The Impact Of Radeon DRM On Linux 3.3, DRM-Next

Recently I showed off some Intel DRM benchmarks from the Linux 3.3 kernel along with what will be in the Linux 3.4 kernel via drm-next. These results indicated some performance improvements on the side of Intel Sandy Bridge hardware, but how do the new kernel and Linux 3.4 impact the discrete Radeon graphics? Here's some benchmarks covering that side of the graphics table.

Using an AMD Radeon HD 5770 and AMD Radeon HD 6950 from the Core i7 3960X setup running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, the vanilla Linux 3.2, 3.3, and drm-next (what will be merged into Linux 3.4) were benchmarked. Each time only the kernel was being swapped out while running with the latest Mesa 8.1-devel Git as well as the xf86-video-ati DDX Git. Swap buffers wait was disabled from the xorg.conf but all other settings remained stock.

For those wondering what is on the table when it comes to open-source Radeon Linux graphics for the 3.3 kernel, it is covered by this article, and then there is already an article covering the DRM work piling up for the Linux 3.4 kernel.

This testing is quite simple, so let's get straight to the results. For those wondering about updated 2D color tiling benchmarks, those will be out within a few days.