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14 Posts
0
2696
February 5th, 2004 17:00
Linux ATI Radeon mobile 3D support
Hi everyone,
This is probably going to start a holy war, but here goes.....
I'm thinking about buying an Inspiron 8600, but I'm nervous about spending cash on a laptop with an ATI GPU. I hear lots of conflicting reports about ATI's Linux support and while it does seem to be getting better, I'm still not convinced. Obviously as a Linux user I couldn't care less about DirectX9 support, it's OpenGL that matters. I have read from numerous sources that ATI's OpenGL support isn't good enough to get official certification because it lacks features. I have also heard that OpenGL is even worse on mobility versions. On the other hand NVidia have always had good OpenGL support and they seem more commited to Linux. So do I get a Radeon 9700 mobility now or wait for a FX 5700Go laptop?
Does anyone here run recent 3D linux games like Savage, MOHAA, or even games in winex?
Do ATI mobility (not desktop) owners have problems with OpenGL games and apps?
ATI are king of the heap in Windoze benchmarks, but are they in Linux (OpenGL) too?
Thanks for your help
This is probably going to start a holy war, but here goes.....
I'm thinking about buying an Inspiron 8600, but I'm nervous about spending cash on a laptop with an ATI GPU. I hear lots of conflicting reports about ATI's Linux support and while it does seem to be getting better, I'm still not convinced. Obviously as a Linux user I couldn't care less about DirectX9 support, it's OpenGL that matters. I have read from numerous sources that ATI's OpenGL support isn't good enough to get official certification because it lacks features. I have also heard that OpenGL is even worse on mobility versions. On the other hand NVidia have always had good OpenGL support and they seem more commited to Linux. So do I get a Radeon 9700 mobility now or wait for a FX 5700Go laptop?
Does anyone here run recent 3D linux games like Savage, MOHAA, or even games in winex?
Do ATI mobility (not desktop) owners have problems with OpenGL games and apps?
ATI are king of the heap in Windoze benchmarks, but are they in Linux (OpenGL) too?
Thanks for your help
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GonerNL
9 Posts
0
February 7th, 2004 10:00
i just installed Mandrake 9.2 on a Dell Lattitude C-640 with an ATI Radeon (7500 ?) Mobility and everything looks good.
don't know about the games you mention, but i installed 'Frozen Bubble' to check 3D support and it looks great ;-)
fillide
12 Posts
0
February 8th, 2004 18:00
(The Excellent) Frozen Bubble works with SDL.
If you want to test OpenGL, you can launch in a console "glxinfo" or "glxgears".
Then a test with a OpenGL game like FlightGear, CannonSmash or TuxRacer for example.
Having SDL working does not mean hardware 3D
TuxInvader
14 Posts
0
February 9th, 2004 07:00
There are several groups writing 3D drivers for ATI cards all of which have different pros and cons (eg some cost money, some have dodgy 2D support). So there is some degree of OpenGL support and hardware rendering, but how good is it? ATI's OpenGL support is not complete ( possibly non-existent on mobility cards?? ). Does anyone see games crash or render incorrectly with mobility cards? Is hardware rendering available and being used?
I have read a report which states that ATI's desktop cards support hardware accelerated OpenGL, but the mobility cards do not. The report was based on Windows, but I figure if it's not available in windows it wont be available in Linux either.
Can anyone confirm or deny any of this?
fillide
12 Posts
0
February 9th, 2004 08:00
For replying more precisly to your question :
I have a C610, with Radeon Mobility M6 (LY)
I have use hardware 3D via the OpenSource DRI paquage.
The drivers from ATI works good with classical boards, but M6 seems too old for them.
If I remember well, the mobility M9 is supported by ATI drivers (I've read at least one Mobility card supported in their compatibility list)
So I've already play some games with this laptop, but at these times (quite one year) there was freezes times to times.
As I'm not a gamer, and I don't like freezes, I don't use the HW 3D support for daily use.
I haven't try since then with more recents DRI-XFree paquages.
May be you should check in ATI supported list if the card you want is listed ?
(I just check for you, the M9 is well reported as supported by latest ATI driver 3.7.0, in the list included in the RPM, it's not listed on ATI website.)
Extract :
Name : fglrx-glc22 Relocations: (not relocatable)
Version : 4.3.0 Vendor: (none)
Release : 3.7.0 Build Date: Mon Dec 22 23:36:03 2003
Install Date: (not installed) Build Host: meep
Group : Servers Source RPM: fglrx-glc22-4.3.0-3.7.0.src.rpm
Size : 9046722 License: ATI Technologies
Signature : (none)
Summary : XFree86 display driver for the ATI graphics accelerators
Description :
Display driver files for the ATI Radeon 8500, 9700, Mobility M9 and the
FireGL 8700/8800, E1, Z1/X1 graphics accelerators.
This package provides 2D display drivers, precompiled kernel modules,
kernel module build environment, control panel source coude and hardware
accellerated OpenGL.
Bye,
Fabien
GonerNL
9 Posts
0
February 9th, 2004 09:00
about OpenGL support in Windows ; advanced settings in display properties has an OpenGL tab with anisotropic filtering, anti-aliasing etc. ... don't know if that's 'hardware rendering' ??.
that's for a Mobility Radeon 7500.
i have been playing Unreal Tournament in OpenGL and saw no freezes or hangs ...
fillide
12 Posts
0
February 9th, 2004 09:00
7500 is not listed in the above list, so I guess you should use OpenSource drivers.
A friend of mine have a Rage128 and OpenSource is working well for 3D.
The "radeon" driver from XFree 4.x should do the trick.
mi-k
9 Posts
0
March 23rd, 2004 13:00
To get the 3D working you have to use the official ATI driver (see ati.com). To know more about these drivers and their issues, look at the linux section of the forum at rage3d.com