Kernel 2.6.28 + G33 => big video and gaming performance boost !

[DebianAroundParis]

Hi!

I just compiled kernel 2.6.28 on my dual-core [email protected] and Asus P5K-VM (I had to disable cpia2 in make menuconfig or I got an error at the end of the compile) without caring if GEM was activated or not, and I just used the kernel source from Debian:

http://kernel-archive.buildserver.net/debian-kernel/pool/main/l/linux-2.6/

I played a 720p video (from a Canon 5DmkII) I got from Vimeo called (New York City on a Rainy Night.mov) (you need to register to download it) from the command line:
mplayer -lavdopts threads=2:fast:skiploopfilter=all "Vimeo - New York City on a Rainy Night.mov"
Great surprise: no slowdown, and indeed in the console there is no more message saying my CPU is too slow (which I got when using kernel 2.6.27)!
A 1080p video/2371136 also from the same camera plays smoother too, with no more "Your system is too SLOW to play this!"in the console.
And I can at last play the racing game called Torcs without any slowdown at 800*600 (it used to be unplayable even at that low resolution, because of the famerate going down at every curve or with other cars around). And surprise surprise, with Intel's new video driver 2.6.0, I can play rather smoothly at 1280*1024 too now. The improvement since I bought this motherboard is huge!


Intel developers are definitely on the right track! Thanks to them!
Cheers!

I use those packages from Debian experimental:
libdrm-intel and libdrm2 version 2.4.1
mplayer 1.0-rc2-20
xserver-xorg-video-intel-2:2.5.1-1
xserver-xorg-core 2:1.5.3-1

[crumja]

Can you post your glxgears score?

[DebianAroundParis]

60 fps.
But that really looks like a useless test.
Unless you really spend hours every day drooling over those spinning gears...

[whizse]

60 fps.
But that really looks like a useless test.
Unless you really spend hours every day drooling over those spinning gears...

You probably have vblank sync turned on (the default) you can configure this with driconf, or manually in drirc. But yeah, glxgears is worthless as a benchmark.

[chaos386]

Can you test Tremulous?

[DebianAroundParis]

Tremulous:
1280 x 1024

13.7 Frames Per Second
11.5 Frames Per Second
11.4 Frames Per Second

Average: 12.20 Frames Per Second

Tremulous:
1024 x 768

12.8 Frames Per Second
12.9 Frames Per Second
12.8 Frames Per Second

Average: 12.83 Frames Per Second

My Core2Duo is on average 88% unoccupied before and after the tests.

[whizse]

Are you still using Mesa 7.2? You might get another boost with 7.3.

[crumja]

Those #s suggest that performance is still regressing. This and this show that you should be seeing higher fps.

There is a substantial report on this issue from Bryce here.

[DebianAroundParis]

mesa 7.3 still has not reached Debian experimental. Everything is blocked by the pending release of Lenny, the next version of Debian.
Anyway, the most important for me is video and here the progress is clear, also thanks to the progress in mplayer, ffmpeg,...
And maybe there are regressions in some games, but for the only game I ever play, Torcs, the fact that it has become playable is obviously a progress.

[Kano]

Nothing is blocking experimental, only sid.