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List:       linux-ppc
Subject:    Re: graphics card 8500
From:       Vinai <vroopcha () post ! its ! mcw ! edu>
Date:       2000-04-30 16:32:01
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On Sun, 30 Apr 2000, Scott C. Knight wrote:

}	Any 8500 out there maybe you can help em out. Im thinking about
}purchasing a graphics card. Im not tereible interested in 3d accel for
}games (itd be nice) But im just looking for something for accel X. X just
}seems a little slow with the native 8500 control chip.

Scott,

I've had good experiences with an ATI Rage Pro in my 8500 at work.  The
only problem I found initially was that if I booted with the video=atyfb
argument in BootX, I would not be able to switch resolution or colour
depths, either using vmode from the command line, or passing different
args to Xpmac.  So now I whenever I boot (which isn't too often, thank
goodness ;-) I just run vmode once (I suppose this could be done in a
boot script) to get a usable console mode, and then I can run Xpmac and
get any of the supported X resolutions and colour depths.  I use 1280x
1024 at 16- or 8-bit (as we do some work with programs that only work
with pseudocolour) and I am pretty sure that 24/32 bits work...

As for the "controlfb" - I get pretty decent performance at home on my
7500 with the version of XFree that came with LinuxPPC 1999.  I think I
use it with a the -mach64 call.  If you are interested, I can check and
re-post the details here.

Details on hardware and software:

7500 with 128 MB, using on-board video.  The 8500 with 96 MB RAM using
the ATI Rage Pro.

Both of these are running LinuxPPC 1999, with the security updates and
compiler and library updates. The kernel is 2.2.12 that was patched to
with a serial driver fix, as well as a patch to recognize all 4 MB of
VRAM on the 7500, but uses the original ATI framebuffer driver.  I use
XFree 3.3.?? on the 7500/controlfb, and XFree 3.3.?? + Xpmac.rev.10 on
the 8500/ATI setup.

cheers
vinai


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