Radeon R600g Driver Retires Its SB Optimizer

[Democrab]

Saves the environment up to a point. Power efficiency has increased massively over time. A modern low power part can do the same job as an old high power part, at a fraction of the power.

If this matters to you will depend on a lot of things, such as cost of electricity, if you need to run an AC that you otherwise wouldn't have needed, what generates the electricity in your case, etc.

Power efficiency for PCs increased at the same time as power consumption increased, partially because of power consumption increasing so rapidly as performance increased that it necessitated increased efficiency as shown by the Prescott-era Pentium 4 being an inefficient beast of a CPU. Go for any AMD up to the Athlon64 (Which you can undervolt/underclock quite well for vastly increased efficiency) or any Intel up to the P3 in a retro PC and you'll be able to build a MS-DOS or Win9x gaming PC which uses under 200w power at full tilt on the CPU and GPU(s) but if you're really concerned about power consumption and want to aim for a low power retro PC you can get down to closer to 50w or so by picking the right parts, or less than a modern performance CPU by itself. I've even seen a build log of someone who went out of their way to find one of those mATX desktop motherboards which would allow you to use a Pentium M CPU designed for a laptop in a gaming rig because of the CPUs efficiency, particularly as they were able to underclock it to 1Ghz and run everything they wanted to quite happily.

On top of that, a lot of regions have been moving to renewable energy generation which significantly impacts the ecological cost of power consumption at home in a positive direction. e-waste on the other hand? It's a growing problem with no easy solution for recycling beyond trying to repair and find uses for the old hardware, retro gaming is a decent one because it means the hardware is typically only going to be used for a few hours each month.

[Anux]

Educate the locals there first

Are you serious? Those poor bastards don't burn that stuff out of boredom, if they don't they will have nothing to eat. They get a few cents for a big amount of "recycled" metals. There kids are needed to survive and can't just wast half a day at school.

and don't export our old electronics there if they end up burning it.

Yeah, that would be a good start but building something new and recycling is still worse than just using the old thing as long as possible. And how would you influence this "don't export"? It's already illegal in my country to export > 10 year old cars and they still end up in africa.

[billyswong]

Yeah, that would be a good start but building something new and recycling is still worse than just using the old thing as long as possible.

Another dilemma is, our economy relies on a bunch of people chasing after new things and buy them eagerly. Without those kind of consumers, electronics technology would have stalemated already.

[stiiixy]

I remember when Vadim first added the SB code back in 2013 - it really made a big difference in performance at the time.

Do you remember 2006?

Your Phoronix signup date is reminiscent of the document-drop era.

edit: errr, somewhat more polite.

[johanb]

Sure and while you save a minuscule amount of energy a new part has to be build with all the environmental impact and the old hardware has to be "recycled" like so: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scien...ica-180957597/

My guess is also that the environmental burden of producing a new GPU outweighs the inefficiency of continuing to use the old one.

Regarding recycling however, did you even read the article you just linked?

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, 85 percent of the e-waste dumped in Ghana and other parts of West Africa is produced in Ghana and West Africa. In other words, ending the export of used electronics from the wealthy developed world won’t end the burning in Agbogbloshie. The solution must come from West Africa itself and the people who depend upon e-waste to make a living.

[Dukenukemx]

My guess is also that the environmental burden of producing a new GPU outweighs the inefficiency of continuing to use the old one.

Depends on what you're doing with the hardware. If you're compiling linux kernels then the new hardware is more efficient. If you're browsing the web and watching videos then the old hardware is better since the work load isn't stressing either system. For games it's another situation since old hardware is well suited for old games. Games are not one of those things that age, because there's a lot of timeless classics. Borderlands 2 is better than Borderlands 3, and Mass Effect 1,2, and 3 is better than Mass Effect Andromeda. Don't let me catch you using new hardware playing Lawn Mower Simulator that needs a RX 390 minimum when the original Dead Space can be played on a Geforce 6800. Especially when so many new games are just riddled with micro-transactions and DLC, sometimes older games are just better. Until the gaming industry gets their collective minds together and starts making good games like Elden Ring and Baulders Gate 3, playing old games on old hardware is economical and good for the environment.

[bridgman]

Do you remember 2006? Your Phoronix signup date is reminiscent of the document-drop era.

edit: errr, somewhat more polite.

Now I want to see the original post

[stiiixy]

Now I want to see the original post

Looks like I was out a year;

https://www.phoronix.com/review/826

[Veerappan]

Heh, I still remember reading excitedly about all the work that had been going into prepping for the Radeon HD 4800 release and trying to get basically same day kernel support out.

I bought one almost immediately, and was never disappointed that I did. That was followed by a 6850 (which I had until a few weeks ago), a Radeon 7850 and now I've been sitting with an RX580 8GB for a few years. Probably time to get thinking about that next upgrade.

[stiiixy]

I wpuldnt mind something to complememt my 4650Pro APU....but then I remember, I dont play flashy games!