AMD 8.41.7 Display Driver Released -- The Holy Crap Edition!

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I'll give a small report about moving from 8.39.4 to 8.41.7 using a Radeon 9600 Pro (686).

Glxgear readings just went down, but what are they really good for anyway? I now get "2306.167 fps" instead of "3773.463 fps".
Ut2004 Demo didn't seem to improve, but Doom3 demo isn't as bad a slideshow as it used to be. Both are estimates, that is, they weren't benchmarked properly.
Termulous in timedemo mode gave slightly lower fps for a certain demo (Q3 engine). The difference is something like from "301sec 93fps" to "330 sec 8xfps".
I should also note that I didn't notice any new problems in desktop use. I never use anything like tv-out, and probably never will, so that's no matter.
Finally, I suppose people should pay attention to release notes and wait at least for .42 before getting completely disappointed. For me, this latest driver seems to be nothing but an improvement. I also realize that this old box can't get huge performance, no matter what drivers I use.

[Thetargos]

I'll give a small report about moving from 8.39.4 to 8.41.7 using a Radeon 9600 Pro (686).

Glxgear readings just went down, but what are they really good for anyway? I now get "2306.167 fps" instead of "3773.463 fps".
Ut2004 Demo didn't seem to improve, but Doom3 demo isn't as bad a slideshow as it used to be. Both are estimates, that is, they weren't benchmarked properly.
Termulous in timedemo mode gave slightly lower fps for a certain demo (Q3 engine). The difference is something like from "301sec 93fps" to "330 sec 8xfps".
I should also note that I didn't notice any new problems in desktop use. I never use anything like tv-out, and probably never will, so that's no matter.
Finally, I suppose people should pay attention to release notes and wait at least for .42 before getting completely disappointed. For me, this latest driver seems to be nothing but an improvement. I also realize that this old box can't get huge performance, no matter what drivers I use.

Indeed, I wish I could get a dual quad-core system like the one Michael has for the tests... It is almost impossible to be CPU bound in that monster, so the graphics cards actually yield their top most performance.

[opera]

You deserve no hail, as the driver is not even close to what you predicted. There's obvious improvement (did you miss the part on how "The two games really are more playable when a lot of action is happening on screen" ?).

Oh, so a game gets a few more FPS, and that makes it great? Wow. Obviously doesn't take much to satisfy some.

For others, we think that a few more serious bugs needs to be solved, and I predicted them not to have been, and I was right. Unfortunately.
I'm glad you're happy with ATI's amazing progress though.

[notz]

What results were you getting before with the Radeon X1250? fgl_glxgears and glxgears aren't exactly great benchmarks. Have you tried any other Linux OpenGL benchmarks?

the board is rather new (2 days old), but on 8.40.4 i didn't get dri and opengl working:

display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: www.mesa3d.org
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect
OpenGL version string: 1.4 (1.5 Mesa 6.5.2)

[notz]

What results were you getting before with the Radeon X1250? fgl_glxgears and glxgears aren't exactly great benchmarks. Have you tried any other Linux OpenGL benchmarks?

ok, got it now with 8.40.4. it's better in 8.41.7, but too bad to be useful, nor it's not possible to get textured video over opengl (max texture size: 512 x 512). i think i will give this mainboard back, there will be no video playback possible in the next year....

fgl_glxgears -info
Using GLX_SGIX_pbuffer
GL_RENDERER   = ATI Radeon X1200 Series
GL_VERSION    = 2.0.6747 (8.40.4)
GL_VENDOR     = ATI Technologies Inc.
GL_EXTENSIONS = GL_ARB_multitexture GL_EXT_texture_env_add GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array GL_S3_s3tc GL_ARB_depth_texture GL_ARB_fragment_program GL_ARB_fragment_program_shadow GL_ARB_fragment_shader GL_ARB_multisample GL_ARB_occlusion_query GL_ARB_point_parameters GL_ARB_point_sprite GL_ARB_shader_objects GL_ARB_shading_language_100 GL_ARB_shadow GL_ARB_shadow_ambient GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp GL_ARB_texture_compression GL_ARB_texture_cube_map GL_ARB_texture_env_add GL_ARB_texture_env_combine GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3 GL_ARB_texture_float GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat GL_ARB_texture_rectangle GL_ARB_transpose_matrix GL_ARB_vertex_blend GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object GL_ARB_pixel_buffer_object GL_ARB_vertex_program GL_ARB_vertex_shader GL_ARB_window_pos GL_ARB_draw_buffers GL_ATI_draw_buffers GL_ATI_envmap_bumpmap GL_ATI_fragment_shader GL_ATI_separate_stencil GL_ATI_shader_texture_lod GL_ATI_texture_env_combine3 GL_ATI_texture_float GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once GL_ATI_vertex_streams GL_ATIX_texture_env_combine3 GL_ATIX_texture_env_route GL_ATIX_vertex_shader_output_point_size GL_EXT_abgr GL_EXT_bgra GL_EXT_blend_color GL_EXT_blend_func_separate GL_EXT_blend_minmax GL_EXT_blend_subtract GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint GL_EXT_draw_range_elements GL_EXT_fog_coord GL_EXT_framebuffer_object GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays GL_EXT_packed_pixels GL_EXT_point_parameters GL_EXT_rescale_normal GL_EXT_secondary_color GL_EXT_separate_specular_color GL_EXT_shadow_funcs GL_EXT_stencil_wrap GL_EXT_texgen_reflection GL_EXT_texture3D GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc GL_EXT_texture_cube_map GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp GL_EXT_texture_env_combine GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3 GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp GL_EXT_texture_object GL_EXT_texture_rectangle GL_EXT_vertex_array GL_EXT_vertex_shader GL_HP_occlusion_test GL_NV_blend_square GL_NV_occlusion_query GL_NV_texgen_reflection GL_SGI_color_matrix GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap GL_SGIS_texture_border_clamp GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp GL_SGIS_texture_lod GL_SUN_multi_draw_arrays
540 frames in 5.0 seconds = 108.000 FPS
644 frames in 5.0 seconds = 128.800 FPS
668 frames in 5.0 seconds = 133.600 FPS
652 frames in 5.0 seconds = 130.400 FPS
645 frames in 5.0 seconds = 129.000 FPS

