AGP Graphics Card Support Proposed For Removal From Linux Radeon/NVIDIA Drivers

[agd5f]

So this just disables the GART? If it's just that, I guess it's fine (it was a nice idea on paper, horribly slow in practice). But what about the AGP signalling speeds, are they also dropping to 1x?

Let me reiterate. No one is talking about removing support for AGP GPUs in general. Just the AGP GART vs the GPU GART for device access to system memory.

I don't think the GART had anything to do with the signalling rates, but the limited TLB space and lack of unsnooped transaction support on r1xx/r2xx radeons limited performance of system memory access. On r3xx and newer radeons, the TLB space increased and the on chip gart got support for both snooped and unsnooped transactions. So things may be slower on some older radeons, but:
1. R2xx/R2xx radeons are over 20 years old at this point
2. There were already tons of stability quirks which for various chipsets which limited AGP features anyway
3. AGP support on PowerPC has been disabled for 2 years already

[Azrael5]

As far as me, get out the AGP legacy support from driver software support. I suggest also to remove all 32bit support from Linux.

[Setif]

In Africa this old hardware still exists and is important

I am from Africa, which part do you mean.

[M@GOid]

In Africa this old hardware still exists and is important

[andre30correia]

I am from Africa, which part do you mean.

Angola cape verd for example or Spain

[caligula]

In Africa this old hardware still exists and is important

Electricity is a lot more expensive in many African countries. You might lose few bucks when upgrading to RPi 3 but you'll save a lot when paying the next electricity bill. For example, according to some online statistics the average price was $0.49/kWh in Liberia and $0.15/kWh in the US. Years ago, if you had a 300W PC, in Germany the price for operating it 24/7 was around 300 euros per year. In Liberia the sum would probably be $1000. While your average salary is $350. So 3-4 months of work just to pay for the electricity. RPi 3 is about as fast as those AGP era computers and would only cost $40 to operate 24/7.

[caligula]

I am of the opinion that if you want to use vintage hardware, use vintage software with it.

I call BS at anyone coming here proclaiming they still use 20 year old hardware in a daily basis, that absolutely need a up-to-date kernel/distro.

Especially if you desperately need the performance, there are often several upgrade options available. Your daily business is a dead end if it depends on some 20 year old software license dongle and you can't afford to upgrade to 15 year old CAD or RAW studio software or something. That system will die at some point anyway.

I use myself a decrepit netbook with a 32 bit only Atom, that had support dropped from major distros a while ago and I didn't get butt-hurt for it. The little thing flies in a old distro, but is as slow as molasses with a modern one. Not to mention using the modern web.

Those early gen atoms are terribly designed anyway. The first generation had a really inefficient chipset which kind of ruined the whole efficiency thing. Some had closed source GPUs. Some more recent ones have had constant issues with sleep states. Some more recent boards suddenly died. Some tablets had terrible battery life and the vendors never provided any Android x86 updates due to the sorry state of the x86 port back then. I've never seen any Atom system that was a joy to use.

[DanL]

Never! I'm going to use my VIA K8T800 Pro board forever. It has a sweet AGP clock lock, so I can OC my FX-55 to the max! Newer boards don't even have that.

[TemplarGR]

Never! I'm going to use my VIA K8T800 Pro board forever. It has a sweet AGP clock lock, so I can OC my FX-55 to the max! Newer boards don't even have that.

Funny, if you actually did that, that FX-55 would have died a long time ago. Overclocking lowers a chip's life considerably, especially if it is an extreme overclock.

[ktecho]

Angola cape verd for example or Spain

Where the fuck do you think Spain is?