Re: ATI Radeon vs nVidia 3D accelleration

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

 



On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 5:42 AM, Marko Vojinovic <vvmarko@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> The idea of 2D and 3D acceleration is to take the load off the processor. So
> you should not expect the performance of accelerated graphics to depend on the
> CPU model. Not too much, anyway.

That depends on the application.  Some 3D "accelleration" is
implemented by having the CPU optimize the input to the GPU, so that
there is less for the GPU to render.

>> lsmod shows that it's using the "nvidia" driver.  Is that the
>> closed-source driver?
>
> Yes.

Ah that is why my work box has such a high framerate - the
closed-source nVidia driver can use undocumented features that have
not yet been reversed-engineered for Open Source use.

>> However while the nVideo card at work can run glxgears at a frame rate
>> of 5000 FPS, my Radeon can only do 300!
>
> The glxgears utility is not a good benchmark. Better try out some real life
> stuff like quake3, nexuiz, extremetuxracer, or such. :-) Or those more dull
> things like googleearth and compiz (if your reflexes are too bad for gaming).

Heh.  Actually I did know that, as I came across this page just a
couple weeks ago:

   http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Glxgears_is_not_a_Benchmark

On my nVidia work box, Extreme Tux Racer had a framerate of 100 to 130
at 1280x1024 (in a window, not full screen).  I won't be able to try
my Radeon home box until this evening.

> Is 3D actually turned on? You can have both hardware and drivers which support
> 3D, but have xorg.conf that disables it, or something like that. You can check
> for direct rendering like this:
>
> glxinfo | grep direct
>
> If it says "yes", then all should be well. :-)

Ah, I didn't know about that - thanks.

When I try "glxinfo | less" on my nVidia work box, it lists a whole
slew of GLX extensions.  Even if my Radeon has 3D turned on, it
probably doesn't support as many such extensions as the proprietary
nVidia driver does.

> There are probably some tools out there which measure frame rate and do proper
> serious benchmarking, but I don't know any.

Actually there is a very good 3D benchmarking tool for Linux, which
I've been intending to try:

    http://www.phoronix-test-suite.com/

My understanding is that the Phoronix Test Suite doesn't do the 3D in
itself, but serves as a test harness for running lots of other video
software.

The installation instructions says that Fedora has a
phoronix-test-suite package, if you want to try it out yourself:

   http://www.phoronix-test-suite.com/documentation/2.4/install.html

Don Quixote
-- 
Don Quixote de la Mancha
quixote@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.dulcineatech.com

   Dulcinea Technologies Corporation: Software of Elegance and Beauty.
-- 
users mailing list
users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe or change subscription options:
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users
Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines


[Index of Archives]     [Current Fedora Users]     [Fedora Desktop]     [Fedora SELinux]     [Yosemite News]     [Yosemite Photos]     [KDE Users]     [Fedora Tools]     [Fedora Docs]

  Powered by Linux