Nvidia and ATi drivers in 64bit Linux

For: Mepis Linux 7

Nvidia Drivers 100.14  |  AMD/ATi Drivers 8.39

by: je.saist


I think the images speak for themselves. They were captured on Mepis 7 Beta 1 64bit. Click the images for 1280*1204 versions.

The base hardware in use is Biostar's Socket 939 Geforce 6100 Motherboard with an AMD Athlon64 X2 processor. The graphics cards are the Nvidia 7900 GT KO, and the ATi  Radeon x1900 AIW edition.

However, this is not a performance test, it is an image quality test. The eVGA card has a 580mhz GPU with a memory clock of 1580mhz. As the Catalyst Control center shows, the x1900 has only a 500mhz GPU clock, with a 954mhz memory clock. Theoretically, the 7900 GT KO should deliver a KO to the x1900 AIW in performance. But would it look good while doing so?

All screenshots were captured using KSnapshot and saved in KSnapshots .png format. Original Resolution versions are enabled by clicking on the image itself.

Nvidia Graphics Card



Since the Nvidia Settings window won't open, the Cedega Hardware display information shows the detected graphics card.

ATi graphics card.



Yes, the processor does state 1ghz instead of 2.2ghz. The system was left in Dynamic Processor mode so it clocked down while not in use. The Catalyst Control Center also works on 64bit Mepis, unlike the Nvidia control center.

Cedega Tools :

This was the old .97 driver set under 64bit on Nvidia with the Cedega Tools.




As shown, back then, 3D acceleration failed tests. With a new driver though, things should change right?

Nvidia 100.14:



Yes... things changed. The new drivers result in the Nvidia chipset failing OpenGL direct Rendering, which worked before. 3D acceleration, which didn't work, now works. Unfortunantly without Direct Rendering, Windows games are not running under Mepis 64 on an Nvidia card.

However, since ATi has much worse drivers than Nvidia, surely their drivers will fail as well.


Catalyst 8.39



Wrong. All of the games listed on MepisGuides.com work under Cedega running on top of Mepis 64 with an ATi card.

So, if it works on Cedega with 32bit Mepis, it will work on Cedega with 64bit Mepis, but only with ATi graphics cards.


Unreal Tournament 2004:

These pictures were taken from the CTF Map January. All Settings were maxed out. Resolution of 1280*1024.

Unreal Tournament 2004 is essentially a Pixel Shader 1.3 game, however it has a Shader Model 2 rendering path. January was chosen because the end shot from the sub allowed for Steam Particle Effects, a passing light running along the roof, a draping flag, water, as well as a caution strip with multiple close lines.


Nvidia




ATi:




Things seem to be relatively the same on both graphics cards at first glance. Since the angle is not exactly the same, an exact comparison is not really possible.

For, for UT2k4, it is a tie on image output.

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Quake 4:

This was taken from the Quake 4 Multiplayer Demo. Graphics set to high. Resolution 1280*1024.

Quake 4 is built on the Doom3 Engine, what IDSoftware now calls Tech4. Like the UT2k4 engine, Doom3 was built with Pixel Shaders 1.3 and 1.4 in mind. The final game supported Shader Model 2.0 rendering paths. Quake4 extends the engines capabilities allowing for massive outdoor enviroments and better lighting effects. 

Nvidia:











ATi:










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Ah... yeah. Screenshots speak for themselves.  

So, for Quake 4, running in Mepis 64 is like Cedega, only possible on ATi cards.

I know realistically that this isn't going to stop the F.U.D. that AMD is somehow not serious about their drivers on Linux. I also know it is not going to stop the line of obvious bull manure that Nvidia has better Linux Drivers. For starters, the first complaint is that this only compared 64bit Operating Systems, and doesn't show the 32bit systems. Well, I personally run Athlon64, which has been 64bit enabled since 2002/2003. Since I happen to like getting the most out of my system, I'm looking at using 64bit only.  ATi lets me do that. Nvidia does not.

The second complaint is that the cards were not evenly matched. This is true, the Nvidia card is by far the better graphics card in use. Yet it failed.

The second complaint is that I didn't benchmark the performance. Now, I'd like to claim that the Nvidia results were so embarrasing that I refused to publish the results. The truth is found somewhere in the inability to get the UT2k4 and Quake4 benchmarking tools to actually... RECORD... the results... As far as the naked eye went in UT2k4, the ATi Card seemed to have the better image quality while moving. But that is entirely subjective.

The third complaint is that KSnapshot, an external program, was used. Both UT2k4 and Quake4 support in game snapshots. Hitting the F12 key in Quake4 resulted in a slow down and a pause as "something" happened... but no picture showed up in the specified folder. Same with UT2k4. Hitting the screenshot button resulted in a slight processing pause... but no screenshots.

The forth complaint is going to be that only 2 games were actually shown. Well, as stated in the Cedega Blurb, without Direct Rendering, Windows games and benchmarks weren't happening. Since only the ATi card would run the programs, it is fairly pointless to only show the ATi cards.  With Linux Native games, there are generally two classes. Games that use the Unreal Engines and games that use the Quake/Doom engines. Doom3, while it would install, is an already dark game as is. With the texture problems demonstrated in the Quake4 snapshots, Doom3 was an unplayable mess. UT'99 would not install at all, citing a development libary issue.

Now, I can spend all day coming up with the various complaints about why the image results should be ignored and why Nvidia is still somehow obviously better, and I can spend all day counter pointing. For me though, knowing that I can use Mepis 64 today and keep using all of the same graphical applications I was using in Mepis 32? Knowing that the Catalyst Control Center works, while the Nvidia settings panel does not? Makes my purchase of an ATi card a lot smarter than my purchase of an Nvidia card.


Take me back to the Guides.