Open-Source ATI R500 PowerPlay Support

[Louise]

So PowerPlay is an algorithm that regulates voltage in an intelligent way?

If that's the case, can AMD provide pseudo code for that algorithm?

If not, is it likely that the community can come up with an algorithm that is just as good, or is the algorithm very complicated?

[cruiseoveride]

Once we get 6xx/7xx 3D out the door...[SNIP]

Whats the status on that? Can we get a definitive ETA?

Also, what will be the extent of the "6xx/7xx 3D" implementation? Assuming "out the door" means more than just docs, but usable code.

Will it actually be usable for anything other than glxgears? Or in other words, will it be as application compatible as the Nvidia driver is for Nvidia hardware?

Will it remove the need to have Microsoft Windows? ie. will it work with WINE?

If the answer to the last two questions is "Yes", what purpose will the crippled proprietary ATi driver have then? If there is indeed a purpose, what would be the extent of disparity between the two drivers?

Oh and sorry for being so harsh to you previously. I didn't mean for it to sound personal. Honestly, the proprietary ATi driver is a spit in the face to Linux users. I hope you understand where i was coming from.

[bridgman]

Whats the status on that? Can we get a definitive ETA?

No, sorry... the day we have all the IP issues worked out we'll have something in a public repo (unless it's *really* late at night). While we have open issues, all I can do is give you best guesses.

Also, what will be the extent of the "6xx/7xx 3D" implementation? Assuming "out the door" means more than just docs, but usable code. Will it actually be usable for anything other than glxgears? Or in other words, will it be as application compatible as the Nvidia driver is for Nvidia hardware?

We want to quickly get 6xx/7xx 3D support to the same level as R3xx-R5xx, ie OpenGL 1.3+, easy-to-understand code, and everything needed to build more functionality. The R6xx/7xx have relatively huge state information rcompared to earlier generations, so one of our guys (Richard) is working on a simple shader compiler that will set up all the state info as well as the actual shader microcode.

Will it remove the need to have Microsoft Windows? ie. will it work with WINE?

Yes and no. The current open source drivers work OK with Wine but some of the games need higher levels of OpenGL than the drivers support today. We're kind of at DX8 level until we get memory management in DRM, but Dave and others are working hard on that now.

If the answer to the last two questions is "Yes", what purpose will the crippled proprietary ATi driver have then? If there is indeed a purpose, what would be the extent of disparity between the two drivers?

The answers to the last two questions are not "Yes" yet. Somewhere betweeen 6 and 12 months is probably a good guess.

Oh and sorry for being so harsh to you previously. I didn't mean for it to sound personal. Honestly, the proprietary ATi driver is a spit in the face to Linux users. I hope you understand where i was coming from.

No worries. You need to understand that the fglrx driver is aimed at a specific market today (high performance workstation on RHEL and SLE*) but we are working hard to make it more broadly useful. If you were in the target user base you hopefully would feel differently. Hopefully

So PowerPlay is an algorithm that regulates voltage in an intelligent way?

It's more than voltage -- there are various combinations of voltage, engine clock and memory clock which work well together. We try to capture those combinations in the AtomBIOS tables. Voltage is a bit of a scary issue relative to warranty -- haven't figured out exactly what to do about that yet.

If that's the case, can AMD provide pseudo code for that algorithm? If not, is it likely that the community can come up with an algorithm that is just as good, or is the algorithm very complicated?

We are hoping to give enouch chip-specific information to be able to set a useful variety of power states, but we are not planning on giving out all of the (primarily Windows-specific) PowerPlay algorithms which look at all the stuff going on in the system and try to pick appropriate power states. I think it will work out OK.

[Louise]

Very interesting reading =)

[alec]

Powerplay matters a lot

Getting 11C lower temps on my 3870 with powerplay activated, not to mention fan spinning slower

[RealNC]

I hope AMD will accept my fried card and give me a new one because right now it runs 100C+ (maybe 110) 24/7 with radeonhd.

[NeoBrain]

I hope AMD will accept my fried card and give me a new one because right now it runs 100C+ (maybe 110) 24/7 with radeonhd.

Sorry, but that's absolutely unlikely because radeonhd isn't supported by AMD and also the PowerPLAY code added to radeonhd was explicitely called experimental (as the article mentions in capital letters).

You could of course argue that "good" hardware should not be able to be destroyed by bad software/drivers/firmware, but we had this discussion already at the recent Intel thing ;-)

[cruiseoveride]

To cool my HD4870, i reflashed the card using the ASUS HD4870 TOP vbios. The clocks went up by about 10% and temps went down to 50degC (from 75degC) during full load. And the card runs silent now.

Somewhere betweeen 6 and 12 months is probably a good guess.

Wow. That's going to be painful. Sadly its better than nothing.

[piccolotux]

Personally I won't switch to open drivers until some sort of system to keep the temperature down will be implemented...I'm really sorry because the developers are working great but being a laptop owner it is crucial to have a good energy saver system and...you know...the fan it's definitely annoying.
Cheers