Re: [linux-audio-user] AMD Turion 64 X2 ?

On Sun, 9 Jul 2006 16:57:43 +0200
Frank Barknecht <fbar@email-addr-hidden> wrote:

> Hallo,
> oz hat gesagt: // oz wrote:
>
> > I have sympathy for a new notebook with AMD Turion 64 X2 dual-core
> > cpu. It would open some new possibilities, like virtualization
> > (pacifica, xen etc.), pure AMD64 Debian arch, other 32-bit OS' and -
> > and that is the question - good realtime-audio performance?
>
> I would say be careful with AMD laptops and Linux. Intel machines tend
> to be much better supported because there are open source drivers for
> the other parts inside these machines like WLAN, gfx card (if it's
> Intel) etc. while AMD laptops often use NVidia chipsets and gfx cards
> or similar stuff by ATi for which you need to install binary drivers
> sometimes, that may mess up other things like power management in
> strange ways. 64bit isn't that important for audio anyways. Getting a
> laptop to run flawlessly is hard enough, don't make it harder on
> yourself by buying hardware without open source drivers.

Thanks. I agree in general, but it's a dilemma - feed opportunistic
companies like ati or feed quasi-monopols like intel. :-/

So the only thing, that's sure at the moment, is that I choose a AMD
Dual-Core for my next computer. And one of its OS' (besides other
multi-boots) will be a dedicated 32-bit linux for audio purposes.
Because dual-core Turions are very recent, there seems to be not much
experience with latencies and realtime-kernels at the moment. We'll
see. In reality, I only found one (o-n-e) laptop at the moment, that
could work for me (Asus A6T, nvidia/realtek based). At the same time I
know, its WLAN-card (Airgo) is not supported. The problem you
mentioned. A deal-breaker would be, if dual-cores don't work well
with realtime-audio.

Gruss,
Oliver
Received on Tue Jul 11 08:15:07 2006