Submitted by “AMD has done the seemingly impossible – made an integrated graphics part that does not immediately draw ridicule from all sides. It is actually good. The main trick AMD pulled out of the hat is to change the specs on what an IGP (Integrated Graphics Part) is. AMD decided to take a full GPU and put it on the chipset, so what you have is a full Radeon HD24xx (RV620) on board, video acceleration, 3D and all.”
That’s one seriously good looking chipset. Nice job by AMD/ATI… Such stuff might put ’em back on the chart. My next PC won’t be a powerhouse anyway, I prefer low-noise these days. So AMD might still be a choice!
What about x.org drivers? Particularly for x86_64. At work I’m runing 64 bit Ubuntu 7.10 with an ATI HD2300 with the vesa driver because I cannot make any other driver to work. I tried installing the official ATI drivers which screwed the system so badly that it wouldn’t even boot!!! radeonhd doesn’t work either. AMD/ATI should get serious with open source and not only publish specifications (thanks for those, anyway) but hire people to work on the drivers. Right now, the only reasonable choice is Intel with its integrated graphics. Obviously, I’m not a gamer, but compiz works out of the box and so does Google Earth albeit not very smooth.
Once there are decent drivers for the 780G I am certainly getting one with a Phenom to plug in it. AMD, do you hear me?
If you use Ubuntu, you should be aware of its update policies. In short, a lot has changed in the drivers scene since October (or wheneever their feature freeze happened), but Ubuntu has a policy of not updating software to higher versions. Sometimes that will work in your favour, sometimes it will not.
Currently you have two FLOSS options:
Try either an updated version of the RadeonHD driver or an updated version of the radeon driver. Neither are 3d capable yet (which may come pretty soon in the Radeon driver), but atleast 2d is working pretty well for most people.
Thanks, I was not aware of that. I’d be happy with just better 2D support, because currently switching to text console and back screws up X in a pretty psychedelic way.
But the question still remains about 780G drivers. Will any bleeding edge driver be usable on 780G today?
Edited 2008-03-09 08:03 UTC
As of right now AMD isn’t listing support for the 780G in its Linux drivers. They’re normally a release behind so I’d expect some sort of support in the next (8.4) release
Great work from AMD, and it’ll be even better when they roll out the Mobile (Puma?) version of this gear.
I’m holding off my acquisition of a laptop till I can get my hands on a AMD64 Puma based one.
I haven’t heared about PUMA. What is the key exciting feature for you?
The fact it’ll be the mobile version of this exact platform. Potentially means decent performing cheaper laptops, and AMD64bit ones at that.
I would be keen to find out about battery life, when products emerge.
After reading the article it sounds great.
bigger fans again.
Dear Mr. mmu man, please, read the article before you comment on it!
Seems like a nice step up from the 690G chipset that I’m currently using. Wonder if they’ll unlock any future features with driver and BIOS updates like they did with the 690
Silent PC Review has a detailed review of the chipset here:
AMD 780G: Best Ever Integrated Mainstream Chipset?
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article807-page1.html
It is tested as a part of the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H motherboard.
Cool. My brother played Oblivion on 6100 integrated back in 2006. I should tell him, that he was dumb and that he should’ve been waiting for 780G. So much for the title..
Actually 6100/6150/7050 (all the same crap) are the only decent IGPs on market till today. If 780G will be widespread and will have good Linux drivers support – why not.