Is anyone using Sabayon with a Radeon X1950 PRO?

[darkscot]

I am considering upgrading my graphics card and the front runners at the moment are the X1950 Pro and the GeForce 7900GS. The Radeon seems to have a better performance but I am assuming the 7900GS will be more 'Linux friendly'?

[jaykar]

Nvidia Drivers are significantly more stable and better featured. For one thing you can run Compiz/Beryl using AIGLX instead of XGL as you have to for ATI cards, so you can run 3D apps over the top of it, which you can't with XGL.

Performance wise, from a gamers point of view the 7900 is preferable anyway it out performs the x1950 by a mile.

[darkscot]

I didn't realise about the AIGLX issue, so that has tipped things back in favour of the 7900GS.

[voxiac]

To say some words in ATI's defence I'd just point out that it promised AIGLX in their 8.42 driver and performance was improved in 8.41... Besides they are working with Novell on completely open-source driver for their newer cards.

[Zard]

My 7900GS is Spectacular with Sabayon.

[snortinNorton]

I have a cluster with CROSSFIRE motherboards with two PCIE slots, and I am wondering if the GEForce cards are relevant?
Seems to me one in general must choose between SLI and CROSSFIRE and it isnt simply a matter of choosing one video card versus another based on performance or drivers. Instead often its a matter of what plugs into the motherboard.
I don't know if the 1950 ATI card is CROSSFIRE compatable, but the ATI X1600 and X1650 are and they are a great price-point.
I'm sure I could buy a pallet of better SLI cards at 2X or 3X the cost, or more, but the cost of the motherboard replacements would be a factor too. So, I'd like to hear answers and data from the ATI user community if at all possible.

A comparison between GEForce and non-GEForce, seems to me, should be based on a table of relevant factors in a complex tradeoff, not just one factor.

My ATI X1600 cards work great on suse 10.2, and I don't look forward to fiddling with sabayon if thats what its going to come to. Is waiting until later (2008?) a better idea?

[snortinNorton]

A follow-up data point.
====================

I used a dual core AMD X64 on a crossfire MB with PCIE and one ATI X1600 card.
I installed 3.4e 64 bit. It insisted my screen was 1900_X_whatever, but the monitor isnt that big and there was a big "out of range" square in the middle and the screen wrapped off the edge. Still, I got the install going OK, logged on as root and adjusted the settings for 1280x1024. Sabayon looks sweet. Very anxious to try Lacie lightscribe utilities.

But it wont save the settings no matter what. I have a WD1600 160GB SATA drive. Suspect a sata driver problem. Also, many utilities simply dont run. They try to start and then quit.
And Sabayon insists it booted from LILO even though it was supposed to be grub. Thats very odd.

None of my configuration changes are saved. This is horrible.
And eventually everything just hung.


Sooooo... next day I downloaded Sabayon 3.4f 32 bit, (NOTE use of 32 bit this time), burned it to dvd, and installed. Now my changes are saved just fine. It may be a keeper!

I am using the KDE 3.7 desktop in non-SUSE mode. I hate the SUSE mode for KDE. Makes the menus unusable (IMHO).

The data point here is the ATI radeon card was detected and configured just fine, and catalyst will come up too.
This of course doesnt answer about the X1950 though.

Future project: Add second crossfire card and a wide monitor.

[Qzma]

Do not listen to people who say things like 7900gs is better than x1950pro :
"...The Radeon X1950 Pro also does very well in Far Cry as it defeated the GeForce 7900GS by 40%..." - techspot.com
but, to be honest, none of the tests will show you the reality....