Early Radeon OpenGL Benchmarks From Linux 3.10

While the first release candidate of the Linux 3.10 kernel isn't even out yet, there's already been the DRM graphics pull, as a result here's some early open-source Radeon Linux graphics benchmarks.

Going up this afternoon are just some quick and dirty benchmarks of the Linux 3.10 kernel Git code as of this morning compared to the Linux 3.9 mainline vanilla kernel release. The test cards were the AMD Radeon HD 5830 and HD 6570 discrete products. When the Linux 3.10 kernel is mature and ready for release, more extensive Linux GPU benchmarking will commence. Today's article is just to whet the appetite for those Linux enthusiasts curious about the open-source Radeon driver performance.

There aren't huge expectations going into the Linux 3.10 testing as it concerns the Radeon DRM since there wasn't any major focus on performance improvements this kernel cycle. Rather, the prominent user-facing Radeon DRM changes for Linux 3.10 is the long-awaited Radeon UVD video acceleration support and Radeon HD 7000 series tiling support. The tiling support may benefit the Southern Islands GPUs but tiling has already been in place for earlier generations of AMD graphics processors. Also potentially helping some users plagued by open-source drivers in the past is the golden register setup.
Benchmarks in full for this testing can be found within 1305070-UT-LINUX310E69 on OpenBenchmarking.org.
As expected, there isn't too much to see out of the Linux 3.10 kernel on the feature front for non-RadeonSI GPUs.
In some cases it appears the Radeon HD 5830 "Evergreen" graphics card might be slightly faster in some OpenGL tests on Linux 3.10 over Linux 3.9, but there was no reported change for the mid-range Northern Islands GPU.
Stay tuned for more open-source graphics driver benchmarks coming from the Linux 3.10 kernel.