[ltp] Re: What to take care of when buying a Lenovo? revisited

[John Sullivan]

Alex Deucher <alexdeucher@gmail.com> writes:

> On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 5:17 PM, John Sullivan <john@wjsullivan.net> wrote:
>> Robert Tomsick <robert@tomsick.net> writes:
>>
>>> Unless I'm mistaken, noveau does support 3D, although the support is
>>> very much a work in progress.  I know it can support compositing WMs and
>>> some games, and I know it's good enough to give me pretty shadows and
>>> translucency, etc. on my desktop.
>>
>> Yes, that's right.
>>
>> Also, the ATI free drivers require a rather substantial proprietary
>> blob -- nowadays for 2D as well as 3D, since 2D is emulated.
>
> 2D isn't emulated, it's just that there is no 2D hardware on newer
> chips so the 3D hardware is used for everything.  All radeons require
> firmware for the command processor.  Same as CPUs and lots of other
> devices (wireless cards, scsi cards, etc.).

Ah, okay. I know lots of devices have user loaded proprietary firmware
(lots also don't) -- just pointing it out in the Radeon vs nouveau
NVIDIA comparison since it's relevant to the OP's question.

-- 
-John Sullivan
-http://wjsullivan.net
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