# Will ATI ever write Xorg drivers????

## XST1

I have a Radeon 9800 Pro and im running gentoo of course with 2.6.9-r12 kernel. I'd really like to get some hardware acclerated support going here. Are there 3rd party drivers available? Am I stuck with setting up two partitions (One windows one linux) to play games here? Is there any hope at all?

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## Darkael

Hi, if you want ati drivers for your 9800 pro, use the fglrx drivers (emerge ati-drivers). But they work only with Xorg 6.7.x.

The new drivers (compatible with Xorg 6. :Cool:  will be released in january (it's discussed somewhere in another thread)

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## Deranger

Is there any hope? Well, probably not  :Cool: 

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## Darkael

 *Oktane wrote:*   

> Is there any hope? Well, probably not 

 

Yes there is.

Here is the thread I was talking about:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=270566

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## Pink

 *Oktane wrote:*   

> Is there any hope? Well, probably not 

 

Couldn't agree more. I have always defended ATI as they usually did produce the goods, even if it was eventually. The chances of a driver actually turning up in Jan are very slim. Even if they do, or rather when they eventually do, they will still be less than they should be.

It is over the past 3 or 4 weeks that I have (at last some may say) lost faith in ATI. I will never (I mean NEVER) buy ATI graphics cards again. Will they care? Probably not but I usually spend around £600 ($1000+) a year on graphics cards. What ATI claim is that Linux users account for 3 - 4% of their user base so they get 3 - 4% of the driver resources and time. 

Big marketing mistake there as far more people are trying linux and will choose Nvidia over ATI now. I am probably classed as a 'windows' ATI user in their databse of users. Wrong! I am a linux user who now uses Nvidia (or will do as soon as I get a new card).

Nvidia, here I come.

P.S. Sorry about the minor rant, and I do know it is not really much to do with the post. I have just finally lost faith in them. They have lost a customer and everyone in my family (some 10+ computers will now only buy Nvidia as I always advise on what to get and install, etc).

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## tekn0mage

Don't feel bad for skipping out to Nvidia. Their OpenGL support is top-notch compared to ATI.

glxgears is hardly a benchmark, but my buddy's 64mb nvidia go5200 spanked my ati mobility 128 mb radeon pro 9600 pretty badly.

my fps was about 1100, his was about 3300. Could have been other factors there, but Nvidia sure does feel a lot cleaner in the X environment.

you're not missing anything by shifting to Nvidia, sure wish I did.

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## CompNerd

One thing that ATI did not take into account is the fact that most linux users share their experiences with others.  As a result, even if the linux community accounts for <=4% of their market share, they would have a greater effect on their sales.  Most linux users know windows users and would probably recommend nVidia regardless of OS if they (ATI) dont provide adequate drivers (I know that I have been recommending nVidia over ATI since the release of Xorg 6.8).

CompNerd

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## sn4ip3r

There still is light at the end of the tunnel.

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## Pink

 *sn4ip3r wrote:*   

> There still is light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Yeah, I read that when it was posted above. I was just venting steam and ATI have lost mine, and a lot of other peoples, custom for ever (what happens on the next xorg upgrade or kernel change - another 6 month wait?). 

I'm just not interested in ATI any more. A straight forward U turn in my loyallties. Simple as that.

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## XST1

anyway, getting back on topic, where would I go to find out when ati has released their drivers for x.org? Whats a good site that would post it on their frontpage or something.

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## Wedge_

This might a good place: http://www.rage3d.com. The Linux section of the forums there is also visited fairly often by some of the ATI Linux devs, so it's a good place to keep an eye on. I'm sure that when the drivers are released there will be the usual half dozen threads on the forums here, so there won't be much danger of missing it  :Smile: 

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## XST1

For reference, I found a topic for the ATI drivers:

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33795689

and this was just posted today, hopefully its true:

 *Quote:*   

> Okay.
> 
> So we now have an official release date - it will come out with the posted next monday - the 17th January.
> 
> Once again, the development teams and web teams have procedures that we must go through. This unfortunately creates a delay between completion and posting, Christmas didn't help. Since our projected post date (mid January) ended up being right beside some other ati.com work - the two have been folded intogether.
> ...

 

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## chatsubo42

I'm a NVIDIA convert too...

I used to use ATI. (owned a Rage 128, expert98, 9200, 9600)

And I have gotten RID of all of them... because ATI has such lousy support for Linux.

They have workstation class graphics cards that work on linux (FireGL) but they have such bad support for linux. Sad..

They have great products... but it's a shame..

becuase they lost me as a user too..

NVIDIA is supported for linux and it's my OS of choice.. so I puchase NVIDIA now. Period.

I have spent about $1200 on Video cards over the last few years.. and they have all been NVIDIA. 

I'm puchaseing a new card for a new machine: a 6800 NVidia card... 

ATI has completely lost my $$.  (my laptop has ATI video) But I would be happy to give them a chance again.. but only because I can't change my laptop to NVIDIA video... so I hope they're decent drivers.

