Arch Linux

oldherl

Member

Registered: 2008-08-31

Posts: 23

ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

I'm using the newest radeon driver, xorg-server and kernel26 in [testing] and [extra].
My video card is HD 4330

xf86-video-ati 6.12.191-1
xorg-server 1.7.5-2
ati-dri 7.7-2
kernel26 2.6.33-1

and:

$ glxinfo | grep -i opengl
OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R600 (RV710 9552) 20090101  TCL DRI2
OpenGL version string: 1.5 Mesa 7.7
OpenGL extensions:

No xorg.conf is used.

I know that maybe 3D hardware acceleration is activated, but running glxgears only gives about 900 FPS (normal size, not maximized)
And I when I run games like supertuxkart, I only get 20 FPS or so, while it is over 200 FPS in Windows.

Anyone knows if this is the best performance using this driver, or did I do anything wrong?

flamelab

Member

From: Athens, Hellas (Greece)

Registered: 2007-12-26

Posts: 2,160

Re: ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

That's what you should expect for now from xf86-video-ati.

oldherl

Member

Registered: 2008-08-31

Posts: 23

Re: ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

But what about these guys? They have all 2000+ fps in glxgears
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=79509&p=37

That's what you should expect for now from xf86-video-ati.

flamelab

Member

From: Athens, Hellas (Greece)

Registered: 2007-12-26

Posts: 2,160

Re: ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

Glxgears is not a benchmark. And may also have better cards.

Lothium

Member

Registered: 2009-10-10

Posts: 192

Re: ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

With KMS I have also round about 900-1000 fps with my X700 Mobility. Instead of this I use UMS and there I have 2300 fps and it works great. Do you use KMS or UMS?

lman

Member

From: CZ

Registered: 2007-12-18

Posts: 255

Re: ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

But what about these guys? They have all 2000+ fps in glxgears
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=79509&p=37

Most of them are using the git packages, not the ones from official repos. I personally use perry3D-s repo for git packages. (look at the first post of that thread)
With ums you will probably get more fps, but don't expect too much. The open source drivers are not optimized yet, they are still trying to get everything working first.

Last edited by lman (2010-03-07 14:13:37)

syms

Member

Registered: 2008-12-25

Posts: 296

Re: ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

I dunno about games, but compositing will work much smoother if you will add these options in xorg.conf:

Section "Device"
    Identifier    "ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AP [Radeon 9600]"
    Driver        "radeon"
    Option          "AccelMethod"         "EXA"
    BusID        "PCI:1:0:0"
              Option "AccelDFS" "true"

jarryson

Member

Registered: 2007-02-18

Posts: 298

Re: ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

ATI X700 mobility: 1400fps with KMS, 3200fps with UMS.

seems mesa 8.8 will be released soon,  i think then the proformance will be better

Lothium

Member

Registered: 2009-10-10

Posts: 192

Re: ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

@jarryson: What is the config of your system? I also have an ATI X700 mobility, but I only geht 900-1000 fps with KMS and with UMS I get 2300 fps. I have a pentium m 1.73 Ghz, 2GB Ram, 80 GB HDD with 5200 rpm.

Best regards!

Snakeye

Member

From: Surrey BC

Registered: 2009-12-19

Posts: 91

Re: ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

ATI is garbage. They have never been able to write a decent driver even for Windows. Great hardware but wasted due to garbage drivers.

jarryson

Member

Registered: 2007-02-18

Posts: 298

Re: ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

@jarryson: What is the config of your system? I also have an ATI X700 mobility, but I only geht 900-1000 fps with KMS and with UMS I get 2300 fps. I have a pentium m 1.73 Ghz, 2GB Ram, 80 GB HDD with 5200 rpm.

Best regards!

the scores is really close, different version of driver got different scores, so don't keep in mind.

        Option  "AccelMethod" "EXA"
        Option  "EnablePageFlip" "on"
        Option  "EXAVSync" "yes"
        Option  "EXAPixmaps" "on"

ChemBro

Member

Registered: 2008-10-22

Posts: 703

Re: ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

ATI is garbage. They have never been able to write a decent driver even for Windows. Great hardware but wasted due to garbage drivers.

This is about the open source driver, not the closed source one. AMD/Ati aren't the only ones, who write code for this driver.

syms

Member

Registered: 2008-12-25

Posts: 296

Re: ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

Ive try out kms too, and the compiz/kwin compositing performance is as good as without kms, but i also see that in glxgears frame drop is 2x, now instead of 2000fps i get 900fps. So my question is will this have performance hit, when i will play games which uses opengl? i really need to know this.
thanks

LukynZ

Member

From: Ostrava, Czech Republic

Registered: 2008-11-13

Posts: 122

Re: ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

Why use KMS when there is so big performance drop? Are there any practical things to do so?

jarryson

Member

Registered: 2007-02-18

Posts: 298

Re: ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

Why use KMS when there is so big performance drop? Are there any practical things to do so?

Be able to run X with normal user instead of root in the future.

Last edited by jarryson (2010-03-08 12:09:41)

LukynZ

Member

From: Ostrava, Czech Republic

Registered: 2008-11-13

Posts: 122

Re: ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

So there is no practical use now

flamelab

Member

From: Athens, Hellas (Greece)

Registered: 2007-12-26

Posts: 2,160

Re: ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

Why use KMS when there is so big performance drop? Are there any practical things to do so?

KMS shall be the way to move the usage of drivers into kernel space. That means a lot of things (powersaving through kernel for example) but also a stable base for Gallium3D to work on in the future.

Now (now, now), for the users, it is useless, since most of its features haven't been implemented yet, instead of full resolution tty console.

Last edited by flamelab (2010-03-08 12:28:19)

ChemBro

Member

Registered: 2008-10-22

Posts: 703

Re: ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

Why use KMS when there is so big performance drop? Are there any practical things to do so?

DRI2 (OpenGL 2.0 and greater), native screen resolution, flickerfree transition between tty and desktop, X without root (more secure system), hibernate and co are now part of the kernel (and not X), something with multiple screen detection, that the kernel now handles... and so on.

I guess, OpenGL 2.0 and greater might be the biggest benefit for you.

More power for the kernel, less for X (which is good in my opinion).

oldherl

Member

Registered: 2008-08-31

Posts: 23

Re: ATI radeon driver: Can I get better 3D performance?

OK, I'm now installing those git packages.
Hope to get better performance, but not so much expectation.

So disappointed when finding out that it is even worse than the intel 945 on another laptop.
And JEALOUS when saw a nVidia laptop running official driver!

EDIT: Still no good. Trying catalyst now.

Last edited by oldherl (2010-03-10 04:47:15)