ET: Quake Wars - ATI Performance

[Svartalf]

X1950 Pro 512MB AGP

$fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Radeon X1950 Series
OpenGL version string: 2.0.6958 Release

$glxinfo | grep "direct rendering"
direct rendering: Yes

Fresh Ubuntu 7.10 install

$glxgears
13198 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2639.412 FPS etc...

Problem:
glxgears,google earth show instead of 3D black window so no 3D for me ....
Later edit : videos black too...

So if this article is genuine how did Phonorix install and test x1950 Pro?

You've got an AGP model- they've got a PCI-E one.

The part's designed for PCI-E in the first place and they add a PCI-E to AGP bridge part on the AGP card- of which, many people seem to have all sorts of pain from with fglrx in the first place.

[Svartalf]

I would guess, that about 90% of the "bad problems" are mainly related to some bad distribution specific setup. Most problem reports are from ubuntu users, they seem to do some things in a really strange way which does cause problems with this release.

In general I would personally recommend waiting the two or so days until the drivers are available in the distributions rep, then you are at least sure that the install/build part does work as expected.

Actually, it may be more something to do with AGP than Ubuntu... I'm seeing a trend with THAT detail to be truthful- and ATI's had...issues...with AGP bridged PCI-E based GPUs with earlier versions of fglrx.

[Draku]

This is actually funny , the problem has to do only with the drivers because on the windows side after 7.7 drivers no driver work, so they screw things up with agp cards.

And the best part is in the 8.42.3 release notes :
Segmentation faults in OpenGL applications and the ATI Catalyst™ Control Center Linux Edition with Rialto-based AGP cards no longer occur.

I don't know really what else is there to tell , but if the ATI beta testers use only PCI-E cards , like Phonorix do , there will be no fix beacause this sort of problems will never be reported back to ATI.

[Svartalf]

I don't know really what else is there to tell , but if the ATI beta testers use only PCI-E cards , like Phonorix do , there will be no fix beacause this sort of problems will never be reported back to ATI.

Their developers, QA, and beta tester pool typically don't mess with AGP as the industry as a whole is trying to kill that bus off completely in favor of PCI-E, which brings a unification of a lot of things to the fore and allows you to alternately use the GPU slot for something else like high-end server hardware if you're not gaming or GPU supercomputing.

PCI-E is actually a much better thing from start to finish, but that's short shrift for all the poor folks stuck with AGP right now. (I'm sure someone will tell you "just upgrade"... Heh... I'm just NOW upgrading my 5 year old test farm hardware with Junk PC's slapped together from bargain bin stuff from Fry's right now- don't ask why... >:-) Both the attitude that you'll find from the vendors and my not having the nice hardware are sore subjects right at the moment )