warcraft and it's not too jumpy. UT2004 seems about the same as before, maybe slightly better.

Haven't updated my kernel recently so going to try it with 2.16.13-r3 soon.

RaZoR1394 · Post by **RaZoR1394** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 4:48 pm

Xinerama support sounds very nice and I wonder how much difference I will feel in Doom 3. Still I wonder why the 8.16.20 drivers are still not even hardmasked?

noob007 · Post by **noob007** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 7:46 pm

With this new Ati driver, finally, I got 3D working on my X850XT PE AGP Video Card.

New Features

Dynamic Clock Gating

The Linux 8.18.6 software driver provides dynamic clock gating. This feature allows the supported graphics cards to deactivate components when they are not being used.

Enhanced Support for OpenGL Development

The Linux 8.18.6 software driver provides enhanced support for OpenGL development. The driver now installs the glATI.h header file allowing for OpenGL developers to access the advanced functionality found on ATI's hardware platform.

Dual Link Monitor Support

The Linux 8.18.6 software driver now provides support for dual link monitors for ATI graphics cards that have dual link DVI connectors.

Xinerama Support

The Linux 8.18.6 software driver now provides Xinerama extension support for big desktop configurations.

New X Server Configuration Utility

The Linux 8.18.6 software driver now provides a new X Server configuration utility known as aticonfig. This allows for configuration of ATI devices via a command line interface.

Zanfib · Post by **Zanfib** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 6:18 pm

Anibody know how to use the "Dynamic Clock Gating" feature of this new drivers ?

I search in ATI's documentation but nothing

Wedge_ · Post by **Wedge_** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 8:37 pm

Zanfib wrote:Anibody know how to use the "Dynamic Clock Gating" feature of this new drivers ?

I search in ATI's documentation but nothing

It's done automatically, you don't need to configure anything

basquiat · Post by **basquiat** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 8:58 pm

As the README to this release describes again, suspend and resume won't work in most cases. As it hasn't with the driver before. And before. And before. "We are working on it". Playing with vbetool, you might succeed - or not. Anyone checked this release if there is any progress in that context? The Open Source drivers still suspend and resume fine, even the alpha staged R300 with DRI enabled.

It's fine I can save power on my laptop now, but I won't use ATI drivers until I can manage essential "laptop tasks" with them - one beeing suspending to RAM or disk.

H-Dragon · Post by **H-Dragon** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 9:20 pm

installed the installer. but glxinfo says direct rendering is disabled.

how do i fix that

or does the ati-driver not need/use dri?

and if... what is better/faster?
1) dri over the r300 project
2) ati-driver?

thanks in advance!

basquiat · Post by **basquiat** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 9:36 pm

H-Dragon wrote:and if... what is better/faster?
1) dri over the r300 project
2) ati-driver?

That depends on what you need. The binary ATI drivers will over you a (more) solid and complete 3D acceleration, which is also worlds faster than the r300 implementation in most cases.

The Open Source drivers offer you a reliable solution if you want to suspend or hibernate your laptop and also work better together with framebuffer drivers and console switching. The r200 drivers offer a working 3D acceleration, the r300 drivers are alpha staged.

H-Dragon · Post by **H-Dragon** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 9:46 pm

what is the dri thingy then? i cant get direct rendering to work when using ati-drivers as the installer package (50mb or so)!

i use the experimental xorg by the way.....6.8.99.15-r4

sponge · Post by **sponge** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 10:54 pm

What happened to dlloader support? It worked with 8.14.13-r5, but I had to recompile xorg with -dlloader to use the new driver.

Which, unsuprisingly, isn't much of an improvement.

ATI Proprietary Linux Driver 8.18.6 is out

ATI Proprietary Linux Driver 8.18.6 is out

And what about suspend/resume?