Thinkpads Forum

Posted: **Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:04 pm**

Ok, after infinite soul searching, I've finally decided on upgrading my T60P to a T400. (Don't ask for the logic. It was more voodoo decision making than anything else.)

But, I do want an 8G machine.

Anyone know when the 4G dimms are going to become commercially available?

Posted: **Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:17 pm**

well 4GB DIMMS are available (granted only in DDR2 right now) but at the $500 price you sure you need 8GB? The RAM would cost as much as the laptop!

As for when DDR3 4GB DIMMs will be out is anyones guess. DDR2s just came out and that's like 4yrs after the fact.

Posted: **Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:30 pm**

Yeah, I'm a CS professor so I have a reasonably good idea of how much memory I need. 8G is it. And once they start coming out in quantity, prices will eventually plummet, as always. Well, perhaps by that time, RedHat will have drivers for the T400...

Posted: **Fri Aug 22, 2008 3:00 pm**

And it's worth mentioning that Micron announced 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMMs in April, so a 4 year waiting period seems a bit unrealistic...

Posted: **Fri Aug 22, 2008 6:20 pm**

FizzleDizzle wrote:Yeah, I'm a CS professor so I have a reasonably good idea of how much memory I need. 8G is it. And once they start coming out in quantity, prices will eventually plummet, as always. Well, perhaps by that time, RedHat will have drivers for the T400...

AFAIK, Intel's already merged support for the GM45 chipset into the kernel. 2D acceleration should be supported via the latest xf86-video-intel package and 3D should be supported via the i915 kernel DRM driver. I don't know about switchable graphics or the RadeonHD, though.

EDIT: Intel's 5000 series wireless might not be supported yet. I think the ThinkPad wireless card is supported via MadWifi.

Posted: **Fri Aug 22, 2008 8:12 pm**

IIRC, Lenovo had explicitly stated RedHat would be an option on the new T and W machines. Personally, I would remove RH and install Debian, but it seems reasonable to wait until Lenovo starts offering a Linux configuration.

By the way, I don't need switchable graphics support, as the T400 comes either discrete xor integrated, and I'd go with the discrete Radeon. But switchable graphics will likely be a Linux stumbling block for other models, as has been mentioned here before.

Posted: **Sat Aug 23, 2008 4:10 am**

FizzleDizzle wrote:IIRC, Lenovo had explicitly stated RedHat would be an option on the new T and W machines. Personally, I would remove RH and install Debian, but it seems reasonable to wait until Lenovo starts offering a Linux configuration.

By the way, I don't need switchable graphics support, as the T400 comes either discrete xor integrated, and I'd go with the discrete Radeon. But switchable graphics will likely be a Linux stumbling block for other models, as has been mentioned here before.

Yea, I don't do anything 3d intensive on my laptop so I don't see the need for switchable graphics or a discrete card, hopefully there are some good linux drivers for the brand new intel hardware coming out.

Posted: **Sat Aug 23, 2008 6:22 am**

tylerwylie wrote:
FizzleDizzle wrote:IIRC, Lenovo had explicitly stated RedHat would be an option on the new T and W machines. Personally, I would remove RH and install Debian, but it seems reasonable to wait until Lenovo starts offering a Linux configuration.

By the way, I don't need switchable graphics support, as the T400 comes either discrete xor integrated, and I'd go with the discrete Radeon. But switchable graphics will likely be a Linux stumbling block for other models, as has been mentioned here before.
Yea, I don't do anything 3d intensive on my laptop so I don't see the need for switchable graphics or a discrete card, hopefully there are some good linux drivers for the brand new intel hardware coming out.

They're already there, genius! According to Phoronix, 3D support was added in kernel 2.6.26 and 2D support in xf86-video-intel-2.4.0. Both of those are in Portage.

Posted: **Sat Aug 23, 2008 8:05 am**

If you only want integrated graphics for a T400, it's true the Intel GMA 4500MHD is already listed as supported. However, how well those drivers work is a question that remains to be seen. Just because something is listed as being supported doesn't mean it won't take a year to work out the bugs.

And in general, ATI Radeon drivers for Linux have been notoriously slow and buggy. I didn't bother checking whether the 3640 is "listed" as being supported, as only reviews will indicate if it's usable.

It is certainly conceivable that integrated graphics on the T400 will turn out to be faster than discrete graphics for Linux users. No way to know this until people start benchmarking them. Historically, it's been a sorry state of affairs between ATI and Linux.

