No way to use Ati Radeon HD 5850?

Webmaniac2 · 2009-12-24 20:49:15

Hey everyone,

I don't really know if this is the right forum for my question, but I'll post it anyway:

A few days ago I bought a new Ati Radeon HD 5850 and now I think I have a problem. The open-source drivers don't support my Radeon at all. The only drivers I can use under Arch Linux are the proprietary catalyst drivers from Ati, but it seems they support xorg-server <1.7 only. Since I have xorg-server 1.7.3, I don't see any possibility to get my gfx-card running.

I reinstalled my whole system a week ago, so I don't have an older version of xorg-server on my hard disk.

The only solution I see is that someone would upload an older version of xorg-server (for x86_64) so that I can use the proprietary drivers.

Is my assumption right or is there any other way to get my gfx-card working?

best regards
Webmaniac

McDuck · 2009-12-24 21:20:31

I'm not too familiar with recent catalyst problems, but search around on the forums.
I am pretty sure this problem has been discussed as there are quite a few dedicated ATI users around here.

There is a wikipage about how to downgrade packages: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dow … g_Packages

jaydoc · 2010-02-04 01:57:01

hi.. i'm planning on buying this particular GPU. have you got it working correctly using the ATI drivers..?

thanks.

flamelab · 2010-02-04 02:01:57

jaydoc wrote:

hi.. i'm planning on buying this particular GPU. have you got it working correctly using the ATI drivers..?
thanks.

If you are planning on using Linux with this card, you'd better throw your money in the trash bin, it could be the same thing.

You should plan on a Fermi NVidia card or a GTX/S2xx.

Last edited by flamelab (2010-02-04 02:02:14)

Acecero · 2010-02-04 02:23:05

flamelab wrote:

jaydoc wrote:
hi.. i'm planning on buying this particular GPU. have you got it working correctly using the ATI drivers..?
thanks.
If you are planning on using Linux with this card, you'd better throw your money in the trash bin, it could be the same thing.
You should plan on a Fermi NVidia card or a GTX/S2xx.

Well "hopefully" we will have better opensource ati drivers in the future, but in the mean time, nvidia is where its at for drivers.

jaydoc · 2010-02-04 02:43:35

That's so bad..! Considering that I want to build a system that lasts, I would like a video card that offers Direct X11 support. Currently, AFAIK, there seem to be no NVIDIA cards that offer that. Or is there..?!

i have a question though - Linux is going to be the only OS i will be using, so does support for directx matter at all when choosing a video card..?

Acecero · 2010-02-04 02:52:53

jaydoc wrote:

That's so bad..! Considering that I want to build a system that lasts, I would like a video card that offers Direct X11 support. Currently, AFAIK, there seem to be no NVIDIA cards that offer that. Or is there..?!
i have a question though - Linux is going to be the only OS i will be using, so does support for directx matter at all when choosing a video card..?

For directx, no. For opengl, yes.

Directx only works for windows systems.

Last edited by Acecero (2010-02-04 02:54:59)

flamelab · 2010-02-04 03:01:19

jaydoc wrote:

That's so bad..! Considering that I want to build a system that lasts, I would like a video card that offers Direct X11 support. Currently, AFAIK, there seem to be no NVIDIA cards that offer that. Or is there..?!
i have a question though - Linux is going to be the only OS i will be using, so does support for directx matter at all when choosing a video card..?

If you are really going for using Linux only, forget ATi for at least one/one-and-a-half years. I'm talking about the opensource driver. The closed (fglrx) is a huge mess.

qaov · 2010-02-04 09:17:04

Webmaniac did you tested this card with xorg<1.7 ?? for example 1.6.3 ?
there is possibility to change repository within some date

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dow … nformation
downgrade your xorg and then block it in pacman.conf (ignore for upgrade)

Webmaniac2 · 2010-02-07 15:46:51

Sorry, I've just seen the replies to my post.

qaov: Yes, I'm using xorg-server 1.6.3 for over a month now and I'm blocking any upgrades as you said.

jaydoc: The card is working fine now. The installation is a bit tricky, since you have to search for old packages of xorg-server (1.6.3-4), xf86-input-evdev (2.2.5-1), xf86-input-keyboard (1.3.2-2) and xf86-input-mouse (1.4.0-2). The number in brackets is the version I'm using.

