ATI R600 Gallium3D Driver Continues Advancing

[HokTar]

I'm glad that r600g finally took off. It also seems to run my test system just fine, meaning that compiz effects seem to work fine. However, the blitting performance (aka glxgears) is about 1/4 of the classic driver's.

[kernelOfTruth]

I'm glad that r600g finally took off. It also seems to run my test system just fine, meaning that compiz effects seem to work fine. However, the blitting performance (aka glxgears) is about 1/4 of the classic driver's.

talking about the gallium and classic r600 driver:

- are there any graphical corruptions when using compiz(-fusion) ?
- how stable is it
- most importantly (for me as a desktop and work user): how fast does the fan spin when using the opensource driver compared to the proprietary/closed driver (where it's constantly running at around 22-24%) ?

the proprietary driver has greatly improved in the last few months but it still causes me trouble - so if I knew that the open drivers work (somewhat) fine that I could use googleearth, compiz, etc. then I finally could switch

many thanks in advance

[kernelOfTruth]

I also play videos via smplayer, totem, vlc - any problems with those ?

[Zajec]

- most importantly (for me as a desktop and work user): how fast does the fan spin when using the opensource driver compared to the proprietary/closed driver (where it's constantly running at around 22-24%) ?

Nothing to do with 3D (Mesa) code.

I also play videos via smplayer, totem, vlc - any problems with those ?

Nothing to do with 3D (Mesa) code.

[HokTar]

I also play videos via smplayer, totem, vlc - any problems with those ?

I have not noticed any graphical problems with compiz and it did never crash. However, some animations were slow e.g. beam up and burn. The rest was as fast as with the classic - no perceptive speed difference.

I have not used it extensively, but I have not yet encountered any stability problems.

Power management works for me if I use the profile based version. With the low profile my machine is noticeably cooler, but I have a notebook plus I run Einstein@home, so my fan speed is always maximal. Dynpm won't change my settings, i.e. everything remains maxed out.

I tested a simple xvid file with SMPlayer, xv (for radeon) worked fine - no flickering or artifacts.

I hope it helps.

[pingufunkybeat]

kernelOfTruth: Which card?

Nothing to do with 3D (Mesa) code.

Unless he uses gl output.

[Zajec]

Unless he uses gl output.

Ahh, right, sorry. I assumed everyone with ATI use Xv

[rohcQaH]

kernelOfTruth: I'm using evergreen, YMMV for r600/r700 cards:

* a week ago, r600g somewhat worked. Given the emount of commits during the last week, these results are outdated though.
* fan speed is louder than fglrx/windows for me, even when forcing profile to "low". I don't know if that's a lack of power saving features or different fan control algorithms. (If you know a way to read clocks on fglrx, let me know)
* for videos, use xv, not opengl. mesa shouldn't be involved in that.
* stability: seemed good on r600c, not so good on r600g last week. But evergreen-code is just out of beta, r600/r700 should be better. Still, r600g is in heavy development and stability can change with each revision.

[kernelOfTruth]

@all:

thanks so far !

@pingufunkybeat:

5850 HD

maybe I mixed some things up: the r600 does support the evergreen, too, right ?

or would that be a different driver ?

@HokTar:

nice ! so it sounds like it's already in a pretty production-usable state
the effects I need are: zoom, negative and magic lamp those hopefully won't be that slow

@HokTar, Zajec:

in that case I would use the xv-driver instead of gl for video - thanks !

@rohcQaH:

so I'll give it some more weeks and then it'll hopefully will provide some more functionality and I could start to use it



perhaps it's too early but did anyone try suspend (specifically: suspend-to-ram) yet ?

[pingufunkybeat]

Ahh, right, sorry. I assumed everyone with ATI use Xv

Xv generally works better (faster), and I use it. But it flickers when you move or resize it under a compositor. Gl output does not.

For some reason, VLC seems to prefer GL output too, and picks it automatically.