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Old 04-21-2009, 11:22 PM   #1
amiga32
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Registered: Mar 2009
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Distribution: slackware bro
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ATi Catalyst 9.4 drivers


So are these the worst drivers of the 9.x series or is it just me?

I have tried using the latest cats with .27 and .28 kernel and performs equally bad on both.

Problems I have noticed with latest 9.4 fglrx driver before I went back to 8.12, yet again:

-New GPU scaling option doesn't even work
-Even more problems with WINE than usual. I can't play any opengl games or the two I tried anyways that used to work fine.
-Doom 3 kept crashing.
-Firefox crashes in youtube in fullscreen mode.
-Unigine Tropics opengl demo/benchmark doesn't work properly anymore (windowed or fullscreen).
-DPMS signal to my monitor stopped working.

So far each 9.x fglrx driver seems worse than the last. 8.12 seems to be the only good, stable option so far with Slack 12.2 and .27 kernel. I have a Radeon 4670, so I would think that support from ATi would be only second to the 4800 series but the drivers keep getting worse! I keep telling myself, ok wait til next release, wait til next release, wait til next release.

Any thoughts/comments/rants from other Slack/ATi users welcome.
 
Old 04-22-2009, 01:02 AM   #2
skaldicpoet9
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Yeah the newer ati drivers are pretty bad even on the vista side of things. I use 8.12 on my slack build. They seem to be the best, most stable drivers you can get right now.
 
Old 04-22-2009, 02:01 PM   #3
wadsworth
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Oh ATI, why didn't you drop support for my card six months ago?
Before I got all these gray hairs and gnawed-on fingernails
getting your lousy drivers to "work".
You've forced me to purchase my first Nvidia card, a 9600GT,
and for that I truly wish to thank you.
Goodbye ATI and good riddance.
 
Old 04-22-2009, 07:10 PM   #4
mpyusko
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Registered: Oct 2003
Location: Rochester, NY, USA
Distribution: Salckware ver 10.1 - 14.1, Debian too.
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I just did a clean install of slack 12.2 and I'm not getting any Direct Rendering. With 12.1 after a clean install, all I had to do was use the ati installer with the default "initial" settings and it worked great. Now after I tried installing CCC 9.3, I still get nothing! It always seems to be hit and miss with ATI's drivers. I don't have the best card, but being a Radeon 9600, it's far from the worst (like say a Rage 128).
 
Old 04-23-2009, 04:33 PM   #5
skaldicpoet9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wadsworth View Post
Oh ATI, why didn't you drop support for my card six months ago?
Before I got all these gray hairs and gnawed-on fingernails
getting your lousy drivers to "work".
You've forced me to purchase my first Nvidia card, a 9600GT,
and for that I truly wish to thank you.
Goodbye ATI and good riddance.
Haha, I am about to that point as well.

My advice to the above poster: don't even bother with 9.x drivers right now. Just stick with 8.12.
 
Old 04-23-2009, 04:56 PM   #6
jturning
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Registered: Jul 2006
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In fairness ATI is opening up so we will eventually have free drivers. Can't say that with Nvidia. I just installed the Radeon 4670 with the 8.12 driver, so I guess I'm good for now, .

Bugz
 
Old 04-27-2009, 12:39 PM   #7
DragonWisard
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Registered: Sep 2004
Location: MD, USA (D.C. Suburbs)
Distribution: Slackware
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jturning View Post
In fairness ATI is opening up so we will eventually have free drivers. Can't say that with Nvidia. I just installed the Radeon 4670 with the 8.12 driver, so I guess I'm good for now, .

Bugz
Nvidia talked about opening up before ATI did it, but so far no code has shown up.

I've been having issues with the last 9-2 and 9-3. Switching to nVidia isn't an easy option since I'm using a laptop. I have to wait for the FOSS drivers to catch up.
 
Old 04-28-2009, 01:15 AM   #8
jturning
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Registered: Jul 2006
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DragonWisard View Post
Nvidia talked about opening up before ATI did it, but so far no code has shown up.

I've been having issues with the last 9-2 and 9-3. Switching to nVidia isn't an easy option since I'm using a laptop. I have to wait for the FOSS drivers to catch up.
What card? A guy in another thread said he used the generic Radeon driver and got better frame rates and solved some problems. Of course his was listed in the first range on the following link:

http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/ATIR...egoryHardware)

Bugz
 
Old 04-28-2009, 05:03 AM   #9
DragonWisard
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Location: MD, USA (D.C. Suburbs)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jturning View Post
What card? A guy in another thread said he used the generic Radeon driver and got better frame rates and solved some problems. Of course his was listed in the first range on the following link:

http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/ATIR...egoryHardware)

Bugz
I have a ThinkPad R60 with Radeon Mobility X1400. I guess it's worth giving the free drivers a try since ATI has put my card on life-support anyways.
 
Old 04-28-2009, 08:11 PM   #10
DragonWisard
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So I spent a few hour figuring out how to get 3D accel working, but I'm on 2.6.29 with the Radeon driver now.

I'm not getting seeing a better frame rate. My glxgears has dropped by 50%. But it seems I can still play some games (didn't test it too hard, though).

Hopefully the performance will improve.
 
  


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