Hi people

I'm looking at building a new budget AMD based system.
I can choose between AMD and nVidia chipsets.
They both have integrated video, about on par with each other
- AMD 780G or 760G (Radeon HD 3200/3000)
- nVidia Geforce 8200/8100

I'll probably be running KDE 4, and not many games (these chipsets are no good for modern games).

I'm aware that nVidia has had very good linux support so far. However AMD has opened up details and what-not to the open-source developers.

Which has the better drivers at the moment with regard to KDE 4 performance? Which would probably have the better drivers in 2 years time? What chipset would you invest in?

nVidia, definitely.

I second that.

Yup, nvidia no question.

My new netbook has an ATI video card. The driver for it is legacy, and the installer won't run on Fedora 11. Installing the propriety driver in SuSE 11.1 was a major fail, and I am currently using the radeonhd driver with mixed success (GL problems). I wish it used nvideo video.

ATI? Never again..

ok, so beyong the Nvidea definatly... I would love some specifics because I have just spent weeks of time trying desperatly to get Ubuntu and several other distro's to install on a NVIDIA 122-CK-NF68 with Processor - x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 6 GenuineIntel ~2666 Mhz

I want a mobo and gpu for $ 100 - $ 500 that will be Linux friendly without having to recompile kernels and more.

and I want to call a halt to all the peeps out there who post there computer specs in there sig when that info has zero bearing on the issues being posted about..

Thank you.


From the Evgs Faq's
Question / Issue: Where can I download LINUX drivers?

Answer / Solution: At the moment, EVGA does not fully support Linux-based operating systems, however the latest drivers for your product can be found at Nvidia's website at:

Direct link to this Faq: nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Does Jeremy know you're running the show, now?

Please don't steal threads. When you need help, post a new question in the appropriate forum.

I don't see any reason why Linux won't work with that board. I have a 650i version of the same chipset, but from MSI, and Linux works fine with it.

The drivers you would get from the nvidia website are for Nvidia VIDEO CARDS, not for the motherboard itself.

You need to tell us more about what's going wrong, or what is happening, when you are trying to install Ubuntu or "other distros" -- we need error messages, and stuff like that.

Meanwhile, we'll move your inquiry to its own thread. As mentioned, kindly don't hijack other peoples' threads

Sasha

tricyclethiefnocreat

First, it is bad form to hijack somebody else's thread, especially when it is non related to the OP. Your post should have been in its own thread.

Second, just because people have certain hardware listed in their sig does not mean that they do not have experience on other hardware. Personally I do not list hardware or OS in my sig becuase I use a wide variation of both. So if I were to put any information in my sig it might confuse people when I am asking questions about other hardware/OS.

Third, any time you ask a question you need to tell us the distro, version, and arch, that you are running. Getting a good answer to your issues is highly dependent on knowing this information.

I found an email in AMD, and sent them a stinker about linux support. To my surprise, they passed me to a linux programmer in their outfit who was quick to point out it's actually the amd programmers sending commits to radeon, & radeonhd. We exchanged 3 or 4 mails.

They have a target of 'catching up' by year's end. In fact, they will be getting out drivers for new stuff. With C standards, a common codebase can be used for most of the stuff. Then each group has to work on application layers, but some of the linux graphical base programs are not up to the windows equivalents. Either that or their standard codebase does not suit linux. The stuff like my RS690M is just going to be left there with the OSS drivers as support.

ATI/AMD only seem to say anything on phoronix.com and if they post there, they think they have told the world :-/.

Thing is, should I trust them, or go with nVidia, who already have decent drivers?
Also do the latest nvidia drivers play well with the latest KDE4 (4.3) yet??? Are radeons still better here?

Thanks guys

You know what they say: "Don't count your chickens...." and to me, that means, "Don't trust them until it's happened."

My vote goes for nVidia, which has up-to-the-week updates of their binary driver release, support for cards going WAAAY back, and fwiw still plays nice with KDE 4.2.x if that means anything to you (I haven't experienced KDE4.3.x yet).

ATI claims very good intentions, I can't fault them there. But when it comes down to the best active working support for the most hardware, they simply don't cut it; and the life-cycle of well-functioning range of products is really short, relatively speaking.


Sasha

In one computer I have 6600gt and it always worked well with linux. I though nvidia had good support.

About a year ago I wanted to try home video system and it looked like the hd3200 (780g) integrated would be pretty good. It had pretty good support with the proprietary catalyst drivers at the time. It took me a while getting audio over hdmi but that works now. AMD also has been supporting the open source drivers and 2D for my card works well and recently some 3D including for openarena works well. With catalyst (fglrx) I've gotten doom3 to work on low settings.

So if you have the 780g I think it can work OK and I think it does work OK with their proprietary driver (catalyst - fglrx).

I was also always happy with nvidia.

If I was getting a new card now and comparing prices I'm not sure what I would do. 4850/4770 and 9800gt. All very reasonably priced. What the heck. Get them both

Were I buying today, I'd go with nvidia. Just look down your replies. ATI are also taking shortcuts in that they implement _one_ way of doing things fully. I used get regular aiglx errors until I added the Option "AIGLX" "Off" line in xorg.conf. My 10 year old nv mx-440 runs better than my new RS690M. Sad, but true.

Who knows about 2010? It's a much different question then.