Arch Linux

saronno

Member

Registered: 2009-10-02

Posts: 194

Intel 945GM performance

I've just installed arch on a laptop
with intel 945GM video card (950)

I use no xorg.conf with intel 2.15.0-2 driver
but performance are very bad:

glxgears (it's not a benchmark ... but however it gives you an idea)
40 FPS !?!?!

Kernel is 2.6.39 (not modified whatsoever ..)
X.org 1.10.3

I use this guide to enable KMS
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … Setting.29

Damnshock

Member

From: Barcelona

Registered: 2006-09-13

Posts: 414

Re: Intel 945GM performance

for the GAZILLION time: glxgears *IS NOT A BENCHMARK!!!*

Besides: what happens when you run the benchmark while you are moving the mouse around? does it get close to the 60Hz?

If you wanna improve performance you can try enabling SNA in the intel driver. Get the package build and add the --enable-sna configure option.

Regards

---

My blog: blog.marcdeop.com
Jabber ID: damnshock@jabber.org

ChemBro

Member

Registered: 2008-10-22

Posts: 703

Re: Intel 945GM performance

I use this guide to enable KMS
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … Setting.29

Not needed. KMS is enabled by default. Otherwise, the Intel driver does not work.

voidux

Member

Registered: 2010-02-03

Posts: 31

Re: Intel 945GM performance

glxgears (it's not a benchmark ...

glxgears *IS NOT A BENCHMARK!!!*

is this a mantra or something like that?

Damnshock, are you really suggesting to enable SandyBridge's Acceleration for 945GM chipset?

saronno, are you using compositing, effects like blur, lanczos filtering? Forget about them on gma950

Cdh

Member

Registered: 2009-02-03

Posts: 1,098

Re: Intel 945GM performance

I have read that most intel drivers should also profit from sna.

My suggestion: Get kernel 3.0, dri2proto-git, glproto-git,  libdrm-git and mesa-full-i915g from aur.
Then use the PKGBUILD from xf86-video-intel-git and add the commented --enable-sna:
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=18678

The up-to-date graphics stack and what google did to i915 gallium recently should give a bit more performance.

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฿ 18PRsqbZCrwPUrVnJe1BZvza7bwSDbpxZz

Gusar

Member

Registered: 2009-08-25

Posts: 3,605

Re: Intel 945GM performance

is this a mantra or something like that?

It's the truth. Glxgears is waaaaay too simple to be in any way relevant for actual 3d apps. Do you have performance problems in a real app?

And yeah, SNA will supposedly help all architectures. I wouldn't bet on huge improvements for 945 though, that thing is simply old and wasn't fast even when it was new. Google's work on a gallium driver will make a difference when vertex shaders are in play, because the 945 doesn't actually do those in hardware. The vertex shaders are instead compiled to be executed on the CPU and LLVM will do a better job here. For now that driver isn't actually faster though, further work will be necessary.

Last edited by Gusar (2011-08-05 19:14:51)

saronno

Member

Registered: 2009-10-02

Posts: 194

Re: Intel 945GM performance

glxgears (it's not a benchmark ... but however it gives you an idea)
40 FPS !?!?!

for the GAZILLION time: glxgears *IS NOT A BENCHMARK!!!*

?

saronno

Member

Registered: 2009-10-02

Posts: 194

Re: Intel 945GM performance

saronno, are you using compositing, effects like blur, lanczos filtering? Forget about them on gma950

just xfce compositor for have cairo dock working decently
that's all.

Cobaltounet

Member

Registered: 2010-11-10

Posts: 9

Re: Intel 945GM performance

I have read that most intel drivers should also profit from sna.

My suggestion: Get kernel 3.0, dri2proto-git, glproto-git,  libdrm-git and mesa-full-i915g from aur.
Then use the PKGBUILD from xf86-video-intel-git and add the commented --enable-sna:
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=18678

The up-to-date graphics stack and what google did to i915 gallium recently should give a bit more performance.

Hello,

Can someone confirm that the intel driver in the [EXTRA] repository is not compiled with the --enable-sna option ? I want to be sure that I am not imagining things.

I was curious so I just did what Cdh suggested (I had to replace the dependencies by dri2proto, glproto, libdrm) and my intel 4500MHD seems snappier. The display and the composting effects look smoother.

Only problem, I had to downgrade to  kdebase-workspace-4.7.0-2 : the  kdebase-workspace-4.7.0-3 version has openGL ES enable and it was crashing Kwin.

mrstegeman

Member

Registered: 2011-05-09

Posts: 21

Re: Intel 945GM performance

The PKGBUILD from [EXTRA]:

http://projects.archlinux.org/svntogit/ … 6/PKGBUILD

Cdh

Member

Registered: 2009-02-03

Posts: 1,098

Re: Intel 945GM performance

I have read that most intel drivers should also profit from sna.

My suggestion: Get kernel 3.0, dri2proto-git, glproto-git,  libdrm-git and mesa-full-i915g from aur.
Then use the PKGBUILD from xf86-video-intel-git and add the commented --enable-sna:
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=18678

The up-to-date graphics stack and what google did to i915 gallium recently should give a bit more performance.

Hello,

Can someone confirm that the intel driver in the [EXTRA] repository is not compiled with the --enable-sna option ? I want to be sure that I am not imagining things.

I was curious so I just did what Cdh suggested (I had to replace the dependencies by dri2proto, glproto, libdrm)

You had to do what?

and my intel 4500MHD seems snappier. The display and the composting effects look smoother.

Only problem, I had to downgrade to  kdebase-workspace-4.7.0-2 : the  kdebase-workspace-4.7.0-3 version has openGL ES enable and it was crashing Kwin.

You can try mesa-full-i915 instead which uses the classic mesa driver and is the official driver developed by intel. It has gles2 enabled too. (best to copy or symlink the src/mesa/ folder since the git repository is quite large).

---

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Cobaltounet

Member

Registered: 2010-11-10

Posts: 9

Re: Intel 945GM performance

The PKGBUILD from [EXTRA]:

http://projects.archlinux.org/svntogit/ … 6/PKGBUILD

Thanks,
So it is not compiled with the --enable-sna option.  I will contact the maintainer to see if it can be activated.

You had to do what?

I did not use dri2proto-git, glproto-git, libdrm-git but dri2proto, glproto, libdrm

You can try mesa-full-i915 instead which uses the classic mesa driver and is the official driver developed by intel. It has gles2 enabled too. (best to copy or symlink the src/mesa/ folder since the git repository is quite large).

I will give it a try !