Contrary to original plans to support the older ATI cards, AMD now wants to provide a legacy driver for them, along the lines of Nvidia.
The AMD chipmaker reported in March that with the release of the Catalyst 9.4 driver they wanted to discontinue support for the Linux and Windows R300/400/500 cards and focus on the new generation instead. Meanwhile AMD has released the 9.4 driver, which also supports Ubuntu 9.04. Now choosing to order the older graphics cards on the AMD homepage returns a notice that they moved to a legacy driver support structure. The new legacy driver supports the following graphics cards (including Mobile and All-in-Wonder variants):
ATI Radeon 9500 Series
ATI Radeon 9550 Series
ATI Radeon 9600 Series
ATI Radeon 9700 Series
ATI Radeon 9800 Series
ATI Radeon X300 Series
ATI Radeon X550 Series
ATI Radeon X600 Series
ATI Radeon X700 Series
ATI Radeon X800 Series
ATI Radeon X850 Series
ATI Radeon X1050 Series
ATI Radeon X1300 Series
ATI Radeon X1550 Series
ATI Radeon X1600 Series
ATI Radeon X1650 Series
ATI Radeon X1800 Series
ATI Radeon X1900 Series
ATI Radeon Xpress Series
ATI Radeon X1200 Series
ATI Radeon X1250 Series ATI Radeon X2100 Series
The Linux version, however, supports only distros released before February 2009 that have the older X.org. Thus the upcoming releases from Ubuntu, Fedora and Mandriva are expected to support the new AMD driver only, at least for the time being. Further details are on the AMD homepage.
Owners of the cards listed who want to run a current Linux distro shouldn't worry too much about switching drivers, however. The free radeonhd driver that the community has greatly improved, mainly through AMD's publishing of reference documentation, supports all cards in 2D mode, including compositing. Besides, the newest version also supports DRI (direct rendering infrastructure) with many of the cards.
(Marcel Hilzinger)
Comments
legacy driver support structure
Caesar
Jan 13, 2010 9:48am GMT
Fuck you AMD, suck on my hairy orc balls that i buy another product or a damn computer with your shit in it
i dis agree!
Revani
Dec 06, 2009 11:28pm GMT
so iam very angry for them.. i use ati radeon mobility x1300 and go and buy modern warfare2 i install it and try to play but in main menu the characters are ruined! i try to update my graphic driver but i cant! the web site tell me "legacy driver support structure bla bla bla " its a biig bull shit! so what am i supposed to do am i throwing my laptop so they can sell me a new one.. well i guarenteed this i will never buy a amd stuff any more..
I agree...
Chris
Jul 17, 2009 7:31am GMT
I agree with other people here. Thanks for nothing AMD. I'll be replacing the Radeon 9550 in my PC with an NVidia card, and that is definately the LAST EVER ati graphics card I will ever buy.
Hence a GOOD REASON to upgrade your older ATI graphics cards!
John Constantinides
Jul 10, 2009 12:25pm GMT
I know the reasons which forced AMD to drop support for its older DX9-based graphic adapters. With the advent of Windows Vista and DX10 in 2006 and the upcoming release of Windows 7 (featuring DX11 and Windows Media Player 12) in 2010, AMD has evidently decided to drop its interest for its DX9-based products and focus solely on the new-generation HD series, which are MUCH BETTER in terms of performance and reliability. Very bad news for many of us, but also a good reason to do an upgrade.
ATI/AMD Provides Legacy Driver for Old ATI Cards effectively ending support!
SlyItrnd
May 16, 2009 8:51pm GMT
Personally I never did like ATI's Catalyst Control Center much anyway. It has way too much to have to do and learn to enable features that should be automatic for newer games, (and many older games as well), in the first place!
Why put supposedly, "Valuable," customers through any of this nonsense at all?
Can't the cards just freakin' work right in the first place or at least be able to update properly the most basic features with what should rightfully be a no-headache/no-brainer to the consumer/customer whatsoever?
To top it off, ATI then gets eaten up by AMD in the last year or so and now they basically drop support for all of their older products, (and some not so old), pretty much completely?
Here I am stuck with all this hardware I purchased and some very recently, which was never properly supported in the first place in my opinion!
Hundreds, yes-even thousands of dollars of product all basically useless in the first place and now all down the toilet for sure as things stand!
Even if I wanted to learn complicated programming tasks to make my newly purchased products work at least halfway right. This new move will basically, effectively thwart that possibility too!
Gee thanks AMD/ATI!
I am angry, yes very angry that this has happened at all. It’s very bad business AMD/ATI and you will loose in the long run!
Your copyrights and patents on products you choose to effectively drop should immediately expire by law! You should also be required by law to submit/release all pertinent information to the general public any and all relevant information on your discontinued products. Thereby paving a clear way for individuals and smaller third party software companies to come in and make a little cash by picking up your garbage! Or at least be able to freely attempt to get said products to function properly in the first place!
This is absolutely DISGUSTING!
But sadly typical behavior from just another one of the many large, faceless corporations of the world that have the rest of us by the so called, “Family Jewels.”
When are we all going to stand up and demand changes to this type of blatant disregard for accountability from these so called, “Mega Corporations,” that walk all over us on a daily basis anyway?
Bad news for ATI owners
Paul
Apr 29, 2009 10:23pm GMT
ATI/AMD made my almost new computer useless with this move. That is to say I can't use my X1200 card with the latest ubuntu release. I'll guess I'm not the only one....This is just horrible customer support. This was my first and last ATI GPU. Next time I will make sure my computer will not have ATI inside.......
And this is a good thing?
