Re: Intel C2D COREs not used equally in FreeBSD 7.0-CURRENT i386

On Tue, 5 Jun 2007 eculp_at_encontacto.net wrote:

> Quoting Adam K Kirchhoff <adamk_at_voicenet.com>:
>
>> On Tuesday 05 June 2007 12:40:34 eculp_at_encontacto.net wrote:
>>> Quoting Garrett Cooper <youshi10_at_u.washington.edu>:
>>> > Diego Depaoli wrote:
>>> >> 2007/6/5, Ed Schouten <ed_at_fxq.nl>:
>>> >>>> In practice there's (almost) only one reason not to run
>>> >>>> FreeBSD/amd64 on amd64-capable hardware:  If you depend
>>> >>>> on a certain piece of software which is known not to run
>>> >>>> correctly in 64bit mode.  Fortunately those are not many.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> I guess most of those are still waiting for a 64-bits nvidia.ko.
>>> >>
>>> >> That's true.
>>> >> Is there any news?
>>> >
>>> >    Yeah, a lot of people are still waiting for that (including me..
>>> > can't get nv to work under amd64 :(...).
>>> >    We should band together and get nvidia to speed up amd64
>>> > development a bit more *sigh*..
>>> 
>>> Boy am I glad that I am reading this thread.
>>> 
>>> As weird as it may sound, I was going to go buy a new laptop, amd64
>>> with nvidia.  In fact the explanation given by Oliver helped push me
>>> over to AMD in addition to past experience has always been good with
>>> them.  I also had the idea that AMD had purchased a chunk of nvidia
>>> which made the decision make even more sense to me.  Luckily  I saw
>>> these, before rather that after the fact.
>>> 
>>> I understand from this that the nvidia will not run the new xorg-7.2
>>> with AMD64?  Am I reading this right or am I just having a case of
>>> PRE-buyers remorse?  ;)
>> 
>> It is true that the closed source nvidia driver will not work on an AMD64
>> system.
>> 
>> However, bear in mind that Xorg does not support any recent AMD cards (X1300
>> or newer) with anything other than the vesa driver.  The open source drivers
>> support up-to the x850 (actually, the x1050 now, iirc).  The AMD/ATI Xpress
>> chipsets are supported by the open source 2D drivers, but not (yet) the 3D
>> drivers.
>> 
>> Your best bet might be to go with a laptop with intel graphics.
>
> Hi Adam,
>
> Back to the drawing board as they say.  I've been trying to make that decision 
> for a couple of weeks now, since my old laptop's disk died.
>
> I guess you are right but I should probably add a gig of memory to be sure that 
> all will be well.  I had actually thought of upgrading it from one to two and 
> that just gives me justification ;)
>
> thanks,
>
> ed

Intel integrated graphics are getting better all the time, their driver's open sourced, and OpenGL compatible.

Then again I'm biased because I work for them :).

-Garrett