A New Intel i965 Gallium3D Driver Is Coming

[phoronix]

Phoronix: A New Intel i965 Gallium3D Driver Is Coming

While we are not sure yet what Intel's special Poulsbo driver means yet, we do have some firm information to report this weekend on another new Intel driver: a new Intel i965 driver for Gallium3D is coming. Keith Whitwell of VMware (formerly Tungsten Graphics) has been hacking away at a new i955 driver for this extremely promising graphics driver architecture. While the open-source ATI/AMD developers have been hard at work on Gallium3D support and the Nouveau developers are solely focusing on Gallium3D for their OpenGL support, the official Intel developers haven't dabbled too much with Gallium3D...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NzY2MQ

[wswartzendruber]

Is this what the G45/GM45 series would use?

[garytr24]

sweet, gallium seems like a really cool architecture. But I have to say, I already get pretty good 3d performance out of the most recent intel drivers on my gm45, sometimes it's even better than windows. Still quite glitchy at times, though.

Is this intended to replace or improve on the current driver codebase, or just for fun?

How long of a timeframe will it take?

[Kano]

When you compare Quake Live then Win is still faster on Q45.

[Svartalf]

When you compare Quake Live then Win is still faster on Q45.

That could be due to game implementation details; I'd only buy your line there Kano, if you could prove that it was as fast or faster on the proprietary drivers and the FOSS Radeon support on G200 and G300/400/500.
(Not that I don't think you're right- I just don't have any basis as I've not measured and I've not seen anyone else do it either... )

If it's slower on most or all GPUs, then there's something with the game itself. If it's only slower on a few GPUs, then it's definitely driver issues.

[garytr24]

That could be due to game implementation details; I'd only buy your line there Kano, if you could prove that it was as fast or faster on the proprietary drivers and the FOSS Radeon support on G200 and G300/400/500.
(Not that I don't think you're right- I just don't have any basis as I've not measured and I've not seen anyone else do it either... )

If it's slower on most or all GPUs, then there's something with the game itself. If it's only slower on a few GPUs, then it's definitely driver issues.

I think urban terror is a bit faster for me than on windows.

[atroftDiative]

We will be posting some information when we can. Right now there is not much more to say than it is will be the 3rd generation Bad Axe using the X38 Bearlake chipset and will support ATI/AMD Crossfire.

-FCG