Intel SNA Acceleration Architecture Continues To Mature

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel SNA Acceleration Architecture Continues To Mature

A few days back when testing the Linux 3.1 kernel with Intel's Sandy Bridge hardware and then the Intel RC6 power-savings support, I also ran some updated benchmarks of SNA, the new Intel acceleration architecture available from their graphics driver.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=16617

[russofris]

I would be curious to see how this performs against their Windows driver. A 40% improvement over an older driver is a wonderful thing, but is fairly meaningless in most other contexts without knowing what the potential max fps is.

This assumes that the Windows driver is somewhere close to the potential Max fps.

[Shining Arcanine]

I would be curious to see how this performs against their Windows driver. A 40% improvement over an older driver is a wonderful thing, but is fairly meaningless in most other contexts without knowing what the potential max fps is.

This assumes that the Windows driver is somewhere close to the potential Max fps.

Your assumption is flawed. It is possible that the Linux driver performance surpasses the Windows driver performance and given all of the improvements to it, I suspect that it does.

With that said, Windows comparisons are probably worthwhile here considering the first-party driver support and the rate of improvement.

[mattst88]

but it is still not a trouble-free experience. The ioquake3-based games still show just a black screen when running

Wait, what? Are you saying that the last four games benchmarked (OpenArena, World of Padman, Urban Terror, and Smokin Guns) all just show a black screen?

If that's the case, why are their benchmark results included in the article?

[russofris]

Your assumption is flawed. It is possible that the Linux driver performance surpasses the Windows driver performance and given all of the improvements to it, I suspect that it does.

With that said, Windows comparisons are probably worthwhile here considering the first-party driver support and the rate of improvement.

Without matching windows benchmarks on matching hardware, all assumptions regarding the Lin vs. Win performance are flawed. Personally, I'd be content with the current performance if it meant that someone would be free to sort out the xrandr issues. I really just want my laptop to work consistently.

[log0]

From personal experience i965(GM45) has surpassed the windows driver in speed and features(OpenGL) for some time now. It is the hardware that sucks though.