View Full Version : AMD drivers still make for slothsome Penguin
Michael
03-29-2007, 09:57 AM
AMD MAY have released new Vista and XP Catalyst drivers today, fixing a whole host of Wintel problems - but Linux support is still woeful, according to some fansites.
Phoronix is a well known hangout for GNU geeks, and the chaps there have put a number of ATI cards to the test, up against a 7800 GTX. ATI's Linux drivers are so bad, they suggest, that an X1800 will perform almost identically to an X1950, despite the large delta in Windows performance.
On test was Quake 4, UT2004 and Doom 3 - stalwarts of OpenGL gaming, since Direct3D games obviously won't work on Linux (at least, not without Windows hackery). ATI has come in for a lot of stick for the alleged poor quality of its OpenGL driver, and that appears to be its undoing here.
Whilst a new Linux update was indeed pushed out today, there appear to be no significant performance enhancements detailed in the release notes. By contrast, NVIDIA has been working very hard, behind the scenes, to make sure that Penguin fanatics get their dose of OGLing, and this is borne out by the fact that the 7800 GTX trounces the X1950 in every Linux benchmark performed by the Phoronix gang.
Clearly, the guys need to get thinking about what they are going to do about fixing open sauce performance, if indeed they decide to do anything.
http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38589
Svartalf
03-29-2007, 11:13 AM
Heh... I wonder if AMD's listening... I think it's cool that The Inqwell mentioned Phoronix- but it's a might bit embarrassing for AMD, especially in light of the fact that we've been telling them this for a while now. [Edited for the site in question- not enough caffeine and I was up late last night catching poetry slams over at the Cantab Lounge (In Cambridge, MA...) last night and I was up until 4-ish... :D ]
SnowZero
03-29-2007, 05:53 PM
Maybe I'm just dumb, but I can't find the article/thread the Inq is referring to. Can someone give me a title or link? The Inq left out those details...
Michael
03-29-2007, 06:04 PM
http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=9306
SnowZero
03-29-2007, 06:14 PM
Thank you. Hopefully I wasn't the only one wondering that.
interest thing. Apparently end users are the only ones wanting better drivers now:
Micheal Dell's blog entry titled: "Linux: Driver Support is Key"
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/03/28/9655.aspx
Currently Dell won't buy and sell hardware for it's Linux servers unless it has full open source driver support...
mukiex
04-03-2007, 11:33 AM
I think what would be fantastic would be if Phoronix went above and beyond (tho I'm not sure if they have access to the hardware needed to do this) and added benchmark results for the GeForce 7600 as well.
It would really drive the point home if Nvidia's midrange card performed better than Ati's flagship in OpenGL.
Michael
04-03-2007, 12:13 PM
I think what would be fantastic would be if Phoronix went above and beyond (tho I'm not sure if they have access to the hardware needed to do this) and added benchmark results for the GeForce 7600 as well.
It would really drive the point home if Nvidia's midrange card performed better than Ati's flagship in OpenGL.
Even the GeForce 6600 performs the same or better from our most recent tests.
Svartalf
04-04-2007, 08:17 PM
interest thing. Apparently end users are the only ones wanting better drivers now:
Micheal Dell's blog entry titled: "Linux: Driver Support is Key"
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/03/28/9655.aspx
Currently Dell won't buy and sell hardware for it's Linux servers unless it has full open source driver support...
Heh... I don't think AMD is even offering an M9 part for sale anymore- I could be mistaken on that though. If so, then Dell's got it's server parts- and they'd be decent enough performers in the OpenGL space for them. Desktop parts though- they'd have to stick with Intel's offerings for right now.
yoshi314
04-05-2007, 04:50 AM
the only reasonable solution i see right now
ati is said to be to releasing rewritten opengl core in their drivers soon.
it is planned to come to linux as well - so the developers are not going to mess around with the current codebase apart from usual bugfixing.
that's the way i see it now - we cannot expect new features nor performance gains in fglrx until that new opengl core hits fglrx.
the only reasonable solution i see right now
ati is said to be to releasing rewritten opengl core in their drivers soon.
it is planned to come to linux as well - so the developers are not going to mess around with the current codebase apart from usual bugfixing.
that's the way i see it now - we cannot expect new features nor performance gains in fglrx until that new opengl core hits fglrx.
