LLVMpipe Still Doesn't Work For Linux Gaming

LLVMpipe is the Gallium3D-based software-accelerated driver fall-back that does OpenGL on the CPU. LLVMpipe leverages the LLVM compiler infrastructure to take advantage of multiple CPU cores, the latest CPU instruction sets, and other capabilities. However, running OpenGL on the CPU is still no match to a dedicated GPU; CPUs and GPUs are very different beasts and to each his own. Using LLVMpipe is good enough for a composited desktop environment (GNOME Shell, Unity, etc), but for games it's far from being sufficient. On the desktop side, LLVMpipe works surprisingly well for thin clients / multi-seats.
While OpenGL games over LLVMpipe is slow as molasses, it's also interesting to see how well LLVMpipe is doing for OpenGL gaming on the processor to measure CPU improvements, Mesa/Gallium3D architectural improvements / optimizations, and how well LLVM is doing.
I've done LLVMpipe on AMD Bulldozer and Intel Sandy Bridge, but here are some benchmarks when using LLVMpipe on Intel Ivy Bridge.
You can compare your system's performance to these LLVMpipe and Intel IVB numbers by simply running phoronix-test-suite benchmark 1205289-SU-LLVMPIPEI36. Additional system information and other details for this quick round of Intel Linux Ivy Bridge benchmarks can be found from the OpenBenchmarking.org result file.
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