Re: Free drivers for AMD Radeon (Vaio S)
On Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 6:43 AM, Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:56:48 -0400, Dan wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 12:28 PM, Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Mon, 12 Sep 2011 10:27:17 -0400, Dan wrote:
>>>
>>>> I would like to buy a Vaio S. It has the user-switchable graphics card
>>>> AMD Radeon 6470M.
>>>
>>> Then take a look into this Ubuntu forum thread (post #11) where a user
>>> talks about the status of that card in his distribution:
>>>
>>> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?s=467b83bbff9b48f6a32dc2c2d06bf452&t=1699832&page=2
>
> (...)
>
>> Thanks for your answer. That post is from April and things may have
>> changed but it seems that it is not a great idea to buy a laptop with a
>> switchable graphics card, they are not well supported right now. I was
>> debating between the Vaio S and the Macbook pro. The Macbook uses an
>> integrated intel card which should work better with Linux.
>
> Uff... I would avoid a Mac at all. Better a compatible system than
> irons from a "closed-minded" company :-)
>
> But I would reconsider a dual VGA based laptop, mainly because of two
> points:
>
> 1/ They're still fairly new in the linux scope.
>
> 2/ I see no point of having a dual VGA card at all. A good power
> management routine provided by the card's driver that reduces the watts
> consumption of the card when it is required should be enough, I don't
> see why the need of using two different graphic chipsets and what is
> worst, they can be only controlled by "undetermined" (i.e., not open)
> tools, so I prefer to stick to something that I know how it behaves.
>
>> Has anybody a good experience with switchable graphic cards?
>
> I can't tell for this, sorry ;-(
>
> Greetings,
>
> --
> Camaleón
Hi,
I went to the shop and tested a live ubuntu CD and it worked! The
wireless, sound and graphic card worked. The switch was in Stamina
(Intel graphic card) The fancy 3D effects of Unity worked pretty well,
that is enough for me as I use bare gnome. I did lspci and I can see
both cards the Intel and the AMD.
Why would you stay away from Mac... and why did you mention
compatibility? Everything should work with Debian because it is a PC.
They are just using the new EFI system, but what I understood is that
EFI will be the standard in the near future.
Greetings,
Dan
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