Tip: for ATI Mobility Radeon 9600

[David Batson]

I installed system-config-display, then went to System > Administration > Display and accepted the defaults to create an xorg.conf file. I then edited the xorg.conf file using the following content (some I got from my Mandriva 2010 xorg.conf and other I added later).

/etc/X11/xorg.conf

# Xorg configuration created by system-config-display

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "DontZap" "False" # disable <Ctrl><Alt><BS> (server abort)
    #DontZoom # disable <Ctrl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> (resolution switching)
    AllowMouseOpenFail # allows the server to start up even if the mouse does not work
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load "dbe" # Double-Buffering Extension
    Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
    Load "extmod"
    Load "glx" # 3D layer
    Load "dri" # direct rendering
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "monitor1"
    VendorName "Generic"
    ModelName "Flat Panel 1400x1050"
    HorizSync 28.8-90
    VertRefresh 60
    
    # TV fullscreen mode or DVD fullscreen output.
    # 768x576 @ 79 Hz, 50 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     50.00  768  832  846 1000   576  590  595  630
    
    # 768x576 @ 100 Hz, 61.6 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     63.07  768  800  960 1024   576  578  590  616
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "device1"
    VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc"
    BoardName "ATI Radeon X1950 and earlier"
    Driver "radeon"
    Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"
    Option "AGPMode" "4"
    Option "GARTSize" "64"
    Option "EnablePageFlip" "on"
    Option "ColorTiling" "on"
    Option "DPMS"
    Option "set load detection" "1"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "screen1"
    Device "device1"
    Monitor "monitor1"
    Subsection "Display"
            Depth    24
	    Modes    "1400x1050" "1024x768" "800x600"
            # Here you can set virtual screen size:
            Virtual 2800 1050
    EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "layout1"
    Screen "screen1"
EndSection

I also am using the nomodeset kernel parameter in /boot/grub/menu.lst.

The combination of these two things seems to have speeded up graphics rendering quite a bit.