Ati opensource help

1061 Views 10 Replies 4 Participants Last post by cavallino, Apr 15, 2011

cavallino

Discussion Starter · Apr 13, 2011

So I my never ending struggle to run linux on my sig rig I attempted to use the ati-open source drivers. I never do any 3d gaming on Linux so it works quite well for me. I am having an issue with temps though. With the proprietary driver I can control fan speed but not power management/down clocking. With the opensource driver I can control down clocking and power management by putting sudo bash -c "echo low > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile" in rc.local but not fan control.

While this is better it's still and issue as it seems to run the fans to low. The cards are idling at like 44c and 58c which is a bit much. Does anyone know of anyway to control the fan speed in linux on an ati card using open source drivers?

Save

1 - 11 of 11 Posts

tafkar

· #2 · Apr 13, 2011

I'm cringing a little as I write this, but--flashing a custom bios profile to control the fans?

Save

cavallino

Discussion Starter · #3 · Apr 13, 2011

Gak! No thats a bit to drastic for me.

Save

Melcar

· #4 · Apr 13, 2011

No fan control yet on the open source drivers. As pointed out earlier, a BIOS flash is the only option right now.
By the way, you should use the "mid" profile instead of the "low" profile; low is for DPMS modes and sometimes can cause issues.

Save

cavallino

Discussion Starter · #5 · Apr 13, 2011

Ok so next question fglrx does have fan control but is there anyway to force a power profile.

Save

Transhour

· #6 · Apr 14, 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by cavallino;13114898
Ok so next question fglrx does have fan control but is there anyway to force a power profile.

not to my knowledge...its super weird how the opensource drivers can do one thing but not another, and the official drivers do the other thing...this is why i typically stick with nvidia

See less See more

Save

cavallino

Discussion Starter · #7 · Apr 14, 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by transhour;13122011
not to my knowledge...its super weird how the opensource drivers can do one thing but not another, and the official drivers do the other thing...this is why i typically stick with nvidia

Yeah it seemed like such a good idea at the time as two 6870s were faster and a pretty good price but it's coming back to bight. Oh well. When it's upgrade time I'll probably go nvidia again.

Save

Transhour

· #8 · Apr 14, 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by cavallino;13122513
Yeah it seemed like such a good idea at the time as two 6870s were faster and a pretty good price but it's coming back to bight. Oh well. When it's upgrade time I'll probably go nvidia again.

there are times i've passed up great deals on ati/amd in the past, cause i really didn't want to have to "hope" i could get everything working in linux

. partially why i'm still on a 8800gt, as i've seen no reason to upgrade atm, as this card is still plenty of power for me

. i would definately like to upgrade, but i might wait for another generation, let nvidia pull its head out of its arse and learn from fermi mistakes

ati/amd drivers aren't doing too shabby atm, with the noticeable exceptions like the whole power management

i give them another year or so, and they should also have quality drivers for linux, but incase i'm wrong NVIDIA FTW

See less See more

Save

cavallino

Discussion Starter · #9 · Apr 14, 2011

Yeah I didn't do enough research before hand I was under the wrong assumption that the only issue with fglrx was poor or nonexistent 3d performance which isn't an issue for my Linux usage. Never crossed my mind that power management would be an issue. It does seem like they are moving forward with improving the drivers though for Linux and windows for that matter.

To be fair both worked quite well in terms of performance but I refuse to use to use a driver that's going to make the cards idle at 50 degrees.

On the upside I still have a perfectly good nvidia power machine that runs Linux and osx just fine...just not as powerful as my sig rig.

Save

Melcar

· #10 · Apr 15, 2011

You can use Overdrive with fglrx to overclock/underclock the card to your heart's content.

Save

cavallino

Discussion Starter · #11 · Apr 15, 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by Melcar;13129505
You can use Overdrive with fglrx to overclock/underclock the card to your heart's content.

Interesting I looked that up and theres another amdoverdrivectrl package in the AUR.

Might try it though given how the rest of it worked I am skeptical.

Save

1 - 11 of 11 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month