glxgears score independent of CPU speed (ATI radeon 9250) Max performance?

Emmanuel_uk · 02-16-2005, 02:13 AM

Hello,

Whatever the speed of my sempron CPU (1.6 or 2.0 GHz) the glxgears
score remains the same, about 950 FPS (small size window)
(well, I know glxgears is maybe not the most suitable benchmark),
this is for an ATI radeon 9250 (very similar to the 9200).

Did I reach the maximum performance of the video card?
[still no answer to that]

It may sound a naive question, but should we not have a bit of graphics speed dependency with the main CPU frequency?
[edit 11/03/05 Still no answer but many viewing. I assume not many
people have tried, and that well most of us think the video card
does all the job for glxgears, then]

I have tested this to find where the bottleneck was in terms of graphics,
to see if my xorg.conf was correct now that I have added dri access.
I have done some research on ATI radeon 9200 optimisation
for example http://www.desktop-linux.net/ati.htm
I have researched RADEON 9200 scores, some seem to be 1200 to 1500 FPS.

Configuration follows:
Then very short edited Xorg.conf where other parameters than dri did not provide improvement (If you see an obvious possible improvement to my xorg.conf, please let me know, but I am more concerned by knowing
by my questions above)

Code:

 
# xdpyinfo | grep -i -n24 X.org 
3:vendor string:    Mandrakelinux (X.Org X11 6.7.0, patch level 2mdk)
4-vendor release number:    60700000
5:X.Org version: 6.7.0
21-number of extensions:    30
23:    ATITVOUT
# Xorg -version
Release Date: 18 December 2003
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 6.7
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.8.1-2mdkenterprise i686 [ELF]
Current Operating System: Linux localhost 2.6.8.1-10mdk #1 Wed Sep 8 17:00:52 CEST 2004 i686
Build Date: 13 September 2004
Module Loader present
# xorgcfg -verify   gives
Module fglrx: vendor="Fire GL - ATI Research GmbH, Germany" compiled for 4.3.0.1, module version = 3.11.1

$ glxinfo
name of display: :0.0
Loading required GL library /usr/lib/libGL.so.1
display: :0  screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
server glx extensions:  blabla
GLX_SGIS_multisample
client glx vendor string: ATI
client glx version string: 1.3
client glx extensions:   blabla
GLX_ATI_pixel_format_float,
    GLX_ATI_render_texture
GLX extensions:  blabla
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: RADEON 9200 PRO DDR Generic
OpenGL version string: 1.3 (X4.3.0-3.11.1)
glu version: 1.3

Section "Module"
    Load "dbe" # Double-Buffering Extension
    Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
    Load "extmod"
    Load "type1"
    Load "freetype"
    #Load "speedo"     #no difference
    Load "dri"      #added manually
    Load "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libglx.a"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "device1"
    VendorName "ATI"
    BoardName "ATI Radeon (fglrx)"
    Driver "fglrx"
    Option "DPMS"
    Option "FSAAMSPosY1" "0.000000"
    Option "StereoSyncEnable" "1"
    
    # === disable PnP Monitor  ===
    #Option "NoDDC"
    Option "FSAAMSPosX5" "0.000000"
    Option "FSAAMSPosY4" "0.000000"
    Option "FSAAMSPosX2" "0.000000"
    Option "FSAAMSPosX4" "0.000000"
    Option "FSAAMSPosY0" "0.000000"
    Option "FSAADisableGamma" "no"
    
    # === Video Overlay for the Xv extension ===
    Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
    Option "ForceGenericCPU" "no"
    Option "GammaCorrectionII" "0x00000000"
    Option "VRefresh2" "unspecified"
    Option "FSAAMSPosY5" "0.000000"
    Option "CenterMode" "off"
    Option "IgnoreEDID" "off"
    
    # === OpenGL Overlay ===
    # Note: When OpenGL Overlay is enabled, Video Overlay
    # will be disabled automatically
    Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
    Option "FSAACustomizeMSPos" "no"
    
