glxgears is not a benchmark.
try running some 3d games instead. (e.g. some timedemos in quake1/2/3)
I'm running Ubuntu 6.10 at home(x700 256M) and at work(nvidia 64M). I have installed Ati drivers three times using three different methods 1st the ubuntu way (.28), 2nd the envy way (.33), 3rd the manual way (.34). While fglrxinfo reports that the drivers are installed and working when I run glxgears I get fps in the 300 fps range. When I run fgl_glxgears I get much higher rates in the 800 fps range. The nvidia card at work gets over 1000 fps in glxgears and is 64mb vs. the x700 256mb and I've seen much higher fps in glxgears for the x700 on different sites. I know that something is wrong. I've included my fps and xorg.conf below. Can someone help me out?
fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: RADEON X700 PRO
OpenGL version string: 2.0.6334 (8.34.8)
glxgears -printfps
1559 frames in 5.0 seconds = 311.800 FPS
1565 frames in 5.0 seconds = 312.767 FPS
1414 frames in 5.0 seconds = 282.581 FPS
1666 frames in 5.0 seconds = 332.943 FPS
fgl_glxgears
Using GLX_SGIX_pbuffer
4035 frames in 5.0 seconds = 807.000 FPS
4463 frames in 5.0 seconds = 892.600 FPS
4487 frames in 5.0 seconds = 897.400 FPS
xorg.conf
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "aticonfig-Screen[0]" 0 0
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection
Section "Files"
# path to defoma fonts
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection
Section "Module"
Load "i2c"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
Load "fglrx"
EndSection
Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AIGLX" "off"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbOptions" "lv3:ralt_switch"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# /dev/input/event
# for USB
Identifier "stylus"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Device" "/dev/wacom" # Change to
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# /dev/input/event
# for USB
Identifier "eraser"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Device" "/dev/wacom" # Change to
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# /dev/input/event
# for USB
Identifier "cursor"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Device" "/dev/wacom" # Change to
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "DELL 1703FP"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "aticonfig-Device[0]"
Monitor "DELL 1703FP"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]"
Device "aticonfig-Device[0]"
Monitor "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "false"
EndSection
glxgears is not a benchmark.
try running some 3d games instead. (e.g. some timedemos in quake1/2/3)
I didn't have any 3d games but I went ahead and installed Nexuiz. I ran the timedemo demos/demo1 at 1024x786 with all default gfx settings.
I got: result 1909 frames 88.1776885 seconds 21.6494675 fps min/avg/max: 7.3802410/21.6494675/228.1532161
When I was on windows the x700 card ran HL2 just fine and Doom 3 no problem.
Because my comment will be negative, i'll do a small introduction:
At home, I have 7 x86 desktops, 2 laptops and 1 Mac Pro. Except for the Mac Pro which is equipped with an Nvidia Quadro FX4500 and 1 of the laptops with an onboard Intel video card, all my pcs are equipped with different models of Radeon card (a mixture of agp and pci-e cards).
By default the linux installer sets the radeon performance to max performance as opposee to windos which sets the video driver to high quality. If, in windows, you set your graphic card to max quality you should get roughly the same performance that you will see in linux when the card is set max performance. So, now you know how to find what type of performance you should get in linux. Just get the ut2003 or ut2004 linux and windows demo and run some tests.
BTW1, If I was a gamer I would run, not walk, to get nvidia cards for my gaming rigs.
BTW2, All the current cards are an evolution of the 9700/9800 video cards, knowing that ATI with the help of Microsoft have develop the first card in the series, I think that the ATI were engineered with directX as the top most priority. Knowing that, the performance we see now with the fglrx drivers, reflected somewhat with the Opengl performance in windows, makes me wonder if we'll ever see better Linux Opengl performance from these cards.