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## lotw

 *tekn0mage wrote:*   

> Don't feel bad for skipping out to Nvidia. Their OpenGL support is top-notch compared to ATI.
> 
> glxgears is hardly a benchmark, but my buddy's 64mb nvidia go5200 spanked my ati mobility 128 mb radeon pro 9600 pretty badly.
> 
> my fps was about 1100, his was about 3300. Could have been other factors there, but Nvidia sure does feel a lot cleaner in the X environment.
> ...

 

According to another post that I read, ATI will have new Linux drivers ready on the 17th of this month.

In the meantime your card will work perfectly if you emerge the ati-drivers and stuff.  Then Downgrage Xorg to v6.7, if you do a emerge -uDp world after the ati-drivers is installed it will automatically show that Xorg has to be downgraded.

I get "16115 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3223.000 FPS" in glxgears on my ATI Radeon 9800 Pro.

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## miseiler

Sold my 9800 pro for a GF3 and beer money.

I could not be happier, let me tell ya.

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## Gentii

 *lotw wrote:*   

>  *tekn0mage wrote:*   Don't feel bad for skipping out to Nvidia. Their OpenGL support is top-notch compared to ATI.
> 
> glxgears is hardly a benchmark, but my buddy's 64mb nvidia go5200 spanked my ati mobility 128 mb radeon pro 9600 pretty badly.
> 
> my fps was about 1100, his was about 3300. Could have been other factors there, but Nvidia sure does feel a lot cleaner in the X environment.
> ...

 

STOP POSTING THESE SILLY GLXGEARS SCORE!! It has been told 10000 times that it doesn't mean anything, and it's true. Besides, it's the only thing you can run without problems with the ati drivers, and the score  is slower than with a nvidia card. 

I've a radeon 9700 pro and a gfx 5900xt, I should have the same perf with these cards, but on linux, it isn't even comparable. So you should all support nvidia in the future for their better support, even if their drivers are closed and could be improved (stability, maybe memory lack and others)

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## nevynxxx

 *PickledOnion wrote:*   

> 
> 
> <snip minor rant>
> 
> 

 

Have you forwarded this to ati sales/management email addresses?

Have you whinged at ati at all about getting drivers?

They wont know how many people want linux drivers unless they are told.

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## Pink

 *nevynxxx wrote:*   

>  *PickledOnion wrote:*   
> 
> <snip minor rant>
> 
>  
> ...

 

Certainly have and signed the ati petition.   :Very Happy: 

I do agree that the only way any company, from a computer provider to a restaurant, can change is for feedback. I informed them of my exteme loyalty for many years and what happened to change me (and everyone I can influence).

Naturally, I heard nothing back.

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## luqas

 *PickledOnion wrote:*   

>  *nevynxxx wrote:*    *PickledOnion wrote:*   
> 
> <snip minor rant>
> 
>  
> ...

 

Same here.  I sent emails etc with no response.  They lost my business las t November and I will not turn back unfortunately.

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## Vagabond

I have also had it with ATI, their buggy drivers, their lack of support for new things (64 bit and Xorg), the fact that the opengl subsystem is insanely slow to init on my machine ( a geforce 2mx starts it faster ), the fact that the server side glx is still version 1.2, the fact that the drivers lack several handy extensions which are supported under windows, the fact that they've stated publically that linux isn't a priority, I could probably go on.

Sadly tho I'm stuck with ATI for the forseeable future, but you can be damn sure I have already advised people to steer clear of ATI.

Even if the new drivers do everything they should I still am dubious that they will repair ATI's reputation among linux users, personally I'm extremely annoyed at them.

(BTW is this new release *another* recode? Didn't they have a driver recode last year sometime too? Can't they be like Nvidia and have a hardware abstraction layer or something so they don't have to maintain 2 concurrent drivers? At least I think NV does something like that.)

Vag

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## frenkel

Yes there is hope! Monday is the day!

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showpost.php?p=1333446174&postcount=479

Finally X.org drivers, with 64 bits support and GLSL!!   :Cool: 

Lets hope it's really true!

Frank

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## XST1

 *Frenkel wrote:*   

> Yes there is hope! Monday is the day!
> 
> http://www.rage3d.com/board/showpost.php?p=1333446174&postcount=479
> 
> Finally X.org drivers, with 64 bits support and GLSL!!  
> ...

 

lol i just posted that.... my question is how long until the ebuild afterwords?

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## Wedge_

It never takes very long, and if you're desperate bumping the version of a previous ebuild will often work. I know that the Gentoo devs who maintain the ati-drivers ebuilds are aware of the new release, so I'd expect a new ebuild to hit portage pretty quickly.

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## XST1

Just a reminder, hopefully tonight the new ATI drivers for X.org 6.8.x will be released. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

Edit: Anyone remember the name of that 3d benchmark program with the two gears in linux?

Edit: glxgears for reference

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## Wedge_

You're probably talking about glxgears, but it is not a benchmark. Use a real game if you want to do benchmarks.

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## Beetle B.

Add another one to those who've lost hope with ATI & Linux.

My card is now old: Radeon 8500LE. No official support for it - even in Windows, now.

I waited two years, and got nothing. Don't tell me to have patience.

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## XST1

The new drivers are finally out.... now to wait for an ebuild

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## miseiler

 *XST1 wrote:*   

> The new drivers are finally out.... now to wait for an ebuild

 

There's an ebuild in the ATI-Drivers thread.

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=281042

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