Catalyst vs xf86-video-ati 2D performance in 1080p video

mapr · 2010-03-23 09:24:42

Hi!

I bough HD 4870 card to boost up 3D performance on my system a bit... Old one was nvdia 9400GT.
One 1080p movie I have, used 90-100+ % of prosessor time with old card and nvidia drivers.

With HD4870 and xf86-video-ati driver prosessor usage dropped to 60-70%, I just tested one part in the middle of the movie and a bit in wery beginning. But seemed to strain prosessor much less.

Then I installed catalyst drivers, which boosted up 3D performance a lot. No I can easily max my detail settings in Savage2 and Urbanterror But, when I tried this same video with catalyst driver in use, processor usage was again at 90%+ and system was not able to run video smoothly. Between xf86 and catalyst test I updated my system... But can this be true, or have I possibly just happened to less prosessor straining parts of the movie when testing with xf86 driver... ?

- A -

Cdh · 2010-03-23 09:58:02

Catalyst is not the best driver.

If you don't care to build some packages yourself you can try mplayer with vaapi.
You need to build xvba-video, maybe vdpau-video and mplayer-vaapi from aur.
Then you can play movies with mplayer -vo vaapi:xv -va vaapi.
Works really great for me, 1080p videos with 10-15% CPU.

Last edited by Cdh (2010-03-23 09:58:25)

mapr · 2010-03-23 10:38:19

Hmm.... Thanks - sounds like something I try when I get back home

Mr.Elendig · 2010-03-23 16:30:56

Rumors says that hw acceleration now works in 10.4, check the ati bar and grill thread.

mapr · 2010-03-25 09:14:05

So far did not have any improvement with vaapi... Have to try again, maybe I need to reinstall some of the debs also.

Mr Elendig: I am using catalyst 10.4 and it is working fine with 3D

Cdh · 2010-03-25 10:14:00

It should be much better...
Maybe vaapi does not work yet, it is very silent if it does not work.
vainfo must return something like that

 ~ % vainfo
libva: libva version 0.31.0-sds6
Xlib:  extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0".
libva: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva: Trying to open /usr/lib/va/drivers/fglrx_drv_video.so
libva: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA API version: 0.31
vainfo: Driver version: Splitted-Desktop Systems XvBA backend for VA API - 0.6.10
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
      VAProfileMPEG2Simple            :    VAEntrypointIDCT
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              :    VAEntrypointIDCT
      VAProfileH264High               :    VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Advanced            :    VAEntrypointVLD

mapr · 2010-03-26 18:26:59

Got this with vainfo, I actually tried vlc with va support and it just did work as did before Now I mplayer with vaapi and ti did nothing. Seems that vainfo tries to open file that does no exist in that place... "ibva: Trying to open /usr/lib/va/drivers/fglrx_drv_video.so"

libva: libva version 0.31.0-sds6
Xlib:  extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0".
libva: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva: Trying to open /usr/lib/va/drivers/fglrx_drv_video.so
libva: va_openDriver() returns -1
vaInitialize failed with error code -1 (unknown libva error),exit

[EDIT]
Tomorrow I will look in to this... this night 'belongs' to whisky

[Another EDIT]
"yaourt -S aur/xvba-video" might be the solution... And... It is. Now same movie took 3-8% of processor time. Niiiiice

Last edited by mapr (2010-03-26 20:40:43)

Cdh · 2010-03-26 23:12:11

In the free driver there will be video acceleration too.

http://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature
"Video Decode (XvMC/VDPAU/VA-API) using the 3D engine"
"Video Decode (XvMC/VDPAU/VA-API) using UVD"

But it seems nothing has been done so far for R600 and newer...

Nerd King · 2010-03-27 03:12:08

The open drivers are excellent. I run an AMD HD4570 on my laptop and the 3D performance of the open drivers is pretty good. They've come a long way in the last couple of years as there used to be no 3D at all. Performance isn't yet up to the catalyst driver but reliability is much better. Be aware that the catalyst driver will cause hassle with compatibility with different versions of Xorg etc.

spidernik84 · 2010-05-04 20:09:25

I did try vaapi acceleration as well, and it's working fine on my Ati hd4670.
I've successfully enabled accelerated playback with mplayer from terminal with this

mplayer -vo vaapi:gl -va vaapi "file name"

The "vaapi:gl" option removed some strange artifact appearing on top and on the bottom of the screen while playing in fullscreen.
I've been trying to enable hw acceleration on gnome-mplayer specifying "vaapi" in "preferences > video output", but judging from cpu usage looks like gnome-mplayer is completely ignoring these settings. Anyone experienced a similar issue?
Thanks

Arch Linux

#1 2010-03-23 09:24:42

Catalyst vs xf86-video-ati 2D performance in 1080p video

#2 2010-03-23 09:58:02

Re: Catalyst vs xf86-video-ati 2D performance in 1080p video

#3 2010-03-23 10:38:19

Re: Catalyst vs xf86-video-ati 2D performance in 1080p video

#4 2010-03-23 16:30:56

Re: Catalyst vs xf86-video-ati 2D performance in 1080p video

#5 2010-03-25 09:14:05

Re: Catalyst vs xf86-video-ati 2D performance in 1080p video

#6 2010-03-25 10:14:00

Re: Catalyst vs xf86-video-ati 2D performance in 1080p video

#7 2010-03-26 18:26:59

Re: Catalyst vs xf86-video-ati 2D performance in 1080p video

#8 2010-03-26 23:12:11

Re: Catalyst vs xf86-video-ati 2D performance in 1080p video

#9 2010-03-27 03:12:08

Re: Catalyst vs xf86-video-ati 2D performance in 1080p video

#10 2010-05-04 20:09:25

Re: Catalyst vs xf86-video-ati 2D performance in 1080p video

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