AMD/ATI owner rejoice!

I wonder, why no one has posted this already? But here you go:
Finally AMD/ATI developed a new driver for their video cards. The upcoming fglrx 8.41 is based entirely on new code and will - according to Phoronix, who already tested a development version of the drivers - feature performance increasements from about 50% to 90%. In a test the Radeon X800XL 256MB PCIe with the new fglrx drivers was able to outperform nVIDIA's GeForce 6600GT 128MB for the first time.
The new driver does not only feature enhanced performance but also has support for AMD/ATI's current Radeon HD 2000 cards.

Further reading:
AMD 8.41 Display Driver Preview
ATI R300/400 Linux Performance
ATI R500 Linux Performance
The ATI R500 On Linux: Then & Now
ATI Radeon HD 2900XT Linux Performance

So far great news, but AMD also announced that they will provide specifications for their newer cards and support the development of Open Source drivers. If AMD is really willing to do that remains to be proven.

Read more:
AMD: Accelerating Open-Source Drivers?
A new road for AMD and ATI

Still I am skeptical but also excited and looking forward to test the drivers on my own X700.

 

Maybe, finally we will see AIGLX in ATI, after long waits and disappointments.

 

Yeah. This happens the day I buy an 8600GT. Go figure.

 

At least people will get full support with strictly open source linux distros (e.g. fedora). What about Nvidia, are they planning something like that too?

 

Good to know ATI finally thought about Linux users. How about HD decoders, are there any yet?

 

This project has just begun. I wouldn't expect to see anything until a good ways into 2008.

 

Actually, supposedly the better driver is coming in just a few days.

It's good to see some Linux/ATI users finally getting some love. Until they come out with good open source drivers though, I still prefer nVidia.

 

Took me a moment, but I think I found what you're talking about. Every article on the subject, this one included, says that they're going to start off releasing a 2D driver and follow up with a 3D one later. They've only been working on these for about 3 months (the devs were under an NDA) which, even with access to the hardware documentation, is hardly enough time to come up with a usable 3D graphics driver.

But if anyone finds anything that says otherwise, please post it.

 

Looks like AMD/ATI is serious about opening documentation: AMD Releases 900+ Pages Of GPU Specs

 

I wonder if Vista has anything to do with this...

I seem to remember an ATi press conference last year before Vista came out, where he basically kept pointing to the fact that Vista's new DRM and driver/hardware requirements were driving costs up, and most of those costs were transferred to the consumer.

 

This is a really wild idea based on no knowledge in particular, bit I want to throw this up. What if AMD/ATI has chosen to move all their hardware towards the Linux platform? That would definitely make history in the computer business and spell trouble for both Intel and Microsoft.

 

Somehow, I doubt it. They're in prett tight with Microsoft right now, as the Xbox 360 uses an early R600-type GPU. Besides, that would be a bad business move to only make Linux drivers. And that wouldn't be possible for the processors anyway.

 

AMD will not do that by all means. You can't imagine how badly company stick with Microsoft in there daily task. Dump Microsoft means dump >80% of market. Nobody will ever take that risk.