Athlon LE + HD 4870

I have this Athlon LE 1640 put together from psare parts, and I added an HD4870 gpu. I know for a fact the card works, but I just cant get it to play nice with 13.04. I am getting Zero performance from it. I'm certain it's a driver issue, as I've seen tons of solutions online, and I've probably tried 10 or 12 of them, all of them have falied.

I carefully tired this solution yesterday: http://minus-code.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-to-install-amd-legacy-drivers-for.html but got errors about fglrx, and was unable to run . I would really like to get this card working with the system. I've tried so many different things I just dont know what to do at this point :cry any help would be great. I've tried ubuntuforums and someone suggested a solution in the thread, which also didnt work. sudo amdconfig --initial keeps telling me command not found.

 

Tried yet another "fix" today and it broke so many things i had to reinstall 13.04 . I guess this card is worthless. All it does is get hot and use power. I don't know what else to do. I guess HD4xxx doesn't actually work despite the claims I see saying otherwise. Any advice is welcome.

 

Not sure you're gonna get that card to perform satisfactorily in anything newer than Ubuntu 12.04.2; neither with open source, nor proprietary drivers. Apparently, the X-server software changed from 12.04.2 forward, which causes issues with the proprietary Catalyst drivers. See post #6 in this thread, regarding open source Radeon driver:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2143425

I've seen other posts referencing the Catalyst BETA drivers, differing linux kernels, and changing X-server software, but the results are a mixed bag and, apparently, temporary. It would seem your card is not good for gaming on Linux, and should be relegated to a system for everyday use.

If you must game with that card, I would suggest you install Ubuntu 12.04.1 (if you can locate that version), and lock it down to that configuration, no updates, if you're married to that GPU. Alternatively, looking forward, AMD/ATI has already dropped Legacy support for their proprietary Linux driver, and that isn't likely to change. It might be time to upgrade the GPU. I have learned that, sometimes, the proper workaround is to change the hardware, FWIW!

 

I don't game, but I like to watch HD videos, which maxes out this CPU. I was hoping that the 4870 could take some of that weight off the CPU so i can multitask without affecting the display (skip/stuttering while multitasking). Unfortunately, I can't afford a newer card, and I'm tired of trying solutions that break other things.
I guess ill take it out sometime today and just forget about it.
Thank you, Hedon.

 

I found a download in my backup drive for Ubuntu 12.04.1 amd64 bit version. EDIT: I also found an x86 version! If you're interested, I'll upload the ISO to a private Ubuntu One account and PM you the link for download. It's no guarantee, but you'll be able to cross that off your list of potential solutions.

Or, we could cross-reference the version of x-server on Ubuntu 12.04.1 and perhaps find an alternative distro with that version, like Debian. These are all short-term solutions, though. The long-term answer really is a newer GPU. Have you considered E-Bay?

When a new, latest & greatest video card is available, slobbering gamers can't wait to try it out. Sometimes they sell their old ones on E-Bay. I've gotten some fantastic deals on E-bay, presumably from elitist gamers who considered their old 2nd or 3rd generation ago hardware to be archaic. But it's perfect for MY needs, typically at 1/4 to 1/2 price!!! Just FYI...