opensource ATI drivers any better than the nVidia ones?

I'm looking to get a replacement for my W520 with Quadro 1000 graphics. Running it in Discrete graphics mode with the opensource nouveau driver (so that I can run an external monitor) has worked OK, but has been far from painless. I'm definitely looking at alternatives for the next one.

I've heard that the opensource ATI driver is very good and so I'm looking at a m6700 or 8770w with one of the Firepro cards.

Has anyone out there run both and can comment on both?

As a side note I would get a machine using intel graphics as I don't need HW acceleration (about the most demanding 'graphics' tasks I do is playing youtube videos and DVDs), but I can't find a 17" 1080p or better machine that comes with intel graphics.

My W520 has the option to use intel graphics (you just choose the 'Integrated' bios setting), but that disables the ability to use an external monitor. So if an nVidia equipped Precision or Elitebook had a similar option to only use the Ivy Bridge graphics but allowed the use of an external display I'd happily go that route.

 

I dont know but I think you shold ask in phoronix forum since all ati stuff is heavly discussed there . But I know that amd open source are better than nvidia open source since nivia doesnt care about open source alot as amd . you could ask in nbr dell forum here , they have deidcated thread here http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...recision-m4700-m6700-preliminary-info-11.html

 

I run Xubuntu 12.04 on a Llano notebook. I use the opensource ati drivers that were supplied with the distro. I have a lot of problems with screen tearing, especially with full screen flash videos. Using one suggestion on the ubuntu forums to disable display compositing does not rectify the problem for me.
When I was running Ubuntu 10.04, I integrated the proprietary drivers and I had a far more pleasurable experience. But that's with Llano integrated graphics, I honestly have no idea if you'll have a different experience with a Firepro card, but I hope I could give you something to think about anyway. What distro will you be running?

 

I read somewhere that the proprietary nVidia driver kills the ability to use the virtual terminals (ctrl+alt+F1), but I am not sure if this is still the case... though that my have been with the ATI drivers... I use Intel so I am not sure. You may want to look into this though if you ever do work outside of X windows.