R600 SB Shader Back-End Enabled By Default

[phoronix]

Phoronix: R600 SB Shader Back-End Enabled By Default

It was anticipated R600 SB shader optimizations might be enabled by default for this Radeon Gallium3D driver and now they have been for Mesa 9.3/Mesa 10.0...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTQ0OTM

[edoantonioco]

so, mesa 9.2 will have it enabled by default? or only 9.3?

[bridgman]

The change went into master so looks like just 9.3 at this point.

IIRC 9.2 has already been released -- I don't think this is the kind of change you would backport to stable (esp. since the feature is available via environment variable already).

[mcgreg]

I have done with nexuiz a small benchmark to see if that SB Shader Back-End does any good here:

git
HEAD is now at aa39054 configure.ac: Bump Wayland requirement to 1.2.0

Always 1920x1200 demo demo/demo1.dem

1) LOW
1910 frames 24.2717469 seconds 78.6923170 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 55 83 227 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 15.4835269 seconds 123.3569074 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 85 133 310 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 15.7108619 seconds 121.5719424 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 87 131 303 (90 seconds)
2) MEDIUM
1910 frames 27.1563299 seconds 70.3335101 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 48 74 210 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 18.6719930 seconds 102.2922405 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 73 110 273 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 18.5966201 seconds 102.7068355 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 73 111 280 (90 seconds)
3) NORMAL
1910 frames 29.2494378 seconds 65.3004004 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 50 68 174 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 20.1613219 seconds 94.7358517 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 70 101 231 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 20.1249940 seconds 94.9068604 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 67 101 240 (90 seconds)
4) HIGH
1910 frames 41.0619619 seconds 46.5150692 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 33 49 115 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 33.3103931 seconds 57.3394614 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 42 62 152 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 33.1826601 seconds 57.5601834 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 43 62 154 (90 seconds)

5) ULTRA
1910 frames 43.5785940 seconds 43.8288578 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 29 46 113 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 35.4708359 seconds 53.8470535 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 36 58 150 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 35.1574969 seconds 54.3269620 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 35 58 149 (90 seconds)

HEAD is now at f7217b9 r600g: enable SB backend by default
1) LOW
1910 frames 23.6381969 seconds 80.8014251 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 61 85 234 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 15.6774571 seconds 121.8309824 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 90 130 308 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 15.0530939 seconds 126.8842147 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 91 137 315 (90 seconds)
2) MEDIUM
1910 frames 26.4650729 seconds 72.1705929 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 52 76 208 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 18.4433930 seconds 103.5601205 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 65 112 278 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 18.7280240 seconds 101.9861999 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 77 109 282 (90 seconds)
3) NORMAL
1910 frames 27.8215029 seconds 68.6519346 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 47 72 177 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 19.3303499 seconds 98.8083510 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 74 105 241 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 19.4681270 seconds 98.1090784 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 71 105 241 (90 seconds)
4) HIGH
1910 frames 39.8639698 seconds 47.9129402 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 34 50 124 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 31.3571100 seconds 60.9112255 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 42 66 159 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 31.6298082 seconds 60.3860760 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 43 65 169 (90 seconds)
5) ULTRA
1910 frames 41.5729270 seconds 45.9433612 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 32 48 123 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 33.6450429 seconds 56.7691355 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 40 61 153 (90 seconds)
1910 frames 33.5167010 seconds 56.9865155 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 40 61 162 (90 seconds)

I have hoped to see more difference.

[bridgman]

... I have hoped to see more difference.

Don't think Nexuiz ever showed much benefit from SB -- try something like the Unigine demos or Reaction Quake. IIRC it mostly helps when you have complex flow control in the shaders.

Vadim's tests are probably a good indication of what to expect... http://openbenchmarking.org/result/1...7500792103#r-0

[mcgreg]

I see. Unfortunately I dont use any of the games or software he tested
I would like to see if it does anything within World of Warcraft or any other "great" games, mostly used in wine.

[smitty3268]

I have done with nexuiz a small benchmark to see if that SB Shader Back-End does any good here:
...
I have hoped to see more difference.

Are you running Cayman hardware? I don't think it works quite as well on that.

Normally there's a bit of a bump on the Ultra settings, but like it was said, Nexuiz doesn't show a lot of gains from it.

[mcgreg]

It is a Barts PRO [Radeon HD 6850]

[edoantonioco]

So, mesa 9.3 will include by default R600 SB Shader Back-End and the LLVM too? or only the SB?

[ObiWan]

default is sb+llvm on current git (9.3)