AMD's Radeon Gallium3D Starts Posing A Threat To Catalyst

[smitty3268]

I really think it's just a case of optimizing how instructions are packed into the shader cores. In GPU terms the compute units are called shaders, so when you are running a game all the opengl stuff is compiled into units that can be executed on those shaders. I think at this point it really is just a case of making sure that the shaders are doing as much work as they can. It's just a matter of optimizing right now.

The issue doesn't seem to show up in many of the more complicated shader tests - such as Furmark - while being huge in a simple glxgears like test (Triangle) and the less advanced Q3 engine tests. So I'm not sure it's really a matter of optimizing the actual shaders into the compute units, which i would think would tend to give the opposite results. Although who knows, maybe something simple is just spilling 1 extra instruction over the limits and doubling the compute units it takes from 1 to 2.

[scottishduck]

Looks like AMD users may finally get a decent driver on one platform at least

[curaga]

I think the last test (GpuTest v0.5.0) is the most interesting one from a technological point of view. It shows that the OSS driver still has WAYS to go to be on par with the catalyst driver on windows. And that is very promising because most game benchmarks are close to catalyst!

It tests the exact same thing as glxgears: frame swap overhead. If you can swap several thousand frames per sec, you can calculate the overhead advantage Catalyst has. (hint: around a microsecond.)

[sonnet]

edit: already replied

[ArneBab]

Thank you for your tests!

No Framerate below 40/s - I think your title is fully warranted.

[mirza]

Great news

Seems like Marek finished his school already? :-)

Anyway, AMD got a new loyal customer: Me. Add few missing bits from Catalyst (OpenCL and whatnot) and we can happily forget that binary cancer called Catalyst ever existed.

[dffx]

Add few missing bits from Catalyst (OpenCL and whatnot) and we can happily forget that binary cancer called Catalyst ever existed.

I feel like that's AMD's end-game for Linux. They understand that this is the path to a healthier product on the open-source platform. Just look at Catalyst -- there are *so many* loose ends -- unfinished features, broken options, plenty of stuff that just flat out *doesn't work* -- and from what I can tell there's no desire to actually fix those things. As long as they keep the core binary module working properly, they'll have something to fall back on while they wait for the open source product to mature. RadeonSI has taken 2 years to mature to what it is today -- Sea Islands is already way ahead of the curve.

[Panix]

I feel like that's AMD's end-game for Linux. They understand that this is the path to a healthier product on the open-source platform. Just look at Catalyst -- there are *so many* loose ends -- unfinished features, broken options, plenty of stuff that just flat out *doesn't work* -- and from what I can tell there's no desire to actually fix those things. As long as they keep the core binary module working properly, they'll have something to fall back on while they wait for the open source product to mature. RadeonSI has taken 2 years to mature to what it is today -- Sea Islands is already way ahead of the curve.

Show me where?!? All I read are complaints about the RadeonSI and the 'major' distros don't have it supported or installed via default.

Also, the joke that AMD supports Linux is still going on?!? LOL! I agree with what you post here - "Just look at Catalyst -- there are *so many* loose ends -- unfinished features, broken options, plenty of stuff that just flat out *doesn't work* -- and from what I can tell there's no desire to actually fix those things." Does anyone here besides the ''AMD' employees' (FOSS ppl) disagree with that?!? No. So, that is the driver segment that actually gets full funding from AMD? But, it's constantly broken by design.

I only buy used cards. I don't want to reward AMD OR Nvidia. I'm looking at buying a used AMD card to try since my Nvidia card is really ancient but I am anticipating being disappointed. I don't know what the big fuss is with gaming on Linux. UVD and 2D performance rarely is included in the benchmarks. Doesn't anyone use their computer to watch videos or stream video in Linux?!?

[dffx]

Show me where?!? All I read are complaints about the RadeonSI and the 'major' distros don't have it supported or installed via default.

They don't, not by default. I used the mesa-git repo in Arch Linux to keep up to date (easier than rebuilding the AUR packages daily): http://pkgbuild.com/~lcarlier/mesa-git/

This repo pretty much has everything that's needed for the stack: ati-dri, xf86-video-ati, llvm 3.4, etc etc.

Overall radeonsi seems to work pretty well. Reading phoronix might engender a sense of doom 'n' gloom when it comes to radeonsi, but I think the latest snapshots paint a much better picture.

[ChrisXY]

I think the last test (GpuTest v0.5.0)

0.6, actually

http://www.geeks3d.com/20131028/gputest-0-6-0-opengl-benchmark-for-windows-mac-os-x-and-linux-downloads/