Arch Linux

thorro

Member

From: Skien, Norway

Registered: 2007-05-05

Posts: 25

Ati/AMD or Nvidia

Has the catalyst driver improved lately. The HD 48xx x2 cards looks interesting it has a very nice pricetag.
Now I have a Nvidia 7950, and nvidiadrivers are good.
I'am addicted to WoW so i need good 3D performance with linux/wine.
Is it still Nvidai that counts or is it safe to buy ati these days?

Last edited by thorro (2008-08-12 10:38:05)

---

C2D E8500 Nvidia 7950 512mb    WD 500Gb sata   4giga ram   Samsung SyncMaster 226BW, 1680*1050
wowaddict http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet … n=Slackers

Hohoho

Member

Registered: 2007-06-23

Posts: 222

Re: Ati/AMD or Nvidia

I'd go with an Nvidia card, with Ati it's pretty much like playing russian roulette every time a new driver comes out: something gets broken, something gets fixed.

Themaister

Member

From: Trondheim, Norway

Registered: 2008-07-21

Posts: 652

Website

Re: Ati/AMD or Nvidia

nVidia definately.

---

@ GitHub

thorro

Member

From: Skien, Norway

Registered: 2007-05-05

Posts: 25

Re: Ati/AMD or Nvidia

It's to bad. Nvidia it will be.

---

C2D E8500 Nvidia 7950 512mb    WD 500Gb sata   4giga ram   Samsung SyncMaster 226BW, 1680*1050
wowaddict http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet … n=Slackers

meqif

Member

From: Portugal

Registered: 2006-12-16

Posts: 60

Website

Re: Ati/AMD or Nvidia

The 8xxx and 9xxx series nVidia cards have 2D rendering speed issues in Linux[1]. I advise against buying nVidia. 3D rendering is fine, however.

[1] http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=115916

Last edited by meqif (2008-08-12 13:47:37)

---

Ricardo Martins ><>< ricardomartins.cc ><>< GPG key: 0x1308F1B4

Sp4rkR4t

Member

From: Southampton

Registered: 2008-05-06

Posts: 110

Re: Ati/AMD or Nvidia

The difference is that the nvidia doesn't reallty get any better or worse but the ATi driver is improving all the time now, there even looking at bringing uvd support out. And in this current generation of cards the only sane choice is the ATi card.

lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 4,018

Re: Ati/AMD or Nvidia

I was totally annoyed by 2d performance of 9600GT in Linux, but playing with InitialPixmapPlacement and GlyphCache improved the situation.

Wanted to get 38xx myself (before 48xx were announced), but finally decided to go with nvidia.

Themaister

Member

From: Trondheim, Norway

Registered: 2008-07-21

Posts: 652

Website

Re: Ati/AMD or Nvidia

Haven't really had any huge problem with 8800GT :S

Only thing I've seen that isn't perfect in 2D is sometimes resizing GTK-apps (the demanding ones), which isn't blistering, but nothing to complain over, the other thing can be that moving windows over an open web browser can create some "ghosting" effect (depends on the web page).

For 2D only, nVidia is maybe not the #1 choise, but the performance you get in 3D (wine/WoW) is in my case just as good as in Windows, which is rather impressive. I'm pretty sure ATi can't match nVidia in 3D yet.

---

@ GitHub

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: Ati/AMD or Nvidia

Haven't really had any huge problem with 8800GT :S

Same here with a 8800GT. I had some scrolling issues before in FF, but those are mostly gone with newer drivers without any adjustments to xorg.conf. I know that when the scrolling problems do arise, the graphics card is getting a hell of a workout.

Themaister

Member

From: Trondheim, Norway

Registered: 2008-07-21

Posts: 652

Website

Re: Ati/AMD or Nvidia

Tried using the

nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=2 -a GlyphCache=1 .

Appearently, it made the "ghosting" effect less visible over opera .

