ATI Graphics card HD3650 now seems to be Blacklisted

[PhilT]

In my box the original graphics card was the above unit. I upgraded to an Nvidia card, but a few months ago it over-heated and died a horrible death. :'(

So, I went back to the ATI card which seemed to work OK (not great if you needed 3D fglrx, but OK for the basic 2D Radeon driver). I also read about the fact that ATI were supposed to be more "friendly" to the open source community than Nvidia with their drivers being increasingly released to the community, so in a way I was gratified.

But just recently (as others on this forum have noticed) there has been a bit of a hiatus with the Kubuntu devs having problems with various cards because manufacturers' extensions specifications were being a bit optimistic, with the result that they caused crashes. So some cards are now being Blacklisted in the ~.kde/share/config/kwinrc file. Unfortunately the ATI HD 3650 is one of them. This means most Desktop Effects will not work, although partial working can be achieved by using XRender.

The question is: does anyone know if any newer "fixes" are likely in the near future for these cards? Or, do I need to bite the bullet and fork out for another graphics card? If so - Nvidia or ATI? ???

And can someone recommend (from personal experience) a tried and tested (on Lucid and Maverick) reasonably priced card? There's a million cards out there! So a recommendation would be good. Thanks. :o

[claydoh]

Unless you want to jump into KDE 4.5.x right away, you should be fine. It is the kwin stuff there that is trying to use those extensons, and for the moment some cards have been blacklisted. but some of the blacklisting iirc is in certain effects, like Blur. My onboard HD3200 works pretty well with the open ati drivers, but my old laptop w/old ati does not have desktop effects at the moment.

You might just want to wait, but right now Nvidia seem to have the least problems with KDE atm, but I couldn't tell you which card is well supported

[PhilT]

Thanks Claydoh. It was since upgrading to KDE 4.5.1 that the problems began! It's the same in Lucid and Maverick as far as I can see. I'll hang on and see "what turns up!" unless I get some good card recommendations. I guess "progress" sometimes results in temporary regression? ???

[leadwt]

Thanks for bringing this up - I'm finding little in the way of up-to-date info. on the best supported video cards for Linux (read Kubuntu).

Any more offers on this as I am looking to upgrade my video card . . . ?

Share (agony aunt style) your experiences.

;D

[ardvark71]

Hi....

To be able to fine tune some recommendations for you, I would need to know your system specs or the "make and model." As a rule of thumb, Nvidia is usually always the best way to go, as you already know. 10.04 works great with the proprietary drivers on my HP dv9830us (GeForce 8600M GS.)

You might have already been to this site, but here (http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/showcat.php/cat/190) are some reviews for quite a few cards. :)

Regards...

[leadwt]

Hello ardvark71,

I had come across these pages but they are quite old however Nvidia does seem to get consistently good reviews. You can see my 'spec' from the signature if you have any advice - which would be appreciated as is your post.

Regards

:)

[ardvark71]

You can see my 'spec' from the signature if you have any advice - which would be appreciated as is your post.

Hi...

I need a bit more information, either a motherboard or computer (like Dell, HP, Asus, etc.,) brand and model number. :)

Regards...

[leadwt]

Hi,

My motherboard is an RS482-M (Elitegroup). Amazingly I still have the 'user's guide'!

Thanks

[ardvark71]

My motherboard is an RS482-M (Elitegroup). Amazingly I still have the 'user's guide'!


Hi...

I was able find this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814139031) card on Newegg that I hope will work well for you. It doesn't appear to be as good as the 8500/8600 series (and above) since it doesn't include the 2nd generation PureVideo technology but it's one of the best I could find on Newegg for the PCI-E x16 port. If you try to run a 2.0 or 2.1 x16 card on your motherboard, you run the risk of bottlenecking. Jaton was mentioned on Nvidia's site so I'm guessing they're a "trusted manufacturer" as far as they're concerned. However, if you want to go a bit cheaper, there are different brands with the same chipset over at TigerDirect. (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/guidedSearch.asp?CatId=28&sel=Detail;55_158_13067_13067) :)

The 8400 GS seems to be Linux friendly, here is a thread (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=719820) at Ubuntu's forum where someone has asked about XFX's (another manufacturer) card.