Hervey Allen
Apr 28, 2009 10:55pm GMT
The note here is very useful in terms of information, but the tone is odd. I'm sorry, but I'm using Linux on my Desktop. I _WANT_ and need full acceleration and 3D support. I want video to work. I want Compiz to be usable. I want my desktop workspaces and cubes. I don't want 2D support. I don't want to guess which specific chips have which specific graphics features supported and twiddle endlessly with xorg.conf files to get things to work half-way.
I want ATI to support their da** hardware. Again, much of this hardware is sitting in powerful, very usable, relatively new laptops and users, like me, want to actually upgrade to Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop on my Lenovo T60 with Core 2 Duo Processors, 4GB of RAM, fatty hard drive, etc., etc... It should not be too much of to ask.
So, it's like kissing your sister. Cool. I can be stuck on an older distro that will quickly become outdated, pray that ATI gets their act together and properly supports my chipset, or get another laptop and never buy their hardware again.
So, thank for the update. But, ATI and Linux - it just hurts.
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Comments
legacy driver support structure
Caesar Jan 13, 2010 9:48am GMT
Fuck you AMD, suck on my hairy orc balls that i buy another product or a damn computer with your shit in iti dis agree!
Revani Dec 06, 2009 11:28pm GMT
so iam very angry for them.. i use ati radeon mobility x1300 and go and buy modern warfare2 i install it and try to play but in main menu the characters are ruined! i try to update my graphic driver but i cant! the web site tell me "legacy driver support structure bla bla bla " its a biig bull shit! so what am i supposed to do am i throwing my laptop so they can sell me a new one.. well i guarenteed this i will never buy a amd stuff any more..I agree...
Chris Jul 17, 2009 7:31am GMT
I agree with other people here. Thanks for nothing AMD. I'll be replacing the Radeon 9550 in my PC with an NVidia card, and that is definately the LAST EVER ati graphics card I will ever buy.Hence a GOOD REASON to upgrade your older ATI graphics cards!
John Constantinides Jul 10, 2009 12:25pm GMT
I know the reasons which forced AMD to drop support for its older DX9-based graphic adapters. With the advent of Windows Vista and DX10 in 2006 and the upcoming release of Windows 7 (featuring DX11 and Windows Media Player 12) in 2010, AMD has evidently decided to drop its interest for its DX9-based products and focus solely on the new-generation HD series, which are MUCH BETTER in terms of performance and reliability. Very bad news for many of us, but also a good reason to do an upgrade.ATI/AMD Provides Legacy Driver for Old ATI Cards effectively ending support!
SlyItrnd May 16, 2009 8:51pm GMT
Personally I never did like ATI's Catalyst Control Center much anyway. It has way too much to have to do and learn to enable features that should be automatic for newer games, (and many older games as well), in the first place!Why put supposedly, "Valuable," customers through any of this nonsense at all?
Can't the cards just freakin' work right in the first place or at least be able to update properly the most basic features with what should rightfully be a no-headache/no-brainer to the consumer/customer whatsoever?
To top it off, ATI then gets eaten up by AMD in the last year or so and now they basically drop support for all of their older products, (and some not so old), pretty much completely?
Here I am stuck with all this hardware I purchased and some very recently, which was never properly supported in the first place in my opinion!
Hundreds, yes-even thousands of dollars of product all basically useless in the first place and now all down the toilet for sure as things stand!
Even if I wanted to learn complicated programming tasks to make my newly purchased products work at least halfway right. This new move will basically, effectively thwart that possibility too!
Gee thanks AMD/ATI!
I am angry, yes very angry that this has happened at all. It’s very bad business AMD/ATI and you will loose in the long run!
Your copyrights and patents on products you choose to effectively drop should immediately expire by law! You should also be required by law to submit/release all pertinent information to the general public any and all relevant information on your discontinued products. Thereby paving a clear way for individuals and smaller third party software companies to come in and make a little cash by picking up your garbage! Or at least be able to freely attempt to get said products to function properly in the first place!
This is absolutely DISGUSTING!
But sadly typical behavior from just another one of the many large, faceless corporations of the world that have the rest of us by the so called, “Family Jewels.”
When are we all going to stand up and demand changes to this type of blatant disregard for accountability from these so called, “Mega Corporations,” that walk all over us on a daily basis anyway?
Bad news for ATI owners
Paul Apr 29, 2009 10:23pm GMT
ATI/AMD made my almost new computer useless with this move. That is to say I can't use my X1200 card with the latest ubuntu release. I'll guess I'm not the only one....This is just horrible customer support. This was my first and last ATI GPU. Next time I will make sure my computer will not have ATI inside.......And this is a good thing?
Hervey Allen Apr 28, 2009 10:55pm GMT
The note here is very useful in terms of information, but the tone is odd. I'm sorry, but I'm using Linux on my Desktop. I _WANT_ and need full acceleration and 3D support. I want video to work. I want Compiz to be usable. I want my desktop workspaces and cubes. I don't want 2D support. I don't want to guess which specific chips have which specific graphics features supported and twiddle endlessly with xorg.conf files to get things to work half-way.I want ATI to support their da** hardware. Again, much of this hardware is sitting in powerful, very usable, relatively new laptops and users, like me, want to actually upgrade to Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop on my Lenovo T60 with Core 2 Duo Processors, 4GB of RAM, fatty hard drive, etc., etc... It should not be too much of to ask.
So, it's like kissing your sister. Cool. I can be stuck on an older distro that will quickly become outdated, pray that ATI gets their act together and properly supports my chipset, or get another laptop and never buy their hardware again.
So, thank for the update. But, ATI and Linux - it just hurts.