11-Way Comparison

Phoronix articles in the past have shown very little frame-rate differences between ATI Linux fglrx drivers but today I had studied the frame-rate and image quality of the past eleven ATI driver releases. The drivers examined include versions 8.16.20, 8.18.6, 8.18.8, 8.19.10, 8.20.8, 8.21.7, 8.22.5, 8.23.7, 8.24.8, 8.25.18, and 8.26.18. In order to accomplish this comparison, Fedora Core 4 was used with X.Org 6.8.2 and the stock FC4 kernel (to prevent compatibility conflicts with the older drivers). An ATI Radeon X800XL 256MB was used since the X1k product support was only added in fglrx 8.24.8. For a quick look at the frame-rate with each driver release, Doom 3 was used while running at 1024 x 768 with high quality settings. Enemy Territory was also tested; however, the results were too close to call any noticeable difference. The ATI Linux gaming performance continues to be one of the areas that is most negatively portrayed by its users. The average FPS is reported below for each of the fglrx releases.

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Doom 3 v1.3.1302 (demo1)
1024 x 768 - High Quality
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8.16.20: 35.4
8.18.06: 35.2
8.18.08: 35.7
8.19.10: 35.4
8.20.08: 36.5
8.21.07: 35.6
8.22.05: 35.9
8.23.07: 36.4
8.24.08: 34.2
8.25.18: 33.9
8.26.18: 34.6

With Doom 3, the numbers did fluctuate some but there really isn't definitive gain or loss when upgrading the drivers. Most of the changes between driver releases was within one frame in either direction. It is important to note that this is simply a single test from an entire array of possible benchmarks and games, and these results were from a single graphics card in a single environment. However, based upon experience from other Radeon cards as well, the performance delta between drivers as of late has been minimal. If ATI wishes to increase their Linux market-share for Linux gamers and enthusiasts, they will need to eventually improve these numbers. Below is a look at the image quality with each of the eleven drivers. The images are uncompressed views of Doom 3 and Quake 4 from each of the releases (pardon the file size for dial-up users).