Iris Gallium3D Driver Flips On Fast Clears For Broadwell "Gen 8" Graphics

A few weeks back Intel's next-gen OpenGL Linux driver, the Iris Gallium3D initiative, picked up support for fast color clears in order to boost performance. That initial support was for Skylake "Gen 9" and newer while now Broadwell "Gen 8" graphics have this functionality in place.

Intel developer Rafael Antognolli landed support for fast clears now on Broadwell now that the necessary prerequisites have been addressed.

Broadwell is the oldest generation of Intel hardware to be supported by this Intel Gallium3D driver while former generations of hardware will continue to have Linux OpenGL support via the i965 "classic" driver.

Fresh benchmarks of this new Iris Gallium3D driver will be coming up soon on Phoronix.