Mesa Considers Raising CPU Support Baseline

[Azrael5]

Couldn't be adapted to the supported instruction set? A software in mesa analyze the CPu's specifications and apply the best solution. The more flexible the better. Hardware has many potentialities which aren't applied because of lack of adaptive solution.

[TemplarGR]

I protest this change. I own a Pentium 2 and an old Nvidia TNT card and i want to still use the latest MESA on my hardware. I don't want to change the compile flags and i don't want to use a distro made for old machines or be stuck in MESA 21.1, there are so many features i could be using, so many optimizations and bug fixes! I thought Linux was made for old computers, wasn't it? I hate you people for excluding such fine hardware from working, this is outrageous. I am going back to Windows XP SP3 that could barely run on my machine anyway.

[cl333r]

This doesn't seem like too big of a deal, but I'm sure someone with ancient hardware will still have a problem with it.

We don't have to be held back because 0.001% users still run ancient hardware and not only that, they want to run the latest code under default settings.
So this is my reaction to them:

[Mike Frett]

I don't think industrial systems and 20 year old computers are playing many games. If they are, they should just use an older version and stop holding us back. Unblock the features and let's move forward. I am not rich and I was able to put together a modern computer recently, so no excuses.

[DanL]

We don't have to be held back because 0.001% users still run ancient hardware and not only that, they want to run the latest code under default settings. So this is my reaction to them:

Your reaction to people using ancient hardware is, "F you, Nvidia!"? That doesn't make any sense...

[ms178]

As most people here, I cannot understand the fuss about mandating SSE2 which is even required in the baseline of the new x86-feature levels. As mentioned in the Gitlab thread, it might more sense for Mesa to align to the new feature levels as I suppose that some distros will adopt these over the coming months raising their CPU requirements more or less significantly. Mesa could have different code paths for all of them and make use of the new instructions from the higher feature levels where it provides benefits.

[lowflyer]

I just wonder if there is really no way of emulating these newer instructions in software on older processors.

[scottishduck]

Simply stated, there are lots of industrial systems, that are build into large objects like buildings running things like heating/cooling, power distribution, ventilation etc. Those are not easily replaced, were meant to last decades or longer and use some sort of display for interaction. The software on those can be upgraded, but replacing the hardware is usually almost impossible unless you replace the entire building installation.

While true, you’re not going to be seeing those types of systems touching anything near mainline code. They’ll be on the very oldest LTS components or even more likely bespoke out-of-tree patchsets to maintain ancient packages (something more akin to RHEL or Debian oldstable).

[siyia]

If this debate happens in the name of performance its usually not worth it, you can gain like what 5% max more performance? and you break compatibility with old hardware

[JoshuaAshton]

If this debate happens in the name of performance its usually not worth it, you can gain like what 5% max more performance? and you break compatibility with old hardware

Hardware that people can't use Chrome or Firefox on anyway for 7-5 years and has been required since Windows 8 (and a Windows 7 update).
It's basically garbage. I'd have more use as sand rather than silicon.

No reason they shouldn't just use an older version, they aren't going to get any benefit from upgrading their Mesa.
Not like someone is going to be using a Pentium 4 with a RX 6800XT. :V