ATI graphics in F7

[Dave Stevens]

On Sunday 23 December 2007 07:11:01 pm Konstantin Svist wrote:
> Dave Stevens wrote:
> > 1 a good simple test of graphics capabilities for a Fedora install?
>
> glxgears is not a benchmark, but it will give you the general feel. You
> should also check what your CPU usage is, while glxgears is running (if
> doing rendering in software, you'll see 100% cpu usage - otherwise,
> either no spike or the framerate will be very high, like you saw with
> fglrx)
>
> > 2 the likelihood that Fedora will have comparable performance to Mandriva
> > (or any other similar distribution) any time soon?
>
> Performance doesn't depend on the linux distro. You should get about the
> same performance with any of them.
> If you meant "when will `enable desktop effects` work?" then the answer
> is that it works right now, with latest fglrx and manually-installed
> compiz/etc. I don't remember the magic combination, but I got it running
> once (though I haven't used it since).
>
> > 3 Is the ATI disclosure of their software internals going to result in
> > the RadeonHD driver getting better? or when?
>
> ATI is not planning to disclose its software internals. What they're
> disclosing is the hardware specifications, so that software can be
> written for it. Problems are:
> * they're only releasing the recent hardware specs. If your chipset is
> pretty old, don't expect radeonhd to be a silver bullet.
> * so far, they have only released enough specs to perform
> mode/resolution changes. 2D and 3D acceleration are both on hold until
> more information is released. Worse, they have so far only promised to
> release those some time in 2008. Nobody knows how soon that will happen,
> and some believe it might never happen.
>
>
> see http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7021 for a good
> account of current state of affairs.
>
>
> HTH

yes, all replies helped. This morning (west coast NA) I ran yum update and got 
a new ATI driver - 8.43.3 that bumped up the frame rate a percent or so and 
also partly enabled desktop effects - now my windows wobble although I don't 
have cubed workspaces. Still, not too shabby. I guess I will just wait for F9 
and see what develops there. Thanks for the link to the Phoronix thread, very 
informative.

Dave



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