[oaul]

Got my 8.41 to work on X700 mobility - libGL.so was old. (Just replaced it with one that was 14 megs).

I think its worth saying that now freespace open works MUUUUUUCH better than it did with 8.40. Just messing around on the last level was about a worst case ~10 fps vs. worst case ~30 for 40 and 41, respectively. Not to mention 40's averages below 30 and and 41's averages above 50. Im thrilled. Stability is an issue. Debian locked out for the first time in years.

[Alistair]

great honkin caveat :

neither of these are real benchmarks - they are only informational

8.40 - ati 9550 card 

glxgears:
alistair@ajftl1 ~ $ glxgears
8982 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1796.162 FPS
9357 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1871.383 FPS
9636 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1927.183 FPS
10028 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2005.268 FPS
9740 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1947.983 FPS
9561 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1911.855 FPS
11013 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2202.580 FPS

fgl_flglxgears:
1680 frames in 5.0 seconds = 336.000 FPS
2087 frames in 5.0 seconds = 417.400 FPS
2088 frames in 5.0 seconds = 417.600 FPS
2074 frames in 5.0 seconds = 414.800 FPS
2080 frames in 5.0 seconds = 416.000 FPS
2072 frames in 5.0 seconds = 414.400 FPS
2079 frames in 5.0 seconds = 415.800 FPS

ati 9550 card agp - 

driver 8.41.7

glxgears
13674 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2734.762 FPS
13498 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2699.459 FPS
12759 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2551.789 FPS
13083 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2615.906 FPS
12827 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2565.224 FPS
13220 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2643.806 FPS
13568 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2713.531 FPS
13489 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2697.795 FPS


fgl_fglxgears
Using GLX_SGIX_pbuffer
3208 frames in 5.0 seconds = 641.600 FPS
3432 frames in 5.0 seconds = 686.400 FPS
3443 frames in 5.0 seconds = 688.600 FPS
3442 frames in 5.0 seconds = 688.400 FPS
3434 frames in 5.0 seconds = 686.800 FPS
3438 frames in 5.0 seconds = 687.600 FPS
3509 frames in 5.0 seconds = 701.800 FPS

I still however have issues with this driver that are likely to take some work to resolve -

fgl_glxgears has NO texture on the cube on 8.41 -- weird weird weird

wine complains about visual ids when trying to start in opengl mode --

Have yet to make it to the X1650Pro AGP testing ...

This is gentoo - 2.6.22 and Xorg 7.1

The only changes twixt the two above tests are the DRIVER.

[dickeywang]

OK, I have reverted back to 8.40.
The new driver seems to improve the fps under 3D games by as much as 80%, but it breaks my 2D display. There are black lines in the lower right corner of my screen and when switching to a tab in Firefox that contains a lot of flash contents, it takes 2-3 seconds for the tab to display correctly.
Again, this is on a ATI Mobility X1400 (128MB video RAM) in Ubuntu Feisty.
I guess I will just wait until the next driver comes out.

[hobophobe]

Two camps

There are two camps I'm seeing.

One camp takes the line that this driver is a work in progress and a step in the right direction. They are glad to see it regardless of its current functionality and quick to point out that the future is bright.

The other camp is still frustrated with the state of the driver as it is available to the public today. The bugs and problems have not been addressed. Most of these problems were introduced prior to 8.41 and did not exist at some point in the past. They are regressions that should have been fixed in the release.

A few points just to round out this post:

0. There's not going to be a non-R600 release this month. That breaks a long line of monthly releases by AMD/ATI.

1. As far as I know a rule of software is if release 1.1 introduces a fault then 1.2 should remove it.

2. AMD needs to link the KB articles listed in the release notes. I cannot find the corresponding article for some of them.

3. As it stands today my best graphics option for future computers is to run headless and use my damn imagination.

[h8er]

tested on my ati 9800 pro 128 mb on Kubuntu Feisty Fawn

h8er@ubuntu:~$ glxgears
30536 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6107.166 FPS
30389 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6077.646 FPS

h8er@ubuntu:~$ fgl_glxgears
Using GLX_SGIX_pbuffer
6595 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1319.000 FPS
6600 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1320.000 FPS

h8er@ubuntu:~$ fgl_glxgears -fbo
Using GL_EXT_framebuffer_object
5210 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1042.000 FPS
5190 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1038.000 FPS

with no FSAA but i don't know how to set it i cannot find an option in this new Catalyst Control Center lol there's no 3d sections