ATI card vesa versus catalyst drivers

[hal8000]

I'm considering buying an ATI5750 card as  I dual boot windows (for gaming only).

There has been a history of problem with ATI openGL catalyst drivers, so how bad is
the problem using vesa drivers in linux.

Can you get a decent frame rate in extreme tux racer with ATI card using native drivers.?
On my Nvidia 7600GTS I get 54fps @1280x1024 (for comparison), better than this and I'd be happy.

Can you play videos from youtube?
If you open an image in gimp e.g. 1024x768 do you have to wait for the screen to refresh?

Thanks in advance for comments.

[T6]

about the image in gimp, this almost depends only on ram and cpu, video card only limit itself to show what gimp sends, video card is not related in the process of open a image

the current state is very good compared to older versions but there is still one or two video cards that won't cooperate with you

vesa is your last option(avoid it at all cost!!)

you should use ati hd 2000 and later if(and probably will work) the ati proprietary drivers won't work for you

about the video card and games, i had some troubles using that game and compiz simultaneously so can't say more but my old video card using ati x1950 and earlier driver does all the rest very well including other heavy games like urban terror, open arena and wolfenstein et between others

flash is a pita for me, lately i have to use low quality videos and watch them on full screen and sometimes framerate is weird but also depends on the codec used by the site and the video, i can get slow performance on one but other will play perfect so 100% sure about what it is i am not

the model of card you are planning to purchase, do you know for sure that is the best purchase?, usually a newer video card is better, a 5800(is that the double gpu?) or a 5900 is a better idea depending on the price range and the games you are going to play in it and the cpu you have, remember that many games will ask more for a cpu with 3 or 4 cores cpu than for a big video card

[Yoyo]

I wouldn't recommend vesa drivers not even for even the simplest games. Vesa drivers are made for just drawing windows. Try them by all means, but I'm sure you'll end up using the catalyst drivers eventually.

[hal8000]

Guys thanks very much for the replies.
Im buying an XFX (vender)  HD5770 from scan. Its about  £136 UK price, the HD5850 cards add another £100. The rest of the hardware is Intel i5 750 and Motherboard GA-P55A-UD3  (Intel chipset and all other chips are recognised by linux kernel).
Will post back after I've built it and assembled it.

[T6]

good luck! 

[4portswitch]

I must inject my personal experience with two newer ATI cards.
The driver installs and the system works except for very crucial things with both cards.
Video Play back just plain sucks on any new ATI card 5XXX series.
From the looks of things they are NOT going to address the issue in Linux. Why?

I give up. I am switching to Nvidia GT250 or above. I have never had a problem, within this distro, using Nvidia drivers.
One way or another I could always play movies, videos, animations and games.
With this latest set of completely unacceptable issues in video play back and with ATI refusing to make a fix a priority I just can't support a purchase of a new 5XXX ATI video card. Will they fix it? Who knows but they sold the cards knowing they didn't work.
Maybe, If you have the absolute latest Processor with 4 cores or above, you may be able to tackle the tearing and shearing of videos and games. I doubt it.

I have three systems now, all with dual core AMD Phenom II x2 555 black on MSI 785 platforms with 2 GB ram and ATI 5750, one with a lower end 5450. When asked ATI declared all of these would play high def video over my 24" and 32" high-def monitors. The ATI cards still can't play a DVD or .mkv or anything else above 640x480 without tearing and shearing across the entire screen. Forget full screen movies. Do they do 2D desktops? Yup. Can they overlay video with acceleration? Nope.

They work in Windoze with the occasional gray, blank screen, mid game, even With the latest drivers and setting up the clocks right.
I took an old 1280x1024 flat panel LCD and it still couldn't push video correctly.
I have tried for months to get these cards to work correctly. I like to play around and fix issues and work in Linux. But this latest fiasco and no true support on top of that? I mean please, who uses Redhat for playing Movies or playing games? Sorry folks, Until the new AMD/ATI prodigy grow up I am buying Nvidia.

[hal8000]

Thanks for your input.
OK, just got my system together tonight and using an XFX HD5770 card.
Currently using fglrx drivers.

So far results have been not too bad. I can watch full screen video from
BBC iplayer or ITV player at 1280x1024 with no problem.
Have tried mpg movies as well.

I have not yet tried full screen video from a DVD.
My difference is that my chipset is Intel, Using an i5 750 CPU,
and Intel P55A chipset, maybe this could be the difference.

Frame rate on tuxracer is 190 to 225fps, (higher than my  last system)
but gears only gives 2000fps (last Nvidia7300 card displayed about 5000fps
with gears, but only about 54fps with extremetuxracer).

Have not yet tried the ATI Catalyst 10.6 driver

[4portswitch]

That is actually great news. I am glad to hear your system can do it.
In comparison, my systems truly fall far short of yours. Heck if you put all three of my systems together it wouldn't match yours.
Which was actually my point. If I have to have an i5, i7, or AMD Phenom XII quad, to power the video overlay of an ATI card, then there definitely is an issue.
My now older system plays full high-def with no lag, jitter, shearing or tearing with my tiny, simple, little Nvidia 9600GT, on a 32" LCD. No it can't throughput sound but my mother boards all do that anyway.
I know it sounds as if I am a tad bitter-well I suppose I am, LOL.
Shame on me? After all, how many people like me have been taken to the bank over hardware?

Anyway, I mean no offense in any way, to anyone, I honestly wish everyone the best of luck with all things. I trust you won't take any of this personally?
As your system truly does pound rock into powder I am glad to hear it handles the video load being dumped off onto it.

I know my input is inflammatory. That doesn't change the truth of my statements. 
Systems that should already work with the new ATI hardware, for video, often give far failing results. AMD/ATI know this fact. I Thought my hardware with a 5570 would pair up to make the video work. I thought wrong.
It really,REALLY, annoys the crap outa me that I already spent my cash and spent the last few months of my time trying to make the cards work.
Now I have to wait, save for a while-again and start over.
I wont be buying an ATI video card for a while.
Peace, love Plus a box of biscuits and maybe wash it down with alcohol. I know I had to.

Happiness is.