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  • ATI Radeon Driver Re-Write Still Has Work Left

    Phoronix: ATI Radeon Driver Re-Write Still Has Work Left

    To those running ATI Radeon graphics cards on Linux, this week has been very important with several key announcements having been made. The TTM memory manager is getting ready for inclusion into the Linux kernel, which finally will allow the open-source ATI driver (and soon the Nouveau driver too for NVIDIA hardware) to have kernel-based GPU memory management. With the memory management work set in the ATI driver via a mix of TTM and GEM, the ATI kernel mode-setting is also getting ready to be released as a staging driver within the Linux 2.6.31 kernel. The announcements this week have not been only about the GPU and Linux kernel, but the Radeon driver rewrite has also been merged to master. As we discussed in yesterday's news post, this Radeon Mesa re-write brings several key improvements immediately and there are still more features to come.

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    Was it completely broken using TTM? Just wondering why you didn't try that.

    Also, I thought FBO and pretty much everything new that was in this code was only enabled if you were using the new memory manager. Are you sure it was enabled for these tests?

    Of course, the larger point you made here that the driver still has a long way to go is absolutely correct. It's exciting to finally see some progress, though. Hopefully 3D r6xx/r7xx won't be far behind.


    *EDIT*
    Yep, this link seems to confirm it - you're not enabling FBO for these tests. http://airlied.livejournal.com/66706.html
    It also seems like they weren't aware of these serious regressions - maybe a non-mobility card would fare better?
    Last edited by smitty3268; 12 June 2009, 10:09 PM.

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    • #3
      Urban Terror and all the other games will run as they should with Ubuntu 11.04 . I just bet 20$ with my friend. I'm talking about r500 and above.

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      • #4
        I think benchmarks are a little too early. There may be some use to knowing that the driver does't perform any better yet, but since the driver isn't even fully functional, that should come as no surprise.

        Though it's nice to know that it doesn't perform worse either.

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        • #5
          It's exciting watching these things evolve. Looking forward to testing them out.

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          • #6
            This testing was done without the TTM memory management
            Why? TTM (and before that, KMS) are requirements for getting any improvements out of this new code.

            Surely since you run this site you're aware of that -- so why did you not use TTM? If that's for another article, why not state it? It makes this article look half-baked.

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            • #7
              Mesa 7.6 benchmarks are meaningless without TTM. Not to mention, there should be more bugs without it since that's what all the new code is for.

              I'm appalled that these tests were even done. It's like taste testing two different bags of tea, seeped into iced water.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by phoronix View Post
                Phoronix: ATI Radeon Driver Re-Write Still Has Work Left

                To those running ATI Radeon graphics cards on Linux, this week has been very important with several key announcements having been made. The TTM memory manager is getting ready for inclusion into the Linux kernel, which finally will allow the open-source ATI driver (and soon the Nouveau driver too for NVIDIA hardware) to have kernel-based GPU memory management. With the memory management work set in the ATI driver via a mix of TTM and GEM, the ATI kernel mode-setting is also getting ready to be released as a staging driver within the Linux 2.6.31 kernel. The announcements this week have not been only about the GPU and Linux kernel, but the Radeon driver rewrite has also been merged to master. As we discussed in yesterday's news post, this Radeon Mesa re-write brings several key improvements immediately and there are still more features to come.

                http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=13956
                What kernel did you use for the tests?

                Dave.
                Dave.

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                • #9
                  It could be fun when Ubuntu 9.10 is shipping Linux 2.6.31 without TTM enabled but with Mesa 7.6 maybe.

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                  • #10
                    Did you write bug reports, michael?

                    Anyway, thanks for telling us about the progress

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