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Shall I install the ATI drivers from Jockey (which i think are 11.8), download the latest from ati.com or continue with the open source pre-installed gfx drivers?

Im running Ubuntu 11.10 with KDE desktop installed. I have an acer aspire 5552 laptop, AMD x3 processor with ATI 4250 graphics. I just want a stable computer!

I use ubuntu to watch movies, encode films, listen to music.

Hope you can advise me! Kind regards

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  • For the regular tasks, the open-source drivers are quite enough. They're officially supported by ATI as well.
    – Oxwivi
    Commented Nov 12, 2011 at 12:12
  • I switched to the ATI drivers on my Ubuntu 11.04 a few weeks ago. Support for dual monitors was especially poor (you couldn't move windows between monitors, the secondary monitor became the default and there was no way to change that, etc). Luckily, reverting worked and I was back to normal.
    – Hippo
    Commented Nov 12, 2011 at 12:33

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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Unfortunately, I have just recently realised after some testing, that if you have an ATI card, you will either:

  • Use the open source drivers and have almost everything work great (HD movies, Gnome Shell work like a charm on my HD6890) except gaming (most games I tried never started at all including Trine, Savage 2, Regnum Online)
  • Use the proprietary drivers (they're up to ver. 11.11 now) and get all games working great but lose overall smoothness and enjoy choppy HD video playback.

I chose in the end not to game, and hope that AMD gets their act together or I'm selling my card and getting an Nvidia one.

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I own a laptop with similar hardware (Mobility Radeon HD 4250 IGP), and I strongly recommend using the open source drivers. They provide 2d and 3d acceleration, they support live configuration for external monitors (important if you use your laptop for presentations), and in my experience they are far, far more stable than the fglrx drivers.

Fglrx is really only useful these days if you have bleeding-edge hardware, or you are doing 3D gaming. With a 4250 I suspect neither of those applies to you.

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The HD4250 should have good 2d and 3d acceleration using the open source drivers.

Take a look here Radeon HD drivers on Ubuntu

There are some interesting articles on the subject on the Phoronics website.

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I have an HP DV7 Notebook with HP w2207 external monitor hooked up via standard video (DB9?) connector. I couldn't get the notebook screen and monitor to work independently (non mirrored) with the w2207 in higher resolution until I installed the following driver, and even then had to keep changing the settings, in the Catalyst Control Center (administrative), and rebooting... many attempts before the changes stuck and everything worked.

Download page: ATI Catalyst™ Proprietary Display Driver - Linux x86 & Linux x86_64 Downloaded file: AMD Catalyst™ 11.11 Proprietary Linux x86 Display Driver

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  • I'm using a fresh install of version 11.10
    – Brad
    Commented Dec 4, 2011 at 3:13

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