[TriLUG] Selecting a stable video card

Alan Porter porter at trilug.org
Mon Oct 29 07:29:36 EDT 2007


 >    I'm running an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro on Ubuntu 7.10 (Intel Pent D). I
 > was contemplating the pain/nightmare of adding the fglrx drivers when
 > I first started testing 7.10 (at Tribe 4 version) and was blown away
 > by the "one click" to add restricted drivers - they work like a champ

I also tried the "one click" installation of the ATI drivers (for
the Radeon Mobility 9600 on an HP laptop), and it worked as advertised.
I had to tweak my xorg.conf (add composite feature) before I could
run the advanced visual effects (jello windows).  Since then, it has
gone loco on me twice.  One time, it got stuck where I could not get
back to my X session using ALT-F7 and I had to shut down.  And one
time, the screen saver started to dim the screen, I touched the mouse
and it never finished blanking and it never unblanked.

Yesterday, I installed the nVidia drivers on a Dell laptop with an
nVidia chipset.  Again, it installed effortlessly.  Again, I had to
tweak the xorg file.  It did the jello act for the kids.  And then
within an hour, it locked up solid.

So on both machines, I have since turned off the advanced visuals,
because it seems to make them more unstable.  I'll take stability over
bling any day.

I'm interested in hearing other experiences, since it's just about
time to start shopping for a new laptop.

Alan










More information about the TriLUG mailing list