Radeon R6xx/R7xx 3D register reference guide released [LWN.net]

Radeon R6xx/R7xx 3D register reference guide released

Posted Jan 27, 2009 17:26 UTC (Tue) by stumbles (guest, #8796)
In reply to: Radeon R6xx/R7xx 3D register reference guide released by mmcgrath
Parent article: Radeon R6xx/R7xx 3D register reference guide released

Really? I cannot accurately remember the last time I had to conjure some voodoo to get a Nvidia card working. Perhaps it is due to using their latest drivers, the distro I am using. I don't know. I just know Nvidia has always been less painful in many areas to get up and running, and with current version of X it is has been a near brainless activity for me.

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Radeon R6xx/R7xx 3D register reference guide released

Posted Jan 27, 2009 18:02 UTC (Tue) by tajyrink (subscriber, #2750) [Link]

There seem to be a lot of configurations with problems, although the nvidia drivers work great for many, too. As usual, you get to keep all the pieces if something breaks.

Especially support for older cards is fading - there are 4 release series from nvidia for different sets of cards, which already tells the story that they are not able to support everything properly. Of course the older ones of those series seem to have less support when new kernel / X releases are done, it's a bit of a guesswork.

I have access to one machine with Geforce FX 5700 card, and none of the drivers work really properly for basic compiz + games + video stuff. I hope Nouveau [http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/] will save NVIDIA users before the support fades completely away for older cards.

Radeon R6xx/R7xx 3D register reference guide released

Posted Jan 27, 2009 18:07 UTC (Tue) by Quazatron (guest, #4368) [Link]

It's not so much the voodoo I find annoying, it's the instability that binary drivers cause.

Systems where I use binary drivers (nvidia or ati) to be able to play 3D games will crash as much as Windows. The cause is usually some interaction between OpenGL, video overlay and Compiz. I don't even try to do more advanced stuff like multi-head or tv-out.

On the other hand, if I stick to default open-source drivers, thing hardly ever go sour. So I've been avoiding nvidia like the plague, and stayed with Intel for basic desktop with compiz, and Ati for 3D gaming.

This is good news, it means I backed the right horse for once :-)