A 14-Way Comparison Of NVIDIA vs. Nouveau Drivers

[calim]

GTX 460 @ nouveau: 2 watts
GTX 460 @ blob: 13 watts

Your explanation: "this may be due to the Nouveau driver not initializing all areas of the GPU"

Really ? *Maybe* it is because all areas of the GPU are clocked at 1/10 of the frequency the blob drives them at ?
Don't you think this is kind of *important* information when doing a *performance* comparison ?

[Kivada]

Shame there isn't any current hardware in there (I'd have liked to have seen my GTX580) for nothing else but for a comparison against the 460, which seems to trounce everything else.

Having had my 580 for a while, I'm not sure I'm getting my money's worth in Linux.

First off there are 2 500 series GPUs in the review, second, if you bought a current top of the line flagship class GPU for use with the OSS drivers you are an idiot since even the officially supported AMD OSS drivers have allot of issues wit the HD6900 flagship series GPUs as unlike Nvidia and their previous series of GPUs the HD6900 series actually did change the GPU core allot more then just adding more shader processors.

[AlbertP]

But if there weren't 500 series cards in the article, people would complain that the newest cards were missing.
This way it's actually proved that they work bad with Nouveau.

[Nobu]

The overall power consumption of the system with the different graphics cards was always lower when using the Nouveau driver, but this may be due to the Nouveau driver not initializing all areas of the GPU and taking full advantage of the hardware[...]

It could also be attributed to the CPU not being used as much, if that meant it were able to operate at a lower power state.

Obviously, the drivers will need to take more advantage of the GPU in order to close the gap further. I was going to say it would need to take more advantage of the CPU too, but then I realized the reason that the CPU might not be working as hard could be that it's waiting for the GPU.

Anyway, I'm quite happy and grateful for what the nouveau developers have been able to accomplish so far, and I can't wait to see what they do next. ^_^

[birdie]

The difference between 8800GT and 9800GT GPUs is striking because it's basically the same GPU.

Michael, I smell something very fishy with your results, e.g. on this page the fps difference is fourfold which is kinda wrong.

[darktama]

The difference between 8800GT and 9800GT GPUs is striking because it's basically the same GPU.

Michael, I smell something very fishy with your results, e.g. on this page the fps difference is fourfold which is kinda wrong.

I for one find some of these "findings" a little odd also. Not just because some of the comparisons between cards show major differences where there really should be none/minimal. But, the general lack of stability is surprising to me. I'd have expected to see a similar trend upstream and in Fedora, however, it does not seem to be the case...

[olbi]

Very nice article I have GeForce 6600GT on my machine and works very good. On the other is GeForce 9600GT. In plans I want buy GTS 520 ;]
One question, how do you merge all these cards in one chart? I have tried merge two tests with Radeons cards, which one has AA x4 default and app do it on alone charts

[ChrisXY]

The first results are from the Unigine Heaven benchmark, which does not work with Mesa/Gallium3D, so it is limited to just using the binary Linux driver. It is technically possible to get it running if enabling S3TC support, floating-point textures, and the patented support, but even then, it is at a snail's pace

That's maybe true for nouveau, but you said "Mesa/Gallium3D" generally.

HD 6550 mobile, mesa git:

Yes, that's an awfully small window and 8-12 fps are not much either but you can see it getting there.

[Cyborg16]

"The 8400GS is passively cooled ..."

So how does it get 30°C hotter using nouveau on idle while using less power? Something's a bit wierd there.

[AlbertP]

But, the general lack of stability is surprising to me. I'd have expected to see a similar trend upstream and in Fedora, however, it does not seem to be the case...

Exactly! Nouveau on my 6600 GT AGP is rock solid with the kernel module from a recent Git and the X driver from Git of 2 months ago. But Michael has lots of problems with its PCIe version. Nouveau seems not to like Michael and/or Phoronix...