AMD's New Card Supports Linux From the Get-Go 352
Michael writes "Back in September AMD had announced a new ATI Linux driver as well as opening up their GPU specifications, and today they have taken an additional step to better support the Linux OS. With the just-announced Radeon HD 4850 RV770 they have provided same-day Linux support, and the Linux driver is now shipping alongside the Windows driver on their product CDs. In addition, they are encouraging their AIB partners to showcase Tux on the product packaging as a sign of Linux support. Last but certainly not least, AMD is committed from top-to-bottom product support on Linux and they will be introducing high-end features in their Linux driver such as MultiGPU CrossFire technology. Phoronix has a run-down on AMD's evolutionary leap in Linux support along with information on the open-source support for the RV770 GPU."
Re:Demand? (Score:2, Informative)
high-def features? (Score:5, Informative)
hell, even on windows xp nvidia (piss be upon them) has not released accelerated video drivers for their year-old 8series cards!
I was one of the suckers who bought an 8-series thinking the 'hardware accel' onboard would finally solve my HD playback tearing issues. nvidia is infamous for video stutter and tearing unless you use 'magical commercial' dvd playback programs. the regular free ones don't seem to have the magic and the magic is NOT in the xp driver, that's for sure. and there's no way in hell I'm going to convert to vista just to get their new driver support. so basically, I have a 'fast frame buffer' in the 8series card but there's a whole lot of hardware that is sitting idle due to their 'push' to vista and how they want to force the DRM of vista on people.
ATI was worse; but maybe things have changed? I simply want to have glitch-free playback of HD sources on some kind of video card and NOT be locked into vista or commercial players.
but for now, I've settled on the popcorn hour [popcornhour.com] box. it Just Plain Works(tm), is fanless and does NOT care about which OS you use to serve networked files to it.
It's Already Working With Open-Source Driver Too (Score:5, Informative)
Waiting for a supported TV card (Score:5, Informative)
Hauppauge cards are supported to some extent but getting their remote controls to work is a pain in the butt, even on MythTV based distros!
In fact, getting the remote control to work is more of an exercise in frustration than anything else.
Re:i heart this (Score:1, Informative)
Ask and ye shall receive (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.pchdtv.com/ [pchdtv.com]
Not sure about your troubles with remotes, but that doesn't have anything to do with the TV card.
Re:Demand? (Score:5, Informative)
NUMA architecture-- Intel doesn't do it-- really, REALLY helps with this on all but one of the CPUs in the machine.
Re:But is this open? (Score:5, Informative)
Please stop playing the FOSS zealot if you don't know what your talking about.
ATI HAS released the specs to their cards unlike nVidia. The new card already runs with the FOSS driver. The FOSS driver is improving daily.
Re:But is this open? (Score:5, Informative)
Dude, the card already works with the open-source xf86-driver-ati thanks to the code-sharing and documentation provided by ATI. Pretty soon the R6xx series (The generation I've got) will have 3D hardware acceleration as the R5xx series has now. It's not perfect and complete support, but it's getting there and progress has been excellent. If you really want to support a company that's supporting Linux, you would buy an ATI (Or Intel?) card. NVidia sure as hell isn't talking about any F/OSS drivers.
Not a slacker when it comes to Windows either... (Score:5, Informative)
Anandtech [anandtech.com]
Tech Report [techreport.com]
Re:losing strategy (Score:5, Informative)
Re:losing strategy (Score:4, Informative)
What I don't get are these crazies who say they're ready to jump ship to AMD/ATI already - over a BINARY driver. But that just goes to show that this "Linux initiative" is paying off.
The first graphics card manufacturer to have open source, quality drivers is going to win big. My guess is NVIDIA is already prepared to release theirs, but they're waiting while AMD plays catch-up.
Re:linux games (Score:5, Informative)
Re:linux games (Score:1, Informative)
Arrrgh, Swedish chef destroyed my post! (Score:5, Informative)
Bork bork bork!
Don't forget Savage [s2games.com], worth a mention as they've been supporting Linux for years. They're Indy too, no DRM bullshit, just good games.
Re:But.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Demand? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:It isn't just games (Score:5, Informative)
Re:linux games (Score:3, Informative)
Do you write to the game developers and let them know that you need support for Linux? Here are a few addresses to get you started:
ArenaNet: http://www.arena.net/contact.php [arena.net]
Ironclad Games: http://www.ironcladgames.com/contact.html [ironcladgames.com]
Blizzard Entertainment: http://us.blizzard.com/support/webform-us.xml?gameId=0 [blizzard.com]
Firzxis: http://www.firaxis.com/support/ [firaxis.com]
Electronic Arts: http://www.info.ea.com/company/company_prlist.php [ea.com]
Re:It might help their Windows drivers (Score:3, Informative)
It's not a secret at all. The problem is this. [mpegla.com] Distributing a software or hardware implementation requires paying a royalty for using the patents. It's (part of) the reason for off-shore sites like Debian-multimedia. [debian-multimedia.org]
What I don't know is why the patents would prevent them from releasing their driver code. If the decoder is implemented in hardware there shouldn't be much code for it in the driver. Honestly, I would expect most of the licensed IP would be on the hardware side of things. But then again I don't make graphics cards, so I really don't know.
Re:linux games (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I think they're jumping the gun. (Score:3, Informative)
It is not too soon. I'm guessing you haven't tried the Nvidia driver on linux, because compared to what I have experienced, the ATI bugs you listed don't sound very bad. I had to turn off all the features and I am afraid to try anything which may be out of the ordinary on my Nvidia machine because it risks constant crashes. My machine with intel graphics may not allow mplayer to play in the root window, but at least it doesn't completely crash the system hard.
Running a linux system with the proprietary Nvidia drivers reminds me of my days "having fun" with Win98. Right now, I am migrating from that Nvidia system to one with an i810 chipset, partly because the driver issues really piss me off. If ATI cards start coming with open source drivers which support 2d/video and 3d well enough, I will probably buy one even if I am on a tight budget at the time.
Re:If you really care about open source (Score:5, Informative)
Re:JUST OPEN THE WHOLE THING ! (Score:3, Informative)
Ummm... they did open it all up. These chips are incredibly complex and it will take more than a year for the open source folks to write complete drivers utilizing all of the features the chips offer.