AMD Taking over ATI Concerns

[smp-freak]

Even though this is some old news, however I was just reminded on my television news station that AMD is taking over ATI to battle against Intel. Now I as a Linux user have a few concerns about that. Please to be tranparent about this I am NOT bashing ATI.

1) What is going to happen with new generation motherboards with ATI Chipsets on the boards?

2) I know I have been failthful with other boards that are not Dual Processor (Like my wifes) who has a AMD with nForce chipsets. Maybe I am not into change in this area.

3) From experience ATI Cards are a Pain to configure in linux at the best of times.
Hopefully the Drivers will get a complete re write so they do work better. Since AMD DOES Support Linux.

4) Crossfire Chipsets??? Will I still be able to build a system with a crossfire with Nvidia cards? has anyone tried?

5) Basically how is this going to work? Will AMD Boards have the Nforce chipsets as well? or are they going to abandon Nvidia and go with thier brand of AMD and ATI based motherboards?

Remember I am not bashing any company. However I would like to hear concerns from the community on this.

Feedback? Comments?

Regards

smp-freak

I know buying a new motherboard now is going to be a challenge. Perhaps upgrade soon before the transition hits.

[stubbe]

just hoping that when AMD do take ATI over, they will develop better driver for ATI graphic cards

[techieMoe]

just hoping that when AMD do take ATI over, they will develop better driver for ATI graphic cards

I'll second that.

[bigtomrodney]

I would imagine they won't be able to lock out nVidia for antitrust reasons. Intel build onboard graphics now and it does not affect your graphics card - albeit a higher league than onboard. I doubt this will mean a complete merger of technologies on the consumer side. It is most likely for in-house chip development.

For those of you with ATI cards, I strongly recommend you take a look at the 8.26.18 driver that has been out the past month or so. I have seen ATI cards running at 10500FPS with this driver.

It certainly is a bit late for ATI but they really are maknig up the shortcomings with this driver.

[d38dm8nw81k1ng]

since when does AMD support linux? they don't need drivers for their processors, since they're intel clones (the 32-bit parts). however, i do hope that AMD do get some good drivers for ATi cards, for my friend's sake (he has a mobility radeon x700)

[a12ctic]

im a regular at a few hardware sites, ill attempt to answer your questions although all this is still sorta up in the air.

First off, the new AMD/ATI motherboards will support both nvidia and amd/ati video cards, they will not support sli, but crossfire which does NOT work with nvidia cards.

AMD agreed to letting nvidia keep offering their nforce boards, and nvidia agreed, so dont worry about that.

ATI drivers have already been dramaticly improved for linux and they are quite impressive in my opinion.

Really the only changes that the consumer will be seeing is amd having their own motherboards/intergrated graphics solutions alowing them to more directly compete with intel.

[smp-freak]

After doing some reading on the subject, and more research. I think things will be ok. I just hope that Nvidia doesn't get the shaft from this.

After reading this article on ATi and Linux http://www.phoronix.com/redblog/

and this one http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...item=501&num=1

and this one http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/07/...nux/index.html


this should be proving out to be an interesting 2007 and beyond

Happy reading everyone.

Now the question. Getting my bonus from work soon. do I upgrade now or wait another 6-8 months. wanna start compiling software for AMD64 arch.

and yes ... still keeping my Dually for 32bit machine for compiling as well. devel aint no slouch

regards smp-freak

[d38dm8nw81k1ng]

i was already aware of most the stuff you said, but at least it'll help people understand some stuff. AMD can't block anyone making compatible motherboards for anti-trust reasons, so that was obvious. i'd say the obvious reason for this is because intel's new chips are superior and AMD need to get into a new market fast for their own survival. it's also possible that ATi, while producing the faster chipsets, are having trouble selling the cards and motherboards so the takeover will allow them to produce better AMD motherboards. some speculation seems to have AMD thinking along the lines of thin clients: selling the processors for servers and selling graphics chips to consumers, which may allow for lower costs. that's just a little speculation so don't quote me on it

[bigtomrodney]

Actually I'm not sure how true that is about compatible boards. Intel just pulled ATIs license to make chipsets for Intel processors.

[kern]

The CEO of Nvidia has already called this a 'gift' and ATI 'giving up' , and NVidia are the only company left who solely make graphics hardware.

add to this the fact that AMD had to get a 2.5$billion loan to even afford ATI, and I'd say Nvidia weren't screwed one bit.