Intel Iris Graphics Performance On Linux 3.19 Shows Some Regressions

Written by Michael Larabel in Intel on 8 February 2015 at 06:32 PM EST. 5 Comments
INTEL
For any Intel Haswell Linux users with Iris Graphics thinking of switching to the Linux 3.19 kernel when it's released in what might just be a few hours, be forewarned as testing this weekend revealed there looks to be an OpenGL performance regression attributed to this new kernel.

This weekend I was running some Linux 3.17 vs. 3.18 vs. 3.19 benchmarks on the ASUS Zenbook UX301LAA Haswell ultrabook now that it's no longer my main production system in having replaced it with the Broadwell X1 Carbon.
Linux 3.19 Intel Haswell Iris Graphics

When comparing the past three kernel releases with this ASUS Zenbook with Core i7 4558U Haswell processor with Iris Graphics 5100, the Linux 3.19 performance clearly dropped. Tests were from Ubuntu 15.04 in its current development form with the Mesa 10.4.2 build. All of the Linux OpenGL benchmarks were run via the Phoronix Test Suite.
Linux 3.19 Intel Haswell Iris Graphics
In many of the tests, the Linux 3.19 performance for this system was clearly lower than the vanilla builds of Linux 3.17 and 3.18.
Linux 3.19 Intel Haswell Iris Graphics
In some tests it's basically wiping out the Haswell Iris gains made in Linux 3.18.
Linux 3.19 Intel Haswell Iris Graphics
You can find all of my initial test data for this issue from this OpenBenchmarking.org result file. I'm still looking at the results from the LinuxBenchmarking.com test farm to see if there's any regressions there for the Intel graphics kernel trackers or if I can reproduce this 3.19 regression on any other Intel ultrabooks/laptops around the Phoronix office.
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About The Author
Michael Larabel

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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