With R600g Now Supporting OpenGL 4.1, See How The Open-Source Performance Compares To AMD Catalyst

[nanonyme]

The Problem is the fp64 extension. Not all of the GPUs support this type. The gpus without support, use more commands to do it on the gpu.

Last I heard basically no one actually uses fp64 so it shouldn't really matter whether it's slightly slower on those GPU's or not

[Nille_kungen]

Overrides makes most games work even if it's not officially supported.
What the article miss is how the games renders if it's correct or rendering errors.
Like Trine3 it works but got rendering errors with R600.

R600 with render defects


Radeonsi looks correct.

[Nille_kungen]

So... does it really support OpenGL 4.1 if 50% of the cards tested fail to run several applications?

It should work with overrides.
That card doesn't support all OpenGL 4.1 extensions in open source driver yet so OpenGL 4.1 isn't enabled by default there for it needs overrides.
Overrides wasn't used in this test and that's why it fails.

[kalrish]

So... does it really support OpenGL 4.1 if 50% of the cards tested fail to run several applications?

Unless your meaning wasn't literal, the first page of the article states:

The Radeon HD 6950 did advertise OpenGL 4.1 support with the open-source graphics driver while the HD 6870 only has OpenGL 3.3. Right now the R600g driver only has OpenGL 4 support for the AMD Cayman (HD 6900) series and Cypress (HD 5800) series.

[xpris]

The Problem is the fp64 extension. Not all of the GPUs support this type. The gpus without support, use more commands to do it on the gpu.

Ok not all GPU support it. Understand but if GPU not support it, this game should not works also on Catalyst driver right? But on Catalyst works...

[agd5f]

Ok not all GPU support it. Understand but if GPU not support it, this game should not works also on Catalyst driver right? But on Catalyst works...

As had been noted on just about every r600g thread, someone needs to implement support for fp64 in shaders on asics without native fp64 support.

[Nille_kungen]

Ok not all GPU support it. Understand but if GPU not support it, this game should not works also on Catalyst driver right? But on Catalyst works...

The GPU in the test supports OpenGL 4 but the open source driver doesn't fully support OpenGL 4 yet for hw that lacks native fp64 there for OpenGL 4.1 can't be set default on that hardware.
You can use mesa overrides to play the games but it wasn't done in this test.

[eydee]

As had been noted on just about every r600g thread, someone needs to implement support for fp64 in shaders on asics without native fp64 support.

Or -- as had been noted in just about every R600g thread -- it should simply return fake data/null like Intel and Nvidia cards do (some of them). While the chance of people wanting to run Metro 2033 on these cards is pretty high, people wanting to calculate Julia/Mandel/etc on these GPUs using GL shaders for fun is pretty rare. At this moment this is the only known usage scenario of fp64. Point is, you can't expect Average Joe to run Steam games with Mesa environment variables. Linux is no longer for the super tech-savvy geeks only.

[89c51]

As had been noted on just about every r600g thread, someone needs to implement support for fp64 in shaders on asics without native fp64 support.

Out of curiosity. Is this a big task?

[dungeon]

Linux is no longer for the super tech-savvy geeks only.

It is and Windows also is for them... PCs are all about configurability that is what distinguish it from gaming consoles.

If that isn't the case then Intel, AMD and NVidia would release just one GPU per gen for PC market Further that can only lead to one vendorism, both CPU/GPU from one vendor making it gaming console at the same time it is not PC anymore.

Point is, you can't expect Average Joe to run Steam games with Mesa environment variables.

So It is expected that average PC Joe would do something about it, either in game itself and/or to configure driver if needed, etc...

Problem is because Steam(OS) on LInux wants to make gaming console, out of something that is PC