    # === FSAA ===
    Option "FSAAScale" "1"
    
    # === FireGL DDX driver module specific settings ===
    # === Screen Management ===
    Option "DesktopSetup" "0x00000000"
    Option "HSync2" "unspecified"
    Option "TVHStartAdj" "0"
    Option "FSAAMSPosX0" "0.000000"
    Option "no_dri" "no"
    Option "GammaCorrectionI" "0x00000000"
    Option "FSAAMSPosX1" "0.000000"
    Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"
    Option "BlockSignalsOnLock" "on"
    Option "MonitorLayout" "AUTO, AUTO"
    
    # === disable/enable XAA/DRI ===
    Option "no_accel" "no"
    
    # === misc DRI settings ===
    #Option "mtrr" "off" # disable DRI mtrr mapper, driver has its
			 # own code for mtrr but may notbe faster   
    #Option "AGPMode" "8"   #neither 4 was changing anything
    #Option "EnablePageFlip" "on"
    #Option "backingstore" "true"
    #Option "RenderAccel" "true"
    Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "yes"
    #Option "BusType" "AGP"
    #Option "AGPFastWrite" "on"
        
    # === Misc Options ===
    Option "UseFastTLS" "0"
    Option "FSAAMSPosY3" "0.000000"
    
    # === OpenGL specific profiles/settings ===
    Option "Capabilities" "0x00000000"
    #Option "TVStandard" "NTSC-M"
    Option "TVStandard" "PAL-B"
    Option "TVVPosAdj" "0"
    Option "TVColorAdj" "0"
    Option "FSAAMSPosY2" "0.000000"
    
    # === TV-out Management ===
    Option "NoTV" "no"
    Option "TVHSizeAdj" "0"
    Option "TVHPosAdj" "0"
    Option "ScreenOverlap" "0"
    
    # === QBS Support ===
    Option "Stereo" "off"
    Option "FSAAMSPosX3" "0.000000"
    Option "TVVSizeAdj" "0"
EndSection

MaTrIx709 · 08-14-2005, 08:25 AM

How are you able to change the speed of your processor?

950 is still low even for a 9250.

I paid £25.99 for a Geforce4 Mx4000 128MB AGP x8. I get around 1360fps (my 9800pro give me around 3500 the last time I installed debian, but went back to windows for gaming)

How did you install the driver?

All I did was download the .run file, logged in as root, and ran it. Edited my X config, and it just worked.

Also, I was reading the wikipedia article on opengl and it implies that its processor independant device output.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL

cs-cam · 08-14-2005, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Also, I was reading the wikipedia article on opengl and it implies that its processor independant device output.

Mostly true. Real OpenGL is done entirely by your video card, your CPU speed doesn't play much part in it. Software OpenGL (Mesa) would be hugely affected by your CPU speed. Your xorg.conf looks to me like it's setup correctly (coming from an Nvidia user) so I dunno, maybe that's your system maxxed out. Could be a bottleneck somewhere on your motherboard but hardware stuff isn't my area of expertise...

Emmanuel_uk · 08-15-2005, 01:12 AM

Matrix,

Thanks for the link. Now maybe experience is veriefied by theory :-)

re your question (see my signature)
overclocked from 1.6 GHz to 2.0 GHz, FSB speed inc from 160 to 200 MHz

The asus motherboard allows to change the FSB speed,
that was very convenient in this case to test the system.

Re install: well when it was Mandrake 10.1, I just selected the driver fglrx
from the distro, nothing else to do.

Since this post, I have upgraded to madriva 10.2 and I have returned to the
open source radeon driver. It does not yet support 8x (although there is
a patch out there). Interestingly the glxgears score is very sentive
to the number of "color planes" used (16, 24 or 32 are the choices I think).

I have a few links about people installing radeon on kernel 2.8.11,
I will wait before breaking my system I think

cs-cam · 08-15-2005, 07:22 PM

Quote:

Interestingly the glxgears score is very sentive
to the number of "color planes" used (16, 24 or 32 are the choices I think).

Yes obviously, the number of colours plays a huge role. Your glxgears score however isn't hugely important in the greater scheme of things...

Emmanuel_uk · 11-06-2006, 01:20 AM

First, this might be of interest to people in this thread
ATI: Open v. Closed Drivers
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...item=463&num=1
Also a reminder that now lastest version of the flglrx closed source
driver does not support the 9250 anymore

Now then
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.
I am not convinced the 8x is what makes the difference

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

Option "AGPFastWrite" "On" makes X crash here

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