Linux 3.0, 3.4, 3.10, 3.12 AMD Kernel Benchmarks

Now what was mostly interesting was the open-source Radeon performance on the Linux 3.4, 3.10, and 3.12 kernel releases. Besides the Linux 3.0 kernel failing with the updated user-space code, with the Linux 3.10/3.12 kernel tests there is OpenGL 3.1 support with this Mesa 10.0-devel Gallium3D driver over GL 2.1 on the earlier kernel releases.

There's continued evolution of the open-source AMD Radeon graphics driver stack from both kernel and user-space.

Generally, the newer the kernel the better the open-source graphics drivers are -- just not for Radeon but also Intel too, and Nouveau assuming you're not hit by any regressions in its game of Russian Roulette.