Exactly. But "Soon" means sometimes in 2007.
Moustacha
04-05-2007, 06:54 AM
maybe soon will be defined (roughly probably) by Michael's AMD slides. cross your everything.
yoshi314
04-05-2007, 08:06 AM
since that new core was planned for vista it should appear pretty soon on windows. and since ati/amd tries to keep things in sync between arches and systems it might come fairly quickly on linux as well.
so i consider current fglrx drivers an soon-to-obsoleted codebase branch that is receining bugfixes only.
what about the new control panel? well i don't think that the driver api will change that much. external apps probably will still work.
Vista has the new opengl driver since January. Windows XP and Linux will get them later. If the new article by Michael is ever going to get online, we may know some new things. I can't wait, I hate waiting ^^ ... no wait, waiting is beautiful, but you only see it this way after things get released.
Michael
04-05-2007, 08:38 AM
Vista has the new opengl driver since January. Windows XP and Linux will get them later. If the new article by Michael is ever going to get online, we may know some new things. I can't wait, I hate waiting ^^ ... no wait, waiting is beautiful, but you only see it this way after things get released.
It will get online soon enough. As soon as I receive all of the slides from AMD, I'll see that the article gets top priority.
Svartalf
04-05-2007, 12:16 PM
It will get online soon enough. As soon as I receive all of the slides from AMD, I'll see that the article gets top priority.
Coolness. I can't wait to see what new info comes out of the article.
Svartalf
04-05-2007, 12:25 PM
Vista has the new opengl driver since January. Windows XP and Linux will get them later. If the new article by Michael is ever going to get online, we may know some new things. I can't wait, I hate waiting ^^ ... no wait, waiting is beautiful, but you only see it this way after things get released.
Heh... I keep telling myself I probably need to work on this "patience" thing my mother kept chiding me about... :D
I guess waiting another handful or so of months won't be TOO bad. I just wish they'd fix the performance issues- I don't care how or with which driver codebase they choose to do it with.
Michael
04-05-2007, 12:28 PM
Regarding times, see: http://www.michaellarabel.com/?k=blog&i=147
If AIGLX isn't supported by the end of this year, I will quit using ATI/AMD graphics cards. Is that enough of a statement? :D
glussier
04-05-2007, 01:05 PM
If someone is shopping for a graphic card and wants some features, he/she is better to buy a card that supports the required feature now instead of another card that will or might support-it sometime in the future.
One thing is sure for now, if you need uptimum performance, on par with what is available under windows, AMD is not the company to buy from.
Svartalf
04-05-2007, 03:36 PM
Regarding times, see: http://www.michaellarabel.com/?k=blog&i=147
If AIGLX isn't supported by the end of this year, I will quit using ATI/AMD graphics cards. Is that enough of a statement? :D
Yes, it is, Michael... And, it's telling. I just wish I knew whether AMD's paying any attention to this or not.
Svartalf
04-05-2007, 03:45 PM
If someone is shopping for a graphic card and wants some features, he/she is better to buy a card that supports the required feature now instead of another card that will or might support-it sometime in the future.
One thing is sure for now, if you need uptimum performance, on par with what is available under windows, AMD is not the company to buy from.
Unfortunately, so. The silicon's never been sub-par. It's been pretty close to NVidia's in ability since the R100's rollout- which is why they've held the position in the industry that they have right now.
Unfortunately, the drivers they have hamstring this performance. I really, really wish that AMD is paying attention to the sad story playing out for them here. It's a story that doesn't need to be playing out for them. It's certainly not for NVidia and Intel- and in this new game that's about to begin in the industry, you either need to be performant, open source, or preferably, BOTH when it comes to driver support for hardware.
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