However, be sure that whoever you buy it from will take it back it in case it doesn't work for whatever reason. ;)

I also found the spec sheet for your motherboard here. (http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Product/Product_Detail.aspx?CategoryID=1&DetailID=536&DetailName=Feature&MenuID=24&LanID=0)

Hope this helps. :)

Regards...

[leadwt]

Hi ardvark71,

Thanks for your post - really helpful for a non-techie like me.

I'm in UK so I am looking at equivalent cards available here. Seems to be quite a range based on the 8400 and not expensive. If (IF) I take the plunge I'll post the result/s in due course.

Many thanks for your input.

Regards.

[ardvark71]

Hi ardvark71,

Thanks for your post - really helpful for a non-techie like me.

I'm in UK so I am looking at equivalent cards available here. Seems to be quite a range based on the 8400 and not expensive. If (IF) I take the plunge I'll post the result/s in due course.

Many thanks for your input.


Hi...

You're most welcome, I'm glad I could be of assistance. :)

I don't know why I assumed you live in the U.S., my apologies for that! ;D

Regards...

[PhilT]

Thanks to all for their comments.

I waited a bit, looked at various sites, read some "best buy" blogs and eventually decided to buy a new Nvidia card, basically because my motherboard (ASUS® P5N73-AM: DDR2, S-ATA II, 1 x PCI-E x16, 2 PCI) has some on-board Nvidia components.

I eventually plunged in and purchased a GeForce GTS250 1Gb card (not really cheap - but middle of the road; it boasts 1024MB, 256bit, GDDR3, Dual-link DVI/VGA/HDMI). I had a bit of difficulty purging the old fglrx/radeon files and cleaning up the .kde/share/config/kwinrc file to get Compositing to work on my stalled Lucid system.

I did a fresh install of my test Maverick system, and had a minor problem installing the drivers (Jockey-KDE) which needed a bit of patience. But the result is worth the effort.

Both systems are now flying with all the effects you could want! Both show ~25,000 frames in the glxgears test, which translates to about 30fps in Stellarium.

So now I'm quite happy :o I just hope this Nvidia card does not blow up like the last one did; it's got a big fan but runs without a sound.

[ardvark71]

Nevermind, this post can be deleted. :)

[leadwt]

I've got myself an ASUS EN8400GS based upon info above and it took a minute to plug and 30 to sort out drivers etc. Not really sure what Nvidia packages were required but selected a few that seemed necessary and everything is cracking along fine. A marked improvement on the ATI Radeon X1300 which has been replaced. (Would anyone like it? ;) )

Next stage is to make sure ati files are all gone (any suggestions here apart from removing the packages?) and I shall investigate some of these tests that can be run.

Thanks for the guidance 'ardvark71' (Are you really that old?? ;D )

BFN

[ardvark71]

I've got myself an ASUS EN8400GS based upon info above and it took a minute to plug and 30 to sort out drivers etc. Not really sure what Nvidia packages were required but selected a few that seemed necessary and everything is cracking along fine. A marked improvement on the ATI Radeon X1300 which has been replaced. (Would anyone like it? ;) )

Thanks for the guidance 'ardvark71' (Are you really that old?? ;D )


Hi...

You're welcome, I'm glad I could and I would be happy to accept your Radeon X1300 if the price is right, which would be "free." :) ;D

Do you have direct rendering with the drivers you installed?

"71" refers to the year I was born, 1971. :)

Regards...

[leadwt]

Hi,

As you are in 'Yankee Land' I'll keep the card as postage may be detrimental to my well-being! ;D

Yup 'Direct rendering' is enabled but I've no idea what it does so I'll pop along to google and 'ave a look.

Pity 71 you missed the 60's!! :P

Regards . . .

[ardvark71]

As you are in 'Yankee Land' I'll keep the card as postage may be detrimental to my well-being! ;D


Hi...

I understand, not a problem. I would happily send you the postage, except converting the money to British pounds would probably be equally detrimental. ;)

Regards...