AMD and FGLRX ATI Radeon

[richb]

This gets tricky My CPU reports a reference temperature so it is not the "real" temperature. For what it is worth it idles an average at 2 to 3 degrees C. The real temperature is reported in the Bios but that takes away any affect of driver software.

[dreamer]

This gets tricky My CPU reports a reference temperature so it is not the "real" temperature. For what it is worth it idles an average at 2 to 3 degrees C. The real temperature is reported in the Bios but that takes away any affect of driver software.

That's a cool computer. 2 to 3 degrees C is just above freezing point.
Fun fact: Water at 4 degrees C has the highest density so this is the temperature at the bottom of oceans. If you go lower than that density lowers again as water turns to ice at 0 C.

[KBD]

I too noticed that the radeon driver runs warm when idling. I have a dual-core passively cooled AMD "net-top" for surfing the web. It uses the radeon driver and idles at 60 C. When I put both cores under full load for an extended period the CPU reaches about 90 C.

So the problem is not the power draw under full load. The problem is the power draw when idling. It seems the radeon driver doesn't reach low power states when idling.

My CPU has a 18w TDP and it's possible it uses 10w when idling which is of course too much.

I too miss the fglrx driver. It was nice for a computer connected to a TV. It could display full RGB and my plasma TV supports full RGB PC input. It gives the same "punch" to the picture that I get with Windows. fglrx also had a nice settings UI albeit old.

I don't know if amdgpu-pro is a good successor. When Crimson replaced Catalyst on Windows things became a mess I think. I don't want to go with Nvidia so I'll go with Intel in the future. Maybe the amdgpu (new open source driver) is better than the radeon driver?

I'm not a gamer, so I have religiously avoided AMD and nvidia video driver issues and stuck with intel graphics which have never given me an issue on Linux. My intuition was right. Luckily I don't need the amd based netbook as I have other, better computers, but a good reminder of what people go through with hardware that no longer plays nice with Linux.

[richb]

This gets tricky My CPU reports a reference temperature so it is not the "real" temperature. For what it is worth it idles an average at 2 to 3 degrees C. The real temperature is reported in the Bios but that takes away any affect of driver software.

That's a cool computer. 2 to 3 degrees C is just above freezing point.
Fun fact: Water at 4 degrees C has the highest density so this is the temperature at the bottom of oceans. If you go lower than that density lowers again as water turns to ice at 0 C

.

I guess I need to take the frozen steak off the CPU.

Here is an explanation:
2.10.1 The Tctl Temperature Scale
Tctl is a processor temperature control value used for processor thermal management. Tctl is accessible
through D18F3xA4[CurTmp]. Tctl is a temperature on its own scale aligned to the processors cooling requirements. Therefore Tctl does not represent a temperature which could be measured on the die or the case of the
processor. Instead, it specifies the processor temperature relative to the maximum operating temperature,
Tctl,max. Tctl,max is specified in the power and thermal data sheet. Tctl is defined as follows for all parts:
A: For Tctl = Tctl_max to 255.875: the temperature of the part is [Tctl - Tctl_max] over the maximum operating temperature. The processor may take corrective actions that affect performance, such as HTC, to support
the return to Tctl range B.
B: For Tctl = 0 to Tctl_max - 0.125: the temperature of the part is [Tctl_max - Tctl] under the maximum operating temperature.
Figure 7: Tctl scale
Tctl
Maximum operating
temperature Tctl_max
255.875
0.000
A

[Head_on_a_Stick]

I don't know if amdgpu-pro is a good successor.

The amdgpu-pro driver is only needed for OpenCL.

The open source amdgpu driver is very good indeed, it outperforms the Windows AMD video drivers