How well does an ATI mobility radeon hd 5650 work?

Question

Getting a new laptop soon with the ati mobility radeon hd 5650, and just wondering if the card will be supported (unofficially or oficially is all the same) by unity in natty?

Solution 1

According to this post on the ArchLinux forums, the proprietary flgrx driver supports this card.

It should therefore work with Unity.

Solution 2

I have the same GPU (Intel/ATI 5650, switchable graphics). Yours is similar probably.

AMD has a driver that supports switchable graphics:

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx (11.5 as of this edit)

I highly recommend using the instructions for your version of Ubuntu here:

http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu

I used the instructions for 11.04 Natty and Catalyst 11.5 and the installation was smooth and successful. I suggest reading the page thoroughly before proceeding so that you know how to recover in case something doesn't go well.

Comments

[Uri Herrera]

as with any new GPU the catalyst driver will support it

[onse]

can you confirm if this driver still works on 12.04 and if it is therefore useful to install the old proprietary driver instead of using vgaswitcheroo with the open ones?

[Ryan]

on the page of the second link above: wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Precise_Installation_Guide. truth be told, I gave up on the drivers a long time ago and just use vgaswitcheroo now for Intel video, with the unfortunate side effect that I can't use my HDMI/MDP ports. I'll be more wary with the next laptop I purchase so I don't make the hybrid graphics mistake again