Intel Graphics Get A Boost With Linux 2.6.38, Mesa 7.11

[XA Hydra]

Back on topic: Michael, do you know exactly what code changes allow for this massive improvement?
Also, we've had Sandy Bridge and Clarkdale benches; any chance of some love for the old 945? Still a reasonable user base size from just netbooks, ignoring all the other old boxes lying around.

I'd like to know about the 945 as well- the machine I'm typing from has one. Windows performance is well beyond 2x as it currently stands in some cases. Any kind of boost on the open source side is appreciated... Any news there?

[ickle]

I'd like to know about the 945 as well- the machine I'm typing from has one. Windows performance is well beyond 2x as it currently stands in some cases. Any kind of boost on the open source side is appreciated... Any news there?

Which applications? For anything using tnl, Mesa's current software implementation is extremely slow (gallium's llvmdraw module is far faster) and is the usual bottleneck. i915g has a tremendous advantage here. If you can post a few comparative numbers between win32, i915c and i915g and open a bug on fd.o, that would be extremely useful. (The key factor for such a performance bug report is the test case and exactly what the expectations are, including the hardware upon which you measure).

[Panix]

Just a side comment: what about Virtualbox? Do you have to use Wine with MS Office? Why not install a Windoze OS w/ MS Office in a virtual machine????

[deanjo]

Just a side comment: what about Virtualbox? Do you have to use Wine with MS Office? Why not install a Windoze OS w/ MS Office in a virtual machine????

Why run extra overhead if there isn't a need for it? Plus VM's are not very desirable in situations where you don't have multicore system or lots of ram to spare.

[Dr.Paneas]

I have installed the latest Intels drivers from PPA:xorg-edgers but I am still unable to play any game or run any graphics test from Phoronix-test-suite.

* xserver-xorg-video-intel
Version: 2:2.14.0+git20110220.9599fde6-0ubuntu0sarvatt~maverick
* libdrm-intel1
Version: 2.4.23+git20110119.550fe2ca-0ubuntu0sarvatt~maverick
* lib-mesa-dri
Version: 7.11.0+git20110222.7aeb610f-0ubuntu0sarvatt~maverick
* Kernel 2.6.35-27
Version Linux ubuntubox 2.6.35-27-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Tue Feb 22 20:25:46 UTC 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I can't enable compiz or play any game... I know that as Linux user it would be expected that new hardware doesn't work out of the box, but this is ridiculous ...

Please, when you have time, make an article with directions or guidance for all the rest of us

[Kano]

Try:

wget -qO- http://kanotix.com/files/fix/mainline/install-38.sh|sudo sh

That will install 2.6.38 final kernel from ubuntu mainline - your kernel is too old.

[Dr.Paneas]

Thanks man

I used to install new kernels via kernelCheck ( http://kcheck.sourceforge.net/ ). Now, I will try your way

[Dr.Paneas]

I can run World of Padman benchmark ( 82 FPS score) but I cannot run Unigine Heaven or Doom3. Why is that ?

The benchmark starts loading and when it finishes i get a black screen for one second and the Desktop freezes...no keyboard, no mouse..nothing...

I have all the latest drivers and requirements installed

Here take a look
examples.desktop:

paneas@ubuntubox:~/Downloads/Unigine_Heaven-2.5$ sh x64_1024x768_windowed_tess_normal.sh 
Loading "/home/paneas/Downloads/Unigine_Heaven-2.5/bin/../data/heaven_2.5.cfg"...
Engine::init(): clear video settings for "Mesa DRI Intel(R) Sandybridge Desktop GEM 20100330 DEVELOPMENT  2.1 Mesa 7.11-devel"
Loading "libGL.so.1"...
Loading "libopenal.so.1"...
Set 1024x768 windowed video mode
Set 1.00 gamma value
Unigine engine http://unigine.com/
Binary: Linux 64bit GCC 4.4.5 Release Mar  1 2011
App path:  /home/paneas/Downloads/Unigine_Heaven-2.5/bin/
Data path: /home/paneas/Downloads/Unigine_Heaven-2.5/data/
Save path: /home/paneas/Downloads/Unigine_Heaven-2.5/bin/

---- System ----
System: Linux 2.6.38-020638-generic x86_64
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz 3398MHz MMX SSE SSE2 SSE3 SSSE3 SSE41 SSE42 HTT
GPU: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Sandybridge Desktop GEM 20100330 DEVELOPMENT  2.1 Mesa 7.11-devel
System memory: 3874 Mb
Video memory:  256 Mb

---- MathLib ----
Set SSE simd processor

---- Sound ----
Renderer: PulseAudio Software
OpenAL vendor:   OpenAL Community
OpenAL renderer: OpenAL Soft
OpenAL version:  1.1 ALSOFT 1.12.854
Found AL_EXT_LINEAR_DISTANCE
Found AL_EXT_OFFSET
Found ALC_EXT_EFX
Found EFX Filter
Found EFX Reverb
Found EAX Reverb
Found QUAD16 format
Found 51CHN16 format
Found 61CHN16 format
Found 71CHN16 format
Maximum sources:         256
Maximum effect slots:    4
Maximum auxiliary sends: 2