Posted: **Sat Aug 23, 2008 1:54 pm**

FizzleDizzle wrote:If you only want integrated graphics for a T400, it's true the Intel GMA 4500MHD is already listed as supported. However, how well those drivers work is a question that remains to be seen. Just because something is listed as being supported doesn't mean it won't take a year to work out the bugs.

And in general, ATI Radeon drivers for Linux have been notoriously slow and buggy. I didn't bother checking whether the 3640 is "listed" as being supported, as only reviews will indicate if it's usable.

It is certainly conceivable that integrated graphics on the T400 will turn out to be faster than discrete graphics for Linux users. No way to know this until people start benchmarking them. Historically, it's been a sorry state of affairs between ATI and Linux.

There are three different ATI drivers avaiable:

xf86-video-fgrlx (ATI proprietary)
xf86-video-ati (open source, reverse engineered)
xf86-video-radeonhd (open source, joint effort between ATI and Novell)

Posted: **Sat Aug 23, 2008 4:34 pm**

wswartzendruber wrote:There are three different ATI drivers avaiable:
(snip)

As I said, I'll wait for benchmarks and some successful Linux stories, for anything involving ATI. But if you have seen reviews (with timings) of these for the 3640, please do post them.

Anyway, this post was about 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMMs, not video drivers, so let's not hijack it too much.

Posted: **Tue Dec 16, 2008 12:28 am**

I'll buy a T400 when they've got 4gb modules available. Right now I have a T61 with 6gb's or RAM and it's great. (I develop and run VM's all the time.)

Posted: **Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:08 am**

FizzleDizzle wrote:If you only want integrated graphics for a T400, it's true the Intel GMA 4500MHD is already listed as supported. However, how well those drivers work is a question that remains to be seen. Just because something is listed as being supported doesn't mean it won't take a year to work out the bugs.

FWIW, I have a T500 with the Intel graphics running 64 bit Ubuntu 8.10. Most things I have tried seem to work pretty well.

For video performance, I get:

Code: Select all

hbarta@cypress:~$ glxgears
3585 frames in 5.0 seconds = 716.967 FPS
3668 frames in 5.0 seconds = 733.517 FPS
3610 frames in 5.0 seconds = 721.845 FPS
3638 frames in 5.0 seconds = 727.550 FPS
3646 frames in 5.0 seconds = 729.189 FPS
^C

The driver is:

Code: Select all

(II) Matched intel from file name intel.ids
(==) Matched intel for the autoconfigured driver
(==) Assigned the driver to the xf86ConfigLayout
(II) LoadModule: "intel"

(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//intel_drv.so
(II) Module intel: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
        compiled for 1.5.2, module version = 2.4.1
        Module class: X.Org Video Driver
        ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 4.1
(II) intel: Driver for Intel Integrated Graphics Chipsets: i810,
        i810-dc100, i810e, i815, i830M, 845G, 852GM/855GM, 865G, 915G,
        E7221 (i915), 915GM, 945G, 945GM, 945GME, 965G, G35, 965Q, 946GZ,
        965GM, 965GME/GLE, G33, Q35, Q33,
        Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset,
        Intel Integrated Graphics Device, G45/G43, Q45/Q43

(There's more info in Xorg.0.log if that would be useful.)

The screen is the 1680x1050 (WSXGA+)

If you can point to other easily run benchmarks I'd be happy to report the results on those.

The Intel 5300 wireless card is identified as 5100 and seems to work.

Code: Select all

03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless WiFi Link 5100
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device 1011
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 2297
        Memory at f4300000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: iwlagn
        Kernel modules: iwlagn

I'm not sure I'm getting expected throughput as it seems only a little faster than the Intel 2200 (802.11g) in our T42.

I haven't tried the 1394 port or the external video. Webcam seems quirky - or maybe that's the applications. The SD card reader works.

And 4GB RAM is plenty for my needs. With the standard graphics and 32 bit kernels (Ubuntu 8.10 Live CD, Vista Home basic) only about 3GB is used.

There's some pretty good info for installing on a T400 at http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Install_U ... nkpad_T400 (Apologies for the broken URL, but if I try to apply the URL tags, the preview disappears.)

Thinkpads Forum

4G dimms at 1067MhZ??

4G dimms at 1067MhZ??