The performance of the GPU in Linux seems to be ok, but I haven't run any benchmarks yet. I'm still waiting for the Unigine benchmark to support 64 Bit Linux. I may install UT2004 and compare the framerates to the Windows version during the next week, if you want.

If you aren't using Windows at all, DirectX 11 isn't of any importance for you.

best regards
Webmaniac2

Mr.Elendig · 2010-02-07 16:05:41

There is a repo in the ati bar and grill thread, that you can put above the other repos in pacman.conf, that will give you 1.6.x without you having to search all over the net and use IgnorePkg

agapito · 2010-02-07 18:09:41

You only need xorg-server and xf86-input-evdev from xorg 7.4 and catalyst works fine with these cards (i have 5770)

Put this at top of your pacman.conf

[xorg-old]
Server=http://doorknob60.is-a-geek.org/xorg-old/x86_64

Mr.Elendig · 2010-02-07 18:46:38

Change x86_64 to i686 if needed.

Webmaniac2 · 2010-02-15 18:43:23

Thanks for the advice!

jaydoc, I don't know if you are still interested, but I've just installed UT2004 and made some benchmarks. The game runs fine on my machine, but the performance on Windows is still better (probably caused by the ATI drivers, I don't know if it's different with Nvidia cards).

I've got a i7 860 overclocked to 3,37 GHz, 8 GB DDR3-1600 RAM, ATI Radeon 5850.
These are the results on Arch 64 (using the 64 bit version of UT2004):

37.362080 / 134.612076 / 646.694885 fps -- Score = 79.650024 rand[380387867]

On the same machine, using Windows 7 x64 (and the 32 bit version of UT2004, since there is no 64 bit windows version I think):
74.507027 / 247.827057 / 721.584717 fps -- Score = 247.858521 rand[183]

I used "ut2004 "br-bridgeoffate?spectatoronly=1?numbots=8?quickstart=1?attractcam=1" -benchmark -seconds=600 -nosound".

Maybe someone with a Nvidia card is willing to make some benchmarks to compare the performance of windows and linux in this game?

best regards
Webmaniac2

B15HOP · 2010-03-15 13:27:15

b15hop@Enterprize_D $ cat .ut2004/Benchmark/benchmark.log
68.582016 / 254.540329 / 602.484436 fps -- Score = 79.998177 rand[2132148772]

That's with a Geforce 9800 GTX 1GB
Running a phenom2 955 at 3.25Ghz and 4GB of DDR2 ram (1066Mhz)

I should probably state max detail settings, no AA, 1280x1024@24bpp.
"High performance" under image settings in nvidia control panel (nvidia-settings).

I'm running the 64bit ut2004.

EDIT: Updated details to state what system specs I have.

Last edited by B15HOP (2010-03-15 13:35:54)

X-dark · 2010-04-13 21:40:39

xf86-video-ati (aka radeon) git version from AUR works with the Radeon HD5850. The support of these chipsets is incomplete but it is still better than nothing.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-12-24 20:49:15

No way to use Ati Radeon HD 5850?

#2 2009-12-24 21:20:31

Re: No way to use Ati Radeon HD 5850?

#3 2010-02-04 01:57:01

Re: No way to use Ati Radeon HD 5850?

#4 2010-02-04 02:01:57

Re: No way to use Ati Radeon HD 5850?

#5 2010-02-04 02:23:05

Re: No way to use Ati Radeon HD 5850?

#6 2010-02-04 02:43:35

Re: No way to use Ati Radeon HD 5850?

#7 2010-02-04 02:52:53

Re: No way to use Ati Radeon HD 5850?

#8 2010-02-04 03:01:19

Re: No way to use Ati Radeon HD 5850?

#9 2010-02-04 09:17:04

Re: No way to use Ati Radeon HD 5850?

#10 2010-02-07 15:46:51

Re: No way to use Ati Radeon HD 5850?

#11 2010-02-07 16:05:41

Re: No way to use Ati Radeon HD 5850?

#12 2010-02-07 18:09:41

Re: No way to use Ati Radeon HD 5850?

#13 2010-02-07 18:46:38

Re: No way to use Ati Radeon HD 5850?

#14 2010-02-15 18:43:23

Re: No way to use Ati Radeon HD 5850?

#15 2010-03-15 13:27:15

Re: No way to use Ati Radeon HD 5850?

#16 2010-04-13 21:40:39

Re: No way to use Ati Radeon HD 5850?

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