Intel May Finally Enable Framebuffer Compression By Default For Skylake+

Intel developers are weighing again the possibility of enabling frame-buffer compression (FBC) support by default for Skylake graphics hardware and newer.

Frame-buffer compression by default in the Intel driver comes up every so often while to date so far it's only flipped on by default for Broadwell, but users can still easily enable it for other hardware via a module parameter. But Intel's Paulo Zanoni is feeling comfortable now to send out a patch for enabling FBC-by-default with Skylake "Gen 9" graphics and newer.

Intel QA has already tested it and confirmed a "100% pass rate" for Skylake, Kabylake, and Broxton hardware.

The patch is here and by the time the Linux 4.11 kernel merge window rolls around, hopefully it will be mainlined.

Making use of FBC can reduce power consumption while reducing memory bandwidth needed for screen refreshes. Those wanting to try out FBC on an existing Linux kernel release can use the i915.enable_fbc=1 module parameter.