AMD Gallium3D & Catalyst Drivers Compete Against Windows

[CrvenaZvezda]

So... When can we realistically expect the FLOSS drivers to be on par with the Windows drivers? And, what will proper FLOSS drivers have to say for desktop and gaming in Linux?

[89c51]

So... When can we realistically expect the FLOSS drivers to be on par with the Windows drivers? And, what will proper FLOSS drivers have to say for desktop and gaming in Linux?

Never. There aren't as many people working on the FLOSS drivers in order to have all the optimizations.

[oleid]

Is it just me, or is the article quite anti-fglrx? In some of the more demanding tests as unigene, fglrx was noticably faster. Yet, the corresponding text nominated the results as "comparable". On other tests, where Windows's catalyst won by a smaller margin than fglrx did in the case I mentioned before, the corresponding comment was "catalyst was faster".

[Calinou]

The open source driver isn't any faster on Xonotic 1920?1080 Ultimate than on Xonotic 2560?1600 Ultimate. I smell a bottleneck...

[pingufunkybeat]

So... When can we realistically expect the FLOSS drivers to be on par with the Windows drivers? And, what will proper FLOSS drivers have to say for desktop and gaming in Linux?

On par in what sense?

Offering the same functionality? Most of it is in place, we are waiting for the OpenCL implementation to mature and Mesa to catch up with the latest OpenGL version (loads of work has happened on the GL4 front already!) Some less used stuff like crossfire might never arrive, depending on how important it is for the average user.

Have the same performance? Never. 80-90% is the goal, after that you need to start collecting gigabytes of app-specific tweaks and hacks and the OSS crowd doesn't have the manpower (or inclination) to do that.

I'm making a wild guess that in 2 years we might have compliance with recent OpenGL and OpenCL versions as well as all important functionality (modesetting, 2d and 3d acceleration, power management, video decoding, etc.) working across all generations and performing at 80-90% of the Windows driver on average.

Just a wild guess.

[CrvenaZvezda]

On par in what sense?

Offering the same functionality? Most of it is in place, we are waiting for the OpenCL implementation to mature and Mesa to catch up with the latest OpenGL version (loads of work has happened on the GL4 front already!) Some less used stuff like crossfire might never arrive, depending on how important it is for the average user.

Have the same performance? Never. 80-90% is the goal, after that you need to start collecting gigabytes of app-specific tweaks and hacks and the OSS crowd doesn't have the manpower (or inclination) to do that.

I'm making a wild guess that in 2 years we might have compliance with recent OpenGL and OpenCL versions as well as all important functionality (modesetting, 2d and 3d acceleration, power management, video decoding, etc.) working across all generations and performing at 80-90% of the Windows driver on average.

Just a wild guess.

On par FPS wise. When it comes to the app-specifics I was hoping for the app-owner(s) to do the tweaking. Oh well, X-Plane is the only 3D demanding application I'm running. But I do hope for easier install and a more solid desktop experience with proper free drivers for the AMD GPUs'

[pandev92]

archlinux , kde 4.11 and lastes radeon drivers and mesa..., INCREDIBLE PERFORMANCE 8D, so smoooth!!, with and without uvd , flash fine and no tearing WOW!

[jrch2k8]

archlinux , kde 4.11 and lastes radeon drivers and mesa..., INCREDIBLE PERFORMANCE 8D, so smoooth!!, with and without uvd , flash fine and no tearing WOW!

i told you, welcome to the dark side my arch padawan

[LinuxGamer]

archlinux , kde 4.11 and lastes radeon drivers and mesa..., INCREDIBLE PERFORMANCE 8D, so smoooth!!, with and without uvd , flash fine and no tearing WOW!

<3 Arch Linux

[jrch2k8]

archlinux , kde 4.11 and lastes radeon drivers and mesa..., INCREDIBLE PERFORMANCE 8D, so smoooth!!, with and without uvd , flash fine and no tearing WOW!

if you wanna more powa do this tricks[in case you don't know]

1.) pacman prelink and then run as root prelink -amR
2.) set in /etc/enviroment R600_DEBUG=sb or R600_DEBUG=sb,nollvm and restart
3.a) in chromium chrome://flags and activate all the graphic/shader/experimental options for me is uber fast
3.b) in firefox about:config search for layers and force them active + offmainthread + video async it helps a lot
3.c) in firefox about:config search for gstreamer and set it active if you use firefox 23, makes html5 UVD accel in h264 codecs