Open-Source R500 Driver Can Compete With Legacy Catalyst

The newer OpenArena 0.8.8 release was then tested that makes use of more graphically intensive features. At 800 x 600, the very latest driver code was more than twice as fast as the four-year-old Catalyst. The latest Git driver code running atop the Ubuntu 12.10 development snapshot with Unity 2D desktop was running at 31 FPS while the Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS paired with its binary driver was at just 13 FPS.

When increasing the resolution from 800 x 600 to 1400 x 1050, the latest driver code remained ahead: 11 FPS versus 8 FPS with the fglrx driver. However, this game still would not be playable with this hardware no matter how good the driver may end up being optimized.