# PCI Radeon 9000 - what drivers for Xfree (dri, ati?)

## docman

Hi All,

I used to sit in #gentoo and be thankful I didn't have to mess around with any of the strange and wild video card driver packages for Linux. But now, I am one of those people!

My situation is this: I have just purchased a PowerColor "Evil Commando" Radeon 9000 card for my AGP-less p3 box. It looks like a nice card: it's got VGA, DVI-out, and TV-out -- three things that are hard to find together in a PCI graphics card. Also has 64MB DDR.

So anyway, I've got the thing installed, and with my xfree config using the generic "ati" driver, things work fine and crisp. However, I'd like to do 3d stuff with this card (okay, play Quake3), and I've been reading a lot and can't figure out my best bet.

I tried installing the latest ati-drivers, but it _appears_ that these are for AGP cards only. At least, when I had my XFree properly configured to use them, I would still get "can't init agp" errors... (and with agpgart available... "no agp device" or something to that effect -- expected, since,a gain, I've got no AGP!).

Is the alternative, then, to use the DRI drivers? I've seen a few posts with this working on a Radeon 7000... Would anyone mind posting a few tips if you're using a PCI Radeon, maybe? All tips appreciated... I'm new to this graphics card business...

Thanks!

docman

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## snkmoorthy

shouldn't you be using "radeon" driver for this card?

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## docman

 *snkmoorthy wrote:*   

> shouldn't you be using "radeon" driver for this card?

 

yep!

actually, i am using the xfree-drm radeon driver now. it works pretty well: i've gotten so far as to getting direct rendering working. however, glxgears only gives about 470fps (~170 fps without dri).

this is a bit puzzling. dri works, but not very well. any further clues? this is using the radeon driver, ram size specified to 64MB, forcedPCIMode... trying the latest dri trunk caused more problems still (xfree wouldn't even load).

will post my xf86 config if it helps! (especially curious if there are any other radeon [9000] pci users...)

cheers...

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## Maheriano

I've got a Powercolor Radeon 9250 but I can't even get it working at all. I got the same problem as you, all the ATI drivers I'm trying to use are for AGP and I can't find any support anywhere for PCI, I have no idea where to even start. I'm posting here so I can bring it up quickly in the future and check to see if anyone has posted anything I might be able to use, I'm going to take a look into this xfree you're talking to about to see if I can figure out how it works.

Unless you want to walk me through it......  :Laughing: 

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