Performance Overview Of Mesa 9.2

Mesa 9.2 is due to be released in the coming days so here's an overview of what to expect from the key open-source graphics drivers on this six-month update.

Mesa 9.2 is still at OpenGL 3.1~3.2 support for the key drivers (sans the "RadeonSI" driver and LLVMpipe software fallback still in an OpenGL 2.1 world), but for those not up to dateo n the performance differences:

- There isn't too much change for Nouveau when it comes to OpenGL performance on Mesa 9.2. The main Nouveau bottleneck right now on the Nouveau side is still within the kernel DRM and its lack of re-clocking.

- 30 to 40% performance improvements (or more) can be found when using the latest-generation Intel Haswell graphics compared to Mesa 9.1.

- Intel Ivy Bridge is also faster with the Mesa 9.2 code.

- The AMD R600 SB shader optimization back-end is real good news for AMD Radeon open-source enthusiasts.

- Mesa 9.2 is also good for the R600 LLVM back-end that was merged in LLVM 3.3.

- R600 Gallium3D still loses to the Windows 8 AMD Legacy driver.

- Radeon Gallium3D has improved a lot and open-source Radeon graphics are now a whole lot better, especially when using the Linux 3.11 kernel with Radeon DPM power management.

- RadeonSI Gallium3D still has a ways to improve.

- A big NVIDIA vs. AMD vs. Intel graphics comparison using Mesa 9.2-devel code.

Stay tuned for fresh Mesa 9.2 benchmarks in the coming days along with other Phoronix coverage.