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#1 2006-07-26 01:49:40

Phrodo_00
Member
From: Seattle, WA
Registered: 2006-04-09
Posts: 342
Website

¿is it too hard to get an ati working?

Hi, I'm thinking of upgrade my video card, however, although I'm a nvidia fan, atis beat the crap out of nvidias in the price range I can afford, so I were wondering how hard would it be to get the drivers to play nicely (I have some expectatives on trying xgl with a more powerful card (mine, actually kind of sucks)) with linux and how slower do they run in comparision to as if it were working in windows (if anyone knows) runing, I don't know... quake3 or some game that runs on both oses (I know ati dirvers in linux are slower, but how much?)

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#2 2006-07-26 02:30:02

The_Nerd
Member
From: Syracuse, NY / Baltimore, MD
Registered: 2005-11-30
Posts: 134
Website

Re: ¿is it too hard to get an ati working?

Performance depends on the series of card your planning on purchasing.

While the open source drivers only work with older cards, I believe they have (or had since fglrx no longer works with r200 series cards) better performance than the ati drivers.

That being said, since it seems you're purchasing a newer ati card, performance versus nvidia is only decent as far as I've seen. Nvidia drivers in linux allow the card to perform similarly to how they perform in windows. Ati's drivers allow ati drivers to perform mabye two thirds of what they are capable of.

My ati x700 (pretty new) gets 3800 in glxgears and my 3 year old gforce 4 ti4200 gets 3200 in glxgears... not that glxgears is any sort of benchmark but it does give an indication of how the card will perform overall.

Despite less than stellar performance, my ati x700, and numerous others that I own (9600xt, 9500, etc) all work fine with linux and the fglrx drivers and all also work well with XGL.

I have not run quake 3 on both of my computers, so I could not give you a side by side comparison offhand. That being said, any new ati or nvidia card should be able to handle any game that you can throw at it in linux be it in wine or native.

If your price point is where the ati card is, I say go for it!

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#3 2006-07-26 16:07:04

patroclo7
Member
From: Bassano del Grappa, ITALY
Registered: 2006-01-11
Posts: 915

Re: ¿is it too hard to get an ati working?

Remember that opensource drivers will grow better and is now supporting experimentally 3D on some X300 and X400 video cards.


Mortuus in anima, curam gero cutis

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#4 2006-07-26 23:34:20

Phrodo_00
Member
From: Seattle, WA
Registered: 2006-04-09
Posts: 342
Website

Re: ¿is it too hard to get an ati working?

alright then, thank you. I guess I'll go for the 9550 then. It cannot be worse than the nvidia xfx mx4000 64mb/32bit I have... :oops:

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#5 2006-07-26 23:57:53

tmadhavan
Member
From: Wales :D
Registered: 2004-03-26
Posts: 441

Re: ¿is it too hard to get an ati working?

I've had good experiences with ATI, however I didn't have any luck getting XGL working. This was about 3-4 months ago though, so perhaps new ATI drivers/ XGL builds are available (probably, even).

I think if the saving is worth it, and you either really can't afford the Nvidia, or could do something with the difference, then get the ATI card. Otherwise, it could be better getting the Nvidia card due to more mature drivers, etc.

I second what Patroclo says though - drivers will improve. Just get what you want, I'm sure with help from the fora (?) you could get anything working.

Peace

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#6 2006-07-27 05:14:30

syd
Member
From: Auckland, NZ
Registered: 2006-01-22
Posts: 155

Re: ¿is it too hard to get an ati working?

Hey,

If your planning on running games in linux i'd get a nvidia. But if your dual booting and you dont want to spend the extra money get a radeon.

I was using a x800 with linux and dual booting but i couldn't get framebuffer to work  now ive got a second machine and am using a 9200 and it runs fine

glxgears:
3346 frames in 5.0 seconds = 669.164 FPS

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