Re: [gentoo-user] ATI and Linux

[fire-eyes]

On Sunday 07 May 2006 18:54, JimD wrote:

> I am looking to get a new video card.  I have used an NVidia with Linux
> for a *long* time now.  I can't recall when I last bought an ATI card,
> at least 6 years or more.

Summary: ATI does make good hardware. However, good hardware paired with poor 
drivers and very poor linux support results in an end result of: poor. Even 
if you have to spend a little more cash, go with Nvidia. You will know where 
the extra cash went.

Details:

I strongly suggest avoiding ATI on Linux. My first card was a Radeon 9000. 
With ati's drivers, the following things were a daily occurance: Complete 
system hangs (even sysreq didn't matter at this point), games showing severe 
tearing artifacts, random X deaths, etc.

I got an Nvidia after that to replace it, and I never once had issues like 
that.

Forward to today. I got a new IBM Thinkpad T43. A FANTASTIC laptop, I 
absolutly LOVE it. It's the best computing purchase I have ever made, hands 
down.

... And it would be 100% perfect, if not for... you see it coming... They put 
an ATI X300 in it :(

I figured it had been a few years, surely ATI had their junk together. Boy do 
I regret putting any faith in them.

The severe problems I faced, using latest stable kernels, latest xorg 7: 1) 
Total system hang at EVERY X logout... Not most, but EVERY. We're talking 
hangs so bad, even sysreq didn't do anything. Now THAT's a hard hang. 2) 
Total system hang at EVERY resume from suspend to ram. The rest of the system 
was fine, but the display never comes back up. Without a quick call to sysreq 
to sync and umount, the system will be completely hung within seconds.

I wish I could rip the ATI card out of this otherwise FANTASTIC laptop, and 
throw in an nvidia... but that can't happen.

In closing, ATI's attitude towards supporting linux users is not only poor, 
but at times outright horrible. Case in point is the fact that within the 
past few years, in response to various linux users posting their problem son 
thier forums, ATI said something to the likes of: Supporting the linux 
operating system is not a priority of ATI, and likely will not be for some 
years to come.

Not an exact quote and I forget where it's at, but it was defiantely official 
word from ATI.

You don't have to be a zealot to come realize that giving a company who 
clearly does not care about a slice of their customers, blatantly so, is a 
lost cause.

Go Nvidia. You may spend a little more, but that will go into real support, 
real drivers, and a development team over there that DOES solve problems, and 
they solve them pretty fast.

Thus ends the rant. If you made it this far, welcome to my opinion.
-- 
"When you walk across the fields with your mind pure and holy, then from
all the stones, and all growing things, and all animals, the sparks of
their soul come out and cling to you. And then they are purified, and
become a holy fire in you." -- Ancient Hasidic Saying

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