scsijon wrote:
Someone is not reading things right -
Not sure what the intention behind that comment or your mail is, but it's sure worded to annoy me. I'll try to respond without flaming but please accept my apologies if something inadvertently offends.
ATI Design and manufacture the Video Chipset, a Basic Driver that matches and a preferred circuit diagram
They sell it to others to make, assemble and sell the boards (yes they do also make boards but it's not their main business)
If others manufacture boards with their chipset with component cutdown, it's not their fault
OK. This I know. There's one caveat, which is that if ATI lend their name to these third-party boards then they must share responsibility with the manufacturers for the quality of the resulting product. ATI are clearly aware of this issue with their 'powered by ATI' branding and certification process.
You just need to make sure you buy a well known manufacturers board, then you can check their site for information and driver updates, they may not be the cheapest but, ......
This I also know. That's why I specified an ATI-manufactured board ('built by ATI' in their parlance). My main gripe with ATI is that despite understanding the importance of the manufacturer and the importance of branding, they do not insist that it is made clear. As I stated (see snippet below), I am now having doubts about what card has been supplied to me, despite what I ordered. The card does not seem to have a manufacturer's name on it, but when you go to the ATI page about identifying its products: <http://www.ati.com/support/identify/index.html> you'll see that it is not straightforward to identify a board (as opposed to its packaging). Why can't they simply screenprint 'built by ATI' on the board, for example, and require third-parties to screenprint 'powered by ATI'. Specifically, I believe the instructions for identifying part numbers are not clear and that their device identification chart is out of date (it does not include the 9200). A second gripe is that they treat people asking for Linux support as some kind of second class lepers, stonewalling questions by directing them to be sent to a web pages that promises you will *not* get a response. (i.e support people at ATI do not answer questions, nor do they forward them to their Linux people, they take the trouble to write responses saying that they're not going to answer.) So I still believe that there are several ways ATI could improve their customer service and product presentation. My last two purchases have been ATI, but I'm not sure my next one will be.
Personally I always check the motherboard's manufacturer's website for a recomended list of video card suppliers to match the motherboard and work from there.
I ask my supplier to supply an integrated package certified to work with Linux. It usually works but has failed badly on this occasion.
also a 9200 is not better than a 9000 as it's a different chipset, it just uses the same 'video core'.
OK. Thanks for the information - you saw the smiley in my mail (below)? One well-known problem of numeric model numbers is that people associate larger numbers with later, better products. It causes grief for carmakers all the time. Cheers, Dave =======================================
I'm having problems configuring my graphics. The card came with the machine and I thought I'd bought a 9000 but when I opened the box the card says Radeon 9200 (should be better, right :) ======================================= I've run X -probeonly and the output is at the bottom of this message (snipped because the list server won't take it all). I'm a bit worried by the message:
(--) fglrx(0): board vendor info: third party grafics adapter - NOT original ATI
especially given what people have said about problematic clones, but when I run it up in windows (at 1280x1024 incidentally!) the system information report says:
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5961&SUBSYS_280117EE&REV_01\4&1A99067F&0&0008
which I believe indicates an ATI board. Why they can't at least print their name on the board is beyond me.
ATI better clamp down on this problem or it will be the last ATI card I will ever buy.
Agreed. Their support also seems pretty flaky; they answered a query by saying that all questions about linux had to be submitted via another web page, and that page explicitly says not to expect any response!