Intel Graphics Regressions In Ubuntu 9.04?

In our final test for today, the image scaling performance using X Render with Ubuntu 9.04 caused more bleeding for Intel. Ubuntu 8.10 had an average frame-rate of 86.55 FPS while the January 24th daily build was running at 37.60 FPS.

In OpenArena the performance had improved and other games had run properly atop Mesa 7.3, but there are still some serious performance regressions within Intel's Linux graphics stack. In all six of the QGears2 tests using both the OpenGL and X Render back-ends the newer Ubuntu packages led to significant and unequivocal performance drops. These results concur with what we experienced a month ago. Back in November we also looked at the Intel Linux graphics performance for the past three Ubuntu releases. Though just wait and we will be back with more Linux graphics tests in other configurations and when building the latest components from Git.

The X Render / 2D Intel performance can be improved when using the UXA acceleration architecture, which is based upon the EXA API but with embedded support for the GEM memory management, but this mode isn't yet enabled by default and ultimately will work its way back into a revised EXA implementation. There are also some common rendering glitches when enabling UXA. For more information, read our Intel UXA performance article.

You can share your Linux graphics experiences in the Phoronix Forums. Run your own tests using the Phoronix Test Suite.

Discuss this article in our forums, IRC channel, or email the author. You can also follow our content via RSS and on social networks like Facebook, Identi.ca, and Twitter (@Phoronix and @MichaelLarabel). Subscribe to Phoronix Premium to view our content without advertisements, view entire articles on a single page, and experience other benefits.