ATI vs Nvidia: Linux drivers?

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Drudenhaus

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While I have plenty of Linux experience, I've never actually used a system that had anything other than integrated graphics (I leave gaming to Windows) for Linux. So I was wondering...which has better driver support?
 
Alowishus said:
This person speaks the truth, ATI is sorely lacking in the linux support department.
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I concur. Linux is pretty much nVidia-only territory. And it's one area which ATI desperately needs to improve. I spoke to an ATI engineer once about this very issue, and he told me that their Linux driver team is incredibly small (too small in fact) to handle the whole development process. Poor bastards. :( To make matters worse, it seems Upper Management (or at least some of 'em) don't want to hire more programmers/testers, either because of a lack of money (which I doubt, but anyway), ignorance (there's plenty of that in every corporation) or something else entirely. Either way, things aren't looking good for ATI in the short to medium term on this particular area... :eek:
 
Ya...probably because the Linux user market % is probably under 5%. I'll definitely be going nVidia for my dualie system then.
 
Nvidia Drivers, sure Linux lacks a major market but it doesnt mean ATi should just slack off in that deptartment.
 
The ATI drivers work great. For a time I was using a 9800pro on my Debian box back in the spring. Now I've got my old 8500 in there. The install is awesome since it can customize it for your distro, and its click-through just like on windows.

Nvidia's drivers and Debian arent as friendly.
 
thuper said:
The ATI drivers work great. For a time I was using a 9800pro on my Debian box back in the spring. Now I've got my old 8500 in there. The install is awesome since it can customize it for your distro, and its click-through just like on windows.

Nvidia's drivers and Debian arent as friendly.
Click to expand...

Well that's the first, and only, time I've heard that. I've used both types of video cards in many distros over the past years, and nVidia has ALWAYS been flawless. nVidia drivers are one of the easiest things to install on Linux. :p

This isn't even up for discussion, imo, nVidia's multi-platform driver support (including linux) is leaps and bounds above ATi's.
 
thuper said:
The ATI drivers work great. For a time I was using a 9800pro on my Debian box back in the spring. Now I've got my old 8500 in there. The install is awesome since it can customize it for your distro, and its click-through just like on windows.

Nvidia's drivers and Debian arent as friendly.
Click to expand...

Have you ever seen a 5700 beat a 9800pro?
Try comparing those 2 cards under Linux, and you will se why NVIDIA has the upper hand in Linux...
And you will see a 5700 beat a 9800pro... :eek:

Terra - Their(NVIDIA) Linux-drivers are lightyears ahead...
 
yep, I tried hard to get my 9600 pro working with 3d acceleration in my linux box with no luck. put my 5700 in and had no troubles running wow or everquest with very good frame rates.
definetly nvidia for linux.
 
One reason why I didn't wait for the next-gen ATI cards.. My friend tried the linux drivers with his ATI card and it ran slow as hell..
 
Some professional reviews and benchies would be cool. :)
 
Terra said:
Have you ever seen a 5700 beat a 9800pro?
Try comparing those 2 cards under Linux, and you will se why NVIDIA has the upper hand in Linux...
And you will see a 5700 beat a 9800pro... :eek:

Terra - Their(NVIDIA) Linux-drivers are lightyears ahead...
Click to expand...
That is 100% correct...confirmed here (allow me to link to AnandTech this time - it's for a good cause). ;) This was one of the primary reasons why I had to ditch my high-end (at the time) ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and switch to an nVidia graphics card. People in Linux forums will tell you that if you own an ATI graphics card, you're fucked. Those are not my words, but words from many experienced Linux users. :)
 
It really sucks how so many hardware manufacturers either refuse to put out linux drivers or completely half-ass them. The linux community may make up a small percentage of pc users, but how hard could it possibly be to release at least a decent set of drivers? At least graphics card companies like ATI have the excuse that graphics card drivers can be more difficult to write because of so many variations from game to game. IMO things like wireless adapters should have linux drivers readily available PERIOD. It is definately not as difficult to program wireless drivers as it is to program graphics card drivers.
 
Alowishus said:
This person speaks the truth, ATI is sorely lacking in the linux support department.
Click to expand...
Not to mention that ATI doesn't have TV out working in their Linux drivers. :rolleyes:
 
Nvidia's linux drivers run circles around ati's. I have never had a single issue with nvidia's drivers (I've used them on a GF2 mx, 5900XT, 5950U, 6800GT, and 6800 Ultra). The only ati card I've ever gotten them to work on is a mobility x300. Plus, even with both drivers working the nvida ones perform MUCH higher than the ati ones for a given card. As stated above, ati's high end cards will be beaten by nvidia's mid to low range cards, just because of the driver differences.
 
Eva_Unit_0 said:
Nvidia's linux drivers run circles around ati's. I have never had a single issue with nvidia's drivers (I've used them on a GF2 mx, 5900XT, 5950U, 6800GT, and 6800 Ultra). The only ati card I've ever gotten them to work on is a mobility x300. Plus, even with both drivers working the nvida ones perform MUCH higher than the ati ones for a given card. As stated above, ati's high end cards will be beaten by nvidia's mid to low range cards, just because of the driver differences.
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Yeah, the driver support is embarassing in linux but ATI seems to be a company that has never taken Linux seriously and given Linux's market penetration in terms of gaming rigs I can see that trend continuing and not hurting ATI's sales numbers in any significant way (which is all any company cares about, be it ATI, nvidia, Intel, AMD, etc.)
 
Their Linux drivers do indeed suck, but that doesn't bother me because I rarely play any games that I could also play under Linux.
 
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