I got myself a used desktop PC with a xeon 1650 and a v5900 (which will be replaced soon).
Anyway until then I want to run a GNU/Linux-Distribution (Ubuntu MATE - pls no bully) and need drivers. A forum conversation about this topic said op who wanted to use Mint needs to install 17.03 (based on Ubuntu 14.04) instead of 18 (16.04) because he will need fglrx which got removed in Ubuntu 16.04.
I will need these kinda old drivers http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/workstation/previous/detail?os=Linux%20x86_64&rev=15.201.2401
Would that mean i have to get Ubuntu 14.04 or just anything before 16.04? Is there no way to run my hardware with 16.4/16.10?
I have an AMD/ATI R7200 GPU with Ubuntu Mate 16.04 and the open source AMD drivers. It runs very well. The open source AMD drivers have improved significantly in recent months. Also, it should be born in mind that the propriety drivers are unavailable on any of the recent Debian derivatives, including Mint. Thus, you are correct that you would need to install UM 14.04 or an equivalent earlier Debian derivative in order to use the fglrx drivers.
Personally, if it were me, I would try out the 16.04 UM version with the open source AMD drivers first, to see if they met my needs, before falling back on an earlier version.
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kay thanks when talking about the open source AMD drivers we are talking about AMDGPU?
edit: so would it work out of the box? 
Yes, mine is an amd gpu. It’s the R7200
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