Intel SNA Performance Continues To Be Compelling

Due to the extreme pace at which Chris Wilson has been releasing SNA architecture updates for Intel's open-source X.Org driver, here are another set of benchmarks of Intel Sandy Bridge HD 3000 graphics when comparing UXA and SNA using yesterday's Git code following the xf86-video-intel 2.20.2 driver release.

The benchmarks for today are of SNA and UXA acceleration architectures, which is selectable from the xorg.conf on xf86-video-intel 2.20+ with the "AccelMethod" option and setting "SNA" or "UXA"; UXA remains the default. Earlier this week there were Intel Ivy Bridge SNA benchmarks using Intel DDX driver code from more than a week ago while the results for publishing this weekend are the latest Git code from 27 July and using Sandy Bridge graphics.

By now most Phoronix readers are aware, SNA has entered a state where it is nearly regression-free (some Phoronix readers have hit issues as mentioned in the forums) while for the rest it leads to massive 2D performance improvements for the Linux desktop.