---

@ GitHub

thorro

Member

From: Skien, Norway

Registered: 2007-05-05

Posts: 25

Re: Ati/AMD or Nvidia

I'am was thinking of GTX 280 not the 8/9xxx series.
My 7950 card is fine but I'am not pleased with the performance in WoW.
going to replace my cpu and mb also. probaly Core2 dual/quad(E8600 or Q9450)
Thats the problem with beeing an addict.
I'll wait a while until I do the upgrade, when its around freezing point outside.:)

Last edited by thorro (2008-08-12 16:25:21)

---

C2D E8500 Nvidia 7950 512mb    WD 500Gb sata   4giga ram   Samsung SyncMaster 226BW, 1680*1050
wowaddict http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet … n=Slackers

staple

Member

Registered: 2007-09-28

Posts: 81

Re: Ati/AMD or Nvidia

intel

Themaister

Member

From: Trondheim, Norway

Registered: 2008-07-21

Posts: 652

Website

Re: Ati/AMD or Nvidia

I'am was thinking of GTX 280 not the 8/9xxx series.
My 7950 card is fine but I'am not pleased with the performance in WoW.
going to replace my cpu and mb also. probaly Core2 dual/quad(E8600 or Q9450)
Thats the problem with beeing an addict.
I'll wait a while until I do the upgrade, when its around freezing point outside.:)

Have you tried the WoW performance tweaks?

---

@ GitHub

thorro

Member

From: Skien, Norway

Registered: 2007-05-05

Posts: 25

Re: Ati/AMD or Nvidia

Have you tried the WoW performance tweaks?

Sure I have. got ok fps but can't max out details.
In raid I play in windows and also there I need some more power.
I'll play with res 1680*1050,not with max details ,and want some better graphics.
Can't raid  with lag
And it gives me a bad excuse to have an hardware upgrade

Last edited by thorro (2008-08-12 20:52:18)

---

C2D E8500 Nvidia 7950 512mb    WD 500Gb sata   4giga ram   Samsung SyncMaster 226BW, 1680*1050
wowaddict http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet … n=Slackers

Themaister

Member

From: Trondheim, Norway

Registered: 2008-07-21

Posts: 652

Website

Re: Ati/AMD or Nvidia

Haha True. Had the same with AoC. (Kinda waste to have 4GB ram now, but hey:D)

---

@ GitHub

Lyceuhns

Member

From: João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brasil

Registered: 2008-05-09

Posts: 121

Re: Ati/AMD or Nvidia

Some time ago, i went on nVidia, but now AMD+ATI promises that the things can change, new hardware+better Linux support...

DaveCode

Member

Registered: 2008-08-15

Posts: 103

Re: Ati/AMD or Nvidia

I have owned both brands.  The big difference today is that ATI is going open-source, while nVidia is very publicly not, in a recent exchange of press releases with the linux kernel teams.  For any given pair of competing boards and drivers you can split hairs and specs, but I take a wide view.

With ATI brand there are THREE (3) separate drivers to pick from - Catalyst (formerly fglrx), ati/radeon (xf86-video-ati), and the newer radeonhd which has Novell behind it.  Read Phoronix about all this.  Suffice to say, the open source stuff is moving along at a very rapid pace now that ATI is helping.  The future is bright and the present is damned good.  AMD bought up ATI and synergy is already showing.  On the economy side,
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/ … phics-game
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=a … inux&num=1

nVidia has always had terrible support problems - you wait months for bug fixes with every Linux kernel release, and they hardly ever believe the user bug reports.  They claim dumb-user syndrome even if 100s of people report the same bug.  Personally, because of nVidia's poor support and closed source, I will never buy another one.

P.S. How come Arch's ati driver is so out of date?  It's been ~2 months since 6.9.0 final.  I would imagine this should qualify as a very high priority package for Arch (and any other Linux).
http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/x … 00596.html

With radeonhd you really do want to build git, because it's moving so rapidly, but with ati, I'd rather use stock packages, if possible.  Help, Arch!

iBertus

Member

From: Greenville, NC

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 2,228

Re: Ati/AMD or Nvidia

My last ATI card was an 8500 AGP that worked pretty well with linux. I currently have a pair of GTX280s and before this a pair of 8800GTs. The GTX280s seem to have issues with downclocking that cause some 2D issues. I think you can fix this with a module parameter that I've not tried yet. I only bought nvidia for CUDA as my project currently doesn't support ATI's Stream API.