FAQ from x.org about ATI driver

I have an ATI graphics card, which driver should I use ?

The GATOS project create enhanced (fast) drivers for the ATI chipsets, which also include TV in/out support for most ATI cards that have this feature. While the main target of these drivers is still XFree86, they are still compatible with the X.org server. The GATOS project does not yet redistribute X.org compatible binaries, but compiling against the X.org source tree will work. The GATOS TV-in code has been incorporated into XOrg, but its TV-out code is still only available in the GATOS drivers.

For r200 cards on down, the open source ati drivers will provide excellent 3d acceleration. for r300 and up, the only fully functioning option is ATI's proprietary fglrx drivers in X11R6.8 and below. In X11R6.9 and X11R7.0, DRI will work on r300 and up.