On Mon, 2009-06-15 at 23:21 -0500, David C. Rankin wrote: > Baho Utot wrote: > > I am gathering info on this new system > > > > I just bought a new computer ($550USD complete) as I wanted to go 64 bit > > > > Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P motherboard > > AMD Phenom II X4 810 AM3 socket 2.6G > > 8GB High performance DDR3 ram > > Radeon HD 4670 > > > > Will arch 64 install and run on this? > > With little trouble? :) > > > > I am concerned with the ATI video card, > > Any problems with this card? > > > > What can I expect running Arch 64 on the system? > > > > Now I can make many more errors only twice as fast :) > > > > > > Baho, > > Arch will run quite nicely with the box (very quickly I might add). Your > problem, as you have already identified, may be the ATI card. To get optimal > performance out of your graphics subsystem, you will need to run ATI's > proprietary fglrx driver. The proprietary driver is not only better from a > performance standpoint, but also has cooling advantages as well. (selective > powerdown of unused portions of the graphics chipset) On a desktop, the cooling > issues are not as acute as with a laptop, but it is still something to consider. > > Here is the rub. Currently while your new graphics card is a card supported by > the ATI Linux driver -- Arch isn't. (ATI should support Arch -- but nobody has > kissed ATI in the right place yet) The ATI Linux driver supports the following > distros: > > Debian > Fedora > Mandriva > RedFlag (where the heck did this come from??) > RedHat > Slackware > SuSE > Ubuntu > > Unless you run one of the above, the chances are very slim that you can make > use of the ATI driver :-( > > ** However, from your posts, you do seem quite gifted working with packages, > you just might want to download the ATI Linux driver (released today): > > https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-9-6-x86.x86_64.run > > You can extract the contents of the package with: > > sh ati-driver-installer-9-6-x86.x86_64.run --extract > > and then take a look to see what changes would be required to make it work with > Arch. (That's just a bit beyond my cup of tea). > > Your alternative is to use the radeonhd driver. I'm not 100% sure, but I > believe your card is supported. The radeonhd driver is really making progress > and is a very good open-Source driver. I use it with laptop running Arch. Heat > is a bit of a problem on my laptop, but for a desktop you won't notice any > difference aside from a degree or two on case temperature rise. In the tiny > space inside a laptop -- the difference is about 20 degrees F. > > With the horsepower your new box has, your performance will be fine. Just make > sure if you use the radeonhd driver, you read up on using EXA acceleration > instead of XAA acceleration. For my laptop, it really helped. > > I have a standard solution I now employ with all ATI desktop graphics cards > that really works well. Open the case, remove the retaining screw for the card, > remove the card, and then put an NVidia card in its place just a fast as you > can. You can use the ATI card for target practice or a paper weight thereafter. > With that done, you no longer run the risk of getting screwed over by ATI > dropping Linux support for your card just like the millions of other ATI users > that just got screwed in March ;-) No thanks on the nvidia... I like AMD and ATI. I'll see what I can do to make it work Thanks for the info
