Linux 2D Performance: Nouveau vs. NVIDIA

[smitty3268]

You don't understand what I mean. To put it straight. in 7-10 years if ever, might be able to load properly a game like Metro LL.

I have a RV630 and half of the games have corrupt graphics and performance is like 20-40% of Windows.

Real games like Metro LL, Wargame E.E., Portal, HL2, FM2014 etc not Xonotic-like games.

I am forced to deal with Windows malware/viruses and suffer antivirus/antimalware software performance impact, just to be able to play light games like Portal or FM2014 in my HTPC. AMD Radeon drivers for gaming in comparison to Windows 13.9 Catalyst are SHIT!

RV630 is the exception, though, not the rule. It's a strange little card that came out while AMD wasn't supporting the OSS drivers, and has never been supported properly. AMD is focusing their work on getting new cards to run rather than going back to work on the old cards. Get something from the Evergreen generation, and you'll have a completely different experience.

[carewolf]

I wonder when Nvidia fixed the Xrender implementation in their driver. It used to be unusable. I just tried kwin in xrender mode, and it worked! It used to make all desktop effects run at 1-2fps, where nouveau (and software rastering in X11) could do 30.

I wonder if xrender was fixed at the same time as xrandr; a few months after Linus had shamed nvidia for their linux support.

[Kostas]

Well, as soon as reclocking will work, nouveau will be on par if not better in 2d performance with the blob.

I've seen similar claims before. What is this assessment based on?

[Serafean]

I've seen similar claims before. What is this assessment based on?

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=nvidia_nouveau_clocks&num=1

[Kostas]

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...u_clocks&num=1

Thanks. I remember seeing that but since there are questions on whether it will scale and 2 of the 3 used cards are so old they are practically irrelevant it didn't make a huge impression on me.

I'd actually love to see another test like that. After all things are bound to have changed after 1,5 year (?).

[Luke]

In early 2012 Nouveau beat the shit out of the blob in Kdenlive on GTS450

The GTS450 has a default clock speed in the 450 MHZ range, much higher than some of the newer cards. It gives surprisingly good results in Nouveau, as long as you can get by with a cool running card that never gets over about 40C while giving about the same 3d performance r600 gave with fixed-clocked versions if the clocks were pinned at the "medium" level.

In 2012, kdenlive basically had to use opengl video output to play the timeline when using anyone's blob. The performance in transitions sucked. Meanwhile, the GTS450 in Nouveau managed to beat the (smaller) Radeon HD5770 in r600 for kdenlive timeline playback. The same sized Radeon HD6750 seemed about equal to it-at higher clocks.

[Daktyl198]

I'll admit to knowing next to nothing about the Nouveau driver before asking this...

Does Nouveau use Gallium3D, or are there any plans on using it in the future? I feel like sharing code between the (quite stable) AMD OSS drivers and Nouveau through Gallium (Which, iirc is the original point of it) would be beneficial to both sets of developers. Hell, Intel contributes to Gallium3D and it doesn't even use it haha.

[Rexilion]

I'll admit to knowing next to nothing about the Nouveau driver before asking this...

Does Nouveau use Gallium3D, or are there any plans on using it in the future? I feel like sharing code between the (quite stable) AMD OSS drivers and Nouveau through Gallium (Which, iirc is the original point of it) would be beneficial to both sets of developers. Hell, Intel contributes to Gallium3D and it doesn't even use it haha.

Nouveau extensively uses gallium except for it's pre nv04 era cards. There is nouveau vieux for those which is classic mesa driver.

[Daktyl198]

Nouveau extensively uses gallium except for it's pre nv04 era cards. There is nouveau vieux for those which is classic mesa driver.

Thanks for the info
Now that I know it uses Gallium, I suddenly feel like it's probably better than what people give it credit for... (minus the whole "no reclocking" thing).
I'm honestly amazed at what they've been able to do with absolutely no help in relevant areas. Like, how the hell does the Tegra K1 code from NVidia help with the rest of the cards in any way? I mean, I can see SOME ways that it could help, but there certainly are better ways >_>

[Rexilion]

I'm honestly amazed at what they've been able to do with absolutely no help in relevant areas. Like, how the hell does the Tegra K1 code from NVidia help with the rest of the cards in any way? I mean, I can see SOME ways that it could help, but there certainly are better ways >_>

Not really, it seems they are mostly using the current infra and provide adaptations for Tegra support. But that is a good thing. The Tegra is an nVidia chip, any bugs exposed by this chip will help nouveau forward in terms of generic bug fixes.