Open-Source ATI R500 EXA & XAA Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Open-Source ATI R500 EXA & XAA Support

For those of you using the RadeonHD driver with a Radeon X1000 (R500) graphics card, today it has picked up EXA and XAA support! This support is still very initial -- with no EXA accelerated (DMAed) up or download yet -- but it means the start of open-source 2D acceleration for these ATI graphics cards. The git commits pushing this XAA/EXA support were made just minutes ago to xf86-video-radeonhd on FreeDesktop's server...

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

[d2kx]

RadeonHD FTW!

Will test this out very soon

[Michael]

** Working on a fglrx, radeon, radeonhd 2D comparison. **

[rbmorse]

How do I enable EXA? I'm on Ubuntu 7.10.

[Michael]

Once you're running the latest xf86-video-radeonhd code, add:

Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"

to your radeonhd device section of the xorg.conf.

[rbmorse]

Tks. Do you have to do anything to disable XAA, which is enabled by default, or can they co-exist?

[Michael]

Tks. Do you have to do anything to disable XAA, which is enabled by default, or can they co-exist?

The AccelMethod tells it all, if it's XAA it's XAA. If it's EXA, it's EXA. If you use ShadowFB, it's ShadowFB.

[sundown]

Do I need to build the driver again or can I just do a git update?

[Michael]

Do I need to build the driver again or can I just do a git update?

You need to rebuild and reinstall the driver every time after a git update.

[rbmorse]

The AccelMethod tells it all, if it's XAA it's XAA. If it's EXA, it's EXA. If you use ShadowFB, it's ShadowFB.

Ok...yes. If you don't specify anything you get XAA, according to the log. In any case, for my R580+ on Ubuntu 7.10, XAA subjectively "feels" much faster than EXA. Video has fewer defects, too.