Never get better 3d performance than in 10.0

[cage47]

Since I had so much problems with Mandriva 2006 I reverted back to 10.0. Now I still have to deal with 10.0's poor printer performance on my HP Laserjet. But that small hangup is short change compared to the problems that 2006 gave me. But one I am stumped on is my 3d performance. Using 10.0's standard setup using the fglrx driver with 3d accelleration on my Radeon 9000 I can get 894 fps. Now I've tried Debian by itself and it get's the same performance of Mandriva 2006, roughly 450 fps. About half what 10.0 gave me. And if I use ati's propriatory driver, I'm lucky to get 100 fps. WHAT Gives? I mean, you'd expect ati's driver to give the optimum performance. Nope, Even if I use the xf86config file originally from 10.0. I also noticed a similar reduction in performance from 10.0 to 2006 with my Rage 128 on the backup machine. I could get 400 fps with 10.0 and only around 150 fps in 2006. Seems like 10.0's base system was a better performer. Has anyone else running a Radeon 9000 seen anything similar and/or have a work around.

 

On a side note I've been reading a lot on 2007's problems with 3d and I'm now leary of giving it a go. I'm keeping a keen eye on the erata and other bug reports before I decide to try it. Debian Sarge wasn't up to snuff either and I'm wondering if I'm going to have to try etch instead. But I'm concerned my 3d will never get the performance 10.0 gave it.

[ianw1974]

There's quite a bit of difference between 10.0 and 2006, you can even include 10.1 and LE2005 in this as well. The reason, 10.0 was the last version of Mandrake to use XFree86. 10.1 and higher use xorg.

 

Can't suggest a solution to your problem, I also have the same problem with my ATI Radeon 9250. If I use 2006, and the open source drivers, I get about 1200 fps. If I use ATI, it doesn't even give me opengl!!!!!

[emmanuel_uk]

I could get 400 fps with 10.0 and only around 150 fps in 2006

I have a 9250 and get about 1000 fps in mandy 2005 with the open driver. It sounds like in 2006 you did not have dri loaded or something like that. The no of color you selected as well play a role.

Did you look into /var/log/Xorg.0.log

 

WRT ati driver, the newest one does not support the 9xxx series

anymore (it might from time to time in next releases) but ATI

has asid they were concentrating on the high-end

[ianw1974]

I could get 400 fps with 10.0 and only around 150 fps in 2006

I have a 9250 and get about 1000 fps in mandy 2005 with the open driver. It sounds like in 2006 you did not have dri loaded or something like that.

 

Yay, someone who also has the same card as me and same fps. I always wondered if I could get better than 1200fps, or that ati's driver just never works for this card at all.

 

I configured ATI (fglrx) that comes with Mandy (same as I did in LE2005 as well as 2006), made sure I did:

 

urpmi Mesa

 

is case-sensitive so type "Mesa" for it to work. Then, adding:

 

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

 

to /etc/X11/xorg.conf and I was done. ATI's driver never, ever worked for me, and I dunno if it's just me, or that it's never gonna work with this card.

 

Not updated the system to 2007 yet, but should do sometime soon I guess.

[emmanuel_uk]

ATI's driver never, ever worked for me

I have never ever ever tried, (seeing lots of post on it made me think

no much point trying) but if I do I will let you know.

By open I mean I used the xorg driver

 

There is a patch out there to get AGP 8x instead of 4x

for the ati open driver, I have never tried but maybe will one long week-end

 

re performance, I have posted a long thread re that for the 9250,

even testing w/w overclocking the CPU (on another forum)

[cage47]

Yeah I know of all the issuse stated here. I read up on Ati not supporting the 9xxx series in their driver. I downloaded the previous version as they instructed. I know of the difference between 10.0 and 10.1 and up with regards to xfree86 and xorg. But this gives me a Microsoft feeling, that you need to upgrade your hardware to get similar performance. When I set my stuff up I use the same settings. I shouldn't have to downgrade my color settings to get the same performance. And what's the use of ATI putting out propriatory drivers if the performance goes in the toilet?

[emmanuel_uk]

But this gives me a Microsoft feeling, that you need to upgrade your hardware to get similar performance

My experience is that xorg settings can be less agressive/different

from one version to another.

 

Sorry we cannot help you further with the open driver

(I remained convinced the speed difference is a question of settings;

you may want to compare outputs of glxinfo)

It may even be that the agp kernel module is not properly

loaded (I had this once)

[ianw1974]

What methods have you tried to get it working with the open source driver that comes with Mandriva?

[emmanuel_uk]

The 9250 drivers closed/opened where compared there BTW

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=arti...m=463&num=1

[emmanuel_uk]

if I could get better than 1200fps, or that ati's driver just never works for this card at all.

in xorg 7.1 in mdv you can now use the AGP 8x option, for the ATI 9250 radeon

using the 16 bits makes a huge difference in speed, going from 950 to 1500 FPS

 

installing driconf (urpmi -iv driconf)

then enabling hyperZ makes it jump to 2080 FPS

all that open source and always quoting fps for 1280*1024

 

Not tweaked further than

Section "Device"

Identifier "device1"

BoardName "ATI Radeon"

Driver "ati"

Option "DPMS"

Option "AGPMode" "8"

# Option "AGPFastWrite" "On"

#Option "DDCMode" "On"

# Option "EnablePageFlip" "On"

#Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"

Option "XaaNoOffscreenPixmaps" "1"

EndSection

[ianw1974]

Nice

 

I'll have to upgrade my other system to 2007 and have a go with it :P