ATI Driver

[stubbe]

Okay here's the story. I'm planning to buy a Dell inspiron 9100 notebook. My friend has bought one (the same type with ATI mobile) and it looks nice. Everything runs very fine and smooth on windows, but unless it's running Linux flawlessly, I won't take it.

So I test my friend's laptop, using slackware 10.2 and ATI driver version 8.26.18. The installation running fine, and I've run aticonfig -initial. Running glxgears give me couple of FPS boost (before about 600+ and after about 2700+) than before installing the driver.

Testing on Blender, I only got 160 + something on its benchmarking. I also tested Cube which super sluggish, unplayable less than 1 frame per 4 seconds. Before installing ATI driver I get about 2 frame per second.

Any idea? Any step that I miss? Or anyone has the same notebook and having success playing 3D games and 3D softwares on it?

thanks in advance.

[antidrugue]

I'm planning to buy a Dell inspiron 9100 notebook.

A used one?

The inspiron 9100 is nowhere to be found on Dell's site.

Regarding ATI, I can say that I'm glad I don't have an ATI card anymore on my main box.

About ATI and their drivers, you can look at this thread that is been going on for some time now :
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/per...drivers-5.html

[stubbe]

woops sorry, dell inspiron 6400

I have another crush tho, asus something but it cost $250 more expensive than the dell also 64 bit processor (which I won't need it anyway).

so the final word on using linux is : ATI is no to go?

[antidrugue]

dell inspiron 6400

You can get it with Intel Integrated Graphics too. Overall it looks like a nice machine. The standard battery looks a little weak though.

I have another crush tho, asus something but it cost $250 more expensive than the dell also 64 bit processor (which I won't need it anyway).

Wow, I love my Asus Z63A (built-on version of the Asus W3A). You get to decide which CPU, which hard drive, which wireless card, which DVD drive... everything except the motherboard and the frame. Plus, it comes with no OS.

But there are many other good machines out there (some Dell, some Toshiba, etc.), even a MacBook would be nice I guess. You can post the model when you have finally decided if you want to make sure.

so the final word on using linux is : ATI is no to go?

Generally I didn't have problems getting the 3D to work with ATI drivers. But it is a fact (in my experience) that NVIDIA drivers are generally simpler to install and more reliable.

[stubbe]

You can get it with Intel Integrated Graphics too. Overall it looks like a nice machine. The standard battery looks a little weak though.

I'm going to use the laptop for heavy duty graphic works, 3D animation and games. As long as it can run morrowind, Doom 3, Blender and/or 3DSmax flawlessly with nice graphic setting I won't ask for more. Is intel performance up to those softwares?

Wow, I love my Asus Z63A (built-on version of the Asus W3A). You get to decide which CPU, which hard drive, which wireless card, which DVD drive... everything except the motherboard and the frame. Plus, it comes with no OS.

dang! custom made notebook! Thanks for the info! I'll look into it right away.

But there are many other good machines out there (some Dell, some Toshiba, etc.), even a MacBook would be nice I guess. You can post the model when you have finally decided if you want to make sure.

mac is too expensive. And yet the powerpc processor?... i dunno. I'll prolly run into some problem similar to this ati issues.

Generally I didn't have problems getting the 3D to work with ATI drivers. But it is a fact (in my experience) that NVIDIA drivers are generally simpler to install and more reliable.

yeah that's the problem. Nvidia notebooks usually more pricier than the ati ones.

[antidrugue]

dang! custom made notebook! Thanks for the info! I'll look into it right away.

Yup, Asus built-on :
http://usa.asus.com/products1.aspx?l1=5&share=icon/2

The Z71V comes with an NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600 card :
http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?m...1=5&l2=70&l3=0

It says Windows XP in the specifications, but I guess they mean Windows compatible, at least mine didn't came with an OS.

But I guess many other laptop models/brand are attractive too, some are more powerful too, look around...

[stubbe]

Okay thanks antidrugue.

one more thing, may I ask what distro you use and how do you make it work (the critical points that need some changes)? Any kernel compiling work needed?

[benjamin20]

if you are planning on using linux on a notebook, you always have to be carefull of what kind of gpu they put in there. ati has serious problems with there driver support. some cars work ok, some dont work at all. also dells often use strange hardware that makes it a little more difficult to setup a fully working linux environment.

64bit does help in speeding up heavy graphic loads. so you may want to get the 64bit computer.

its hard to find laptops with all the features and parts you want. most laptops have ati or intel extream gpus. intel extreams are ok, but not sutible for heavy 3d graphics. ati has to many problems with drivers. realy you are going to want an nVidia chip. they have great driver support.