8-Way NVIDIA Nouveau GPU Comparison

[crazycheese]

Wow - looks like 9800GTX is the way to go right now. I know what's on my wish list.

Better yet, GTX 2xx. Best options - 260sp or 275. You can grab one for 60$ off ebay.

But!!

Those beasts are not every energy efficient.

This is why, when nvidia, then 5xx series. But they are not reclocking now, hence so low scores.

Yeah, I find it almost tragic how 9800GTX/nouveau wipes the floor with the HD4870/r600 (warsow benchmark 100 vs 50 fps). The nouveau guys must be doing something right.

4xxx, 5xxx and 6xxx are VLIW. VLIW means "magic compiler" is needed to produce efficient instructions for all computing units. AMD did not opensource the magic compiler, instead LLVM is doing the work in less efficient way. Nvidia does not have this problem, its scalar. But VLIW is better if its compiler is working right. Double-edged.

Besides, 9800GTX = HD4870. 8800 and 9800 are same chips, also there were soldering problems with them. If ever thinking about nvidia - see choice above.

[crazycheese]

Or a 2xx card with a descent bios.
My card (a 3dClub 285GTX) is set in bios to boot at top speed, probably hoping that the driver will take over and clock it down later. It pulls loads of power (even when idle), but at least I got a pretty good speed out of it.

Wow, thanks for the post. Gainward gtx260sp216 1.7GiB here, on start BIOS speed is set to throttling idle. I can guarantee this.
It looks like you have bad BIOS. Had exactly your experience with previous 9800GT. I really thought it was nvidia-bug. Now it seems to be BIOS dependent. Maybe, you have early BIOS revision???

Also, nouveau should be able to downclock your card once it pulls in.

And my research shows, 260gtx pulls only 80W when in full power state. 40W when in idle. The true power drain comes only when its loaded - it can skyrocket to 140W.

1. it seems the test didn't run on most of the nvidia hardware at all
2. where do people get such old hardware like 9800GTX any more? That card was released more than 4 years ago.

disi stop being asshat to nouveau devs!

People get 9800gtx exactly where they get hd2xxx,3xxx, and 4xxx. At ebay.

[blackout23]

Wow - looks like 9800GTX is the way to go right now. I know what's on my wish list.

The best thing you can do is buy a 600 series card and simply use the newest 310.19 driver. You don't really belive the 9800 GTX is faster with nouveau than anything of the same age with propriatary driver. lol

[GreatEmerald]

Or a 2xx card with a descent bios.
My card (a 3dClub 285GTX) is set in bios to boot at top speed, probably hoping that the driver will take over and clock it down later. It pulls loads of power (even when idle), but at least I got a pretty good speed out of it.

Am I the only person who interpreted this post as "My BIOS has a setting to control what speed to start the graphics card at, therefore it is decent"?

[AJenbo]

Am I the only person who interpreted this post as "My BIOS has a setting to control what speed to start the graphics card at, therefore it is decent"?

I read it as "My VGA-BIOS is hardwired to start the GPU on full power, normal this would be a waist, but since I use Nouveau it works out as a benefit".

[gamerk2]

2. where do people get such old hardware like 9800GTX any more? That card was released more than 4 years ago.

Linux support with an Open driver.

See the problem here?

Also: How about a comparison with the closed NVIDIA binary, just for kicks?

[log0]

Linux support with an Open driver.

See the problem here?

Also: How about a comparison with the closed NVIDIA binary, just for kicks?

There is one, albeit from last year. Still the numbers seem comparable.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...mp_2011&num=17

For the 9800GTX the blob is about two times faster (Urban Terror 4.1).

So yeah, if you go for performance blob is you friend.