---- Render ----
GLRender::GLRender(): Unknown GPU
OpenGL vendor:   Tungsten Graphics, Inc
OpenGL renderer: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Sandybridge Desktop GEM 20100330 DEVELOPMENT 
OpenGL version:  2.1 Mesa 7.11-devel
Found required GL_ARB_map_buffer_range
Found required GL_ARB_vertex_array_object
Found required GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object
Found required GL_ARB_half_float_vertex
Found required GL_ARB_half_float_pixel
Found required GL_ARB_occlusion_query
Found required GL_EXT_texture3D
Found required GL_EXT_texture_cube_map
Found required GL_EXT_texture_sRGB
Found required GL_EXT_texture_swizzle
Found required GL_ARB_shader_object
Found required GL_ARB_vertex_shader
Found required GL_ARB_fragment_shader
Found required GL_ARB_draw_buffers
Found required GL_ARB_framebuffer_object
Found required GL_EXT_framebuffer_blit
Found required GL_EXT_framebuffer_multisample
Found optional GL_ARB_draw_elements_base_vertex
Found optional GL_EXT_draw_buffers2
Found optional GL_ARB_texture_rg
Found optional GL_ARB_texture_compression
Found optional GL_ARB_seamless_cube_map
Shading language:      1.20
Maximum texture size:  4096
Maximum texture units: 16
Maximum draw buffers:  8

---- Physics ----
Physics: Multi-threaded

---- PathFind ----
PathFind: Multi-threaded

Unigine~# gl_render_use_arb_tessellation_shader 1 && render_restart
---- Interpreter ----
Version: 2.39

Loading "heaven/unigine.cpp" 59ms
Loading "demos/heaven/locale/unigine.en" dictionary
Loading "core/materials/unigine_post.mat" 11 materials 11 shaders 0ms
Loading "core/materials/unigine_render.mat" 38 materials 306 shaders 2ms
Loading "core/materials/unigine_meshes.mat" 17 materials 10924 shaders 41ms
Loading "core/materials/unigine_terrains.mat" 1 material 144 shaders 0ms
Loading "core/materials/unigine_grass.mat" 1 material 69 shaders 2ms
Loading "core/materials/unigine_particles.mat" 1 material 45 shaders 1ms
Loading "core/materials/unigine_billboards.mat" 1 material 51 shaders 0ms
Loading "core/materials/unigine_volumes.mat" 6 materials 45 shaders 4ms
Loading "core/materials/unigine_guis.mat" 1 material 82 shaders 0ms
Loading "core/materials/unigine_water.mat" 1 material 101 shaders 15ms
Loading "core/materials/unigine_skies.mat" 1 material 13 shaders 18ms
Loading "core/materials/unigine_decals.mat" 1 material 55 shaders 0ms
Loading "core/properties/unigine.prop" 2 properties 0ms
OpenGL error: invalid enum
Unigine~# world_load heaven
Loading "heaven.cpp" 156ms
Loading "demos/heaven/materials/heaven_base.mat" 7 materials 1ms
Loading "demos/heaven/materials/heaven_environment.mat" 12 materials 1069ms
Loading "demos/heaven/materials/heaven_ruins.mat" 27 materials 2907ms
Loading "demos/heaven/materials/heaven_buildings.mat" 51 materials 2793ms
Loading "demos/heaven/materials/heaven_props.mat" 10 materials 563ms
Loading "demos/heaven/materials/heaven_sfx.mat" 11 materials 15ms
Loading "demos/heaven/materials/heaven_fort.mat" 15 materials 740ms
Loading "demos/heaven/materials/heaven_airship.mat" 26 materials 4188ms
OpenGL error: invalid enum
Object::loadWorld(): different surface names "mill_wings" "mill_wings_1"
Loading "heaven.world" 35267ms
Unigine~# render_hdr 2 && render_restart
GLFrameBuffer::enable(): incomplete attachment
GLFrameBuffer::enable(): incomplete attachment
Received signal SIGINT, interrupt
AL lib: ALc.c:1879: exit(): closing 1 Device
AL lib: ALc.c:1808: alcCloseDevice(): destroying 1 Context(s)
AL lib: ALc.c:1420: alcDestroyContext(): deleting 256 Source(s)
AL lib: ALc.c:1427: alcDestroyContext(): deleting 4 AuxiliaryEffectSlot(s)
AL lib: ALc.c:1825: alcCloseDevice(): deleting 16 Effect(s)
AL lib: ALc.c:1832: alcCloseDevice(): deleting 256 Filter(s)