R600 Gallium3D Now Has Compute Shaders Working With NIR

[ermo]

I've looked into this quite a bit since the GPU in my laptop is concerned by this limitation to version 3.3 due to the lack of hardware FP64. And I can confirm what you say. Whatever I do or enable still only exposes OpenGL 3.3.
Not many games were using those features though, and overriding the OpenGL version at game launch usually worked when I played with this laptop.

How does one "lie" to games that require OpenGL >= 4.x when all you have is a OpenGL 3.3 capable chip under Mesa, but you *know* that the games in question don't use FP64? Do I need to set some environment variable?

Tips and pointers to documentation / source very welcome.

[Etherman]

still it will usually be a decade or two until you safe the energy the price of a new card. Especially for users with normal "2D" desktop use, not everyone is gaming. And if you use the new "3D" card in games, then you likely burn the same energy running at higher res or more fps ;-)

I'm waiting for a used 10$ fanless hd 4xxx to arrive by mail for my multiseat setup.
It will be used for browsing and movies.

[Elinvention]

How does one "lie" to games that require OpenGL >= 4.x when all you have is a OpenGL 3.3 capable chip under Mesa, but you *know* that the games in question don't use FP64? Do I need to set some environment variable?

Tips and pointers to documentation / source very welcome.

https://docs.mesa3d.org/envvars.html#core-mesa-environment-variables

I think you can use something like MESA_GLSL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=450 MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.5

[leipero]

Just installed a SATA SSD in an old hand-me-down HP 15.6" 1366x768 laptop with a quad-core Llano A6-3410MX APU (HD 6520G "SUMO" on-die) and a discrete HD 6750M "TURKS/Whistler Pro" GPU w/1 GB 128bit DDR5 VRAM.

As it turns out, these K10.5 "Stars" APUs manufactured on 32nm can be undervolted/overclocked out the wazoo.

Using stock speeds, I can on average undervolt the P-states to 65% of their stock voltage and when OCing, I can hit the same power consumption as stock at the fastest P-States with an extra +400-500Mhz (1600->2000MHz all core OC, 2300 MHz -> 2800 MHz boost OC).

This little thing could eventually benefit from this work with e.g. Minecraft when using lightweight shaders. It's certainly fine for couch usage.

This is so true it's not even funny. Even latter bulldozer that was criticized for running hot etc. was capable of working at -0.200v or more at the stock frequency, and that's huge, it usually ment at least 15c less (under full load) on the same cooling solution. This is also true for newer AMD CPUs, someone at AMD doesn't do his/her job correctly or they simply have to be more strict with motherboard manufacturers, I'm repeating this for years now...

[Mez']

https://docs.mesa3d.org/envvars.html#core-mesa-environment-variables

I think you can use something like MESA_GLSL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=450 MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.5

Indeed, that's what I used.
For Steam: MESA_GLSL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=410 MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.1 %command% in the game options. 4.1 then 4.3 were enough at the time I used to play with the laptop.
I have an RX 560 on the desktop nowadays, I don't play much with this old laptop anymore.

[Raka555]

I'm waiting for a used 10$ fanless hd 4xxx to arrive by mail for my multiseat setup.
It will be used for browsing and movies.

I have a fan-less hd4670. It uses so little power, it needs no additional power besides that from the PCIe slot.




Not sure you can even find a silent card without any power connectors and with open-sources drivers in 2020 ...

[Mez']

I have a fan-less hd4670. It uses so little power, it needs no additional power besides that from the PCIe slot.




Not sure you can even find a silent card without any power connectors and with open-sources drivers in 2020 ...

There was a Radeon RX 460 from XFX 3 years ago (a power connector was required though). That's the most powerful AMD passive card to date if I'm not mistaken.

[SofS]

Agreed. But also consider perf/watt. Newer cards can safe alot of energy.

Careful, not only the difference in price might be difficult to justify with energy savings, but one ought to consider that the amount of energy and other resources used in manufacture, recycling and logistics to build newer parts and discard the old ones is quite significant. Hence if doing it for an environmental reasoning then careless doing it might backfire. In general the workflow requirements and the maintenance burden are what dictate the need for an upgrade.

[Linuxhippy]

"s, you really ought to consider upgrading in 2020,"

Please stop these useless advice whenever you report about some outdated hardware.
People using those devices and are reading phoronix news most likely know why they are still running a pre-Ryzen, pre-GCN or a pre-Ivybridge CPU.

[schmidtbag]

still it will usually be a decade or two until you safe the energy the price of a new card. Especially for users with normal "2D" desktop use, not everyone is gaming. And if you use the new "3D" card in games, then you likely burn the same energy running at higher res or more fps ;-)

When idle, these GPUs are actually still pretty power-hungry.
I never understood why people always seem to ignore the big issues regarding wattage, such as fan noise and the heat dumped into the room. The cost of the extra wattage under load is often negligible for desktop users.

Regardless, the TeraScale 2 architecture actually still has relevant compute performance after all these years; it's surprisingly powerful with OpenCL. If AMD were to make a HD 6970 today and all they did was fab it on 7nm, add more VRAM, and add the instructions to make it compliant with Vulkan/DX12, I'm sure it would be a product worth buying (particularly for workstations). It would have to be an entry-level GPU, but it also doesn't have that many streaming processors compared to stuff you get today.