Because I always rebuild my systems using AMD CPU’s I seemed to have no choice with the on-board graphics ATI (AMD) Radeon HD7000 in this case.
As soon as I installed the drivers from the ATI site the screen started blinking and the system crashed. And to top it all there are comparability issues with Windows 7 drivers as well.
This is my 3rd ATI card and it is the 3rd time I have had to order a nivida graphics card which I am sure will work out of the box on both mint 13 and win7…
So my advice is whenever possible stay away from ATI (AMD) graphics. >:(
The open source drivers that come with Xorg aren’t terrible, although they don’t fully utilise the hardware as much as Windows.
The open source drivers are just fine and the same goes for the basic vga drivers in windows.
However there seems little point having state of the art equipment and not be able to fully utilise it.
I have to say that in respect to graphics cards I have had many more issues with ATI then with the competition.
Just thought I would confirm what you have said before nivida cards seem to have better support.
Don’t get me wrong - if/when I build a new rig, I’d pick nVidia, as I’ve been screwed over by AMD with their drivers (there are no Catalyst drivers that support my 4850 under any recent Linux release, thanks to an incompatibility with Xorg). But equally, I’m not going to bin my card right now, as the open-source drivers do work, providing fast and clean 3D to games like L4D2. It’s just that I need to turn the settings down to get to the frame rates I want (compared to Windows, where it’s maxed), but I can get the frame rates I want, and the image is clear (no glitching or weird textures/shader effect).
I see what you’re saying, especially with new hardware, but new hardware IS supported better than legacy hardware, so maybe you need better support? AMD should support it, even if you have to run a slightly outdated driver to get it to run (this is true even in Windows - regressions are commonplace with GPU drivers)
Interesting I did not know the Linux basic drivers had 3D capabilities.
That being the case the problems are all Win7 based. The Win drivers that came with the motherboard are not the latest ones and yet the display blinks out every few mins with the AMD (ATI) drivers installed.
With standard VGA drivers no issues but no 3D in Win7 my problem is that I have a graphics program that needs 3D and will not run in Linux.
So have ordered a nVidia card.
Just having a gripe that I could not get a MB with on-board nVidia graphics.
Hold on, so this is a desktop or laptop? Assuming it’s a desktop, I’m also assuming that you’ve got an AMD CPU, as they all have a GPU built into the processor now. It’s not amazing, but it’s very capable. But you could also just get an nVidia card and keep the rest of the rig. Equally, if you’re going to replace the rig, you could switch to Intel, as from Ivy Bridge onwards, Intel’s on-CPU GPU is capable too. Plus the Intel drivers are open-source, and of good quality (although there have been noises from Intel that the sweet times may not continue :()
Anyway, unless it’s the cheapest nVidia card you can lay your hands on, it should have a lot more power than the APU you’ve currently got. Which card did you go for?
Edit: Have you tried a previous version of the Windows drivers from AMD’s site? It could be a bug with the latest release and your GPU. Linux drivers should come from Synaptic/apt-get (fglrx)
Yes it is a desktop system and I have just rebuilt the system. I have always used AMD CPUs for the last 15 years I always try to go with the under dog.
AMD Linux drivers were installed in mint 13 using the Additional Drivers from the control centre. Non of them have worked some cause the system to crash and others cause the display to blink every few mins. The Linux drivers on system drivers work OK and as I said did not realise they had 3D.
The graphics drivers that came with the mother board for Win 7 are not the latest and I have tried all drivers from the ones on the CD to the newest from the AMD site. All cause the display to blink every 5 mins or so.
New card Asus 90-C1CSC1-L0UANAYZ Carte graphique NVIDIA Geforce GT 610 PCI-Express 16x 810 MHz listed as Win 7 and Linux compatible.
That GT610 is a very underpowered card for a discreet card - it may be even less powerful that your on-die AMD GPU. What CPU do you have?
Didn’t realise you were running Mint 13 - is this because it is the LTS release? There is a new LTS release due out in June btw, that will be supported for 5 years. I’d be looking towards a more modern release, as the CPU came out after Mint 13 was released!
Not sure AMD should still be considered the “underdog” :o
Yes running mint 13 as it is LTS I’m not up for changing my operating system every year…
CPU AMD A4-5300 APU
The new graphic card will run all my present software in both mint and Windows. Is low power and silent so should do nicely.
Will post again if have any problems once it arrives.
No worries, checking out the new card vs the old APU - they are almost exactly the same in performance!!
New Card installed and working well in both mint 13 and Win7.
Thanks for your help.