Ati and low glxgears fps

AChi · 10-16-2006, 10:20 AM

I've been searching for the past two days with no luck on finding something that has helped. Any sugestions or directions to a possible solution would be appretiated.

I am using a ATI mobile x300 card and have fglrx (8.27.10) installed. fglrxinfo reports:

Quote:

display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: MOBILITY RADEON X300 Generic
OpenGL version string: 2.0.5946 (8.27.10)

glxinfo | grep direct gives:

Quote:

direct rendering: Yes

But I am only getting aroun 120 fps out of glxgears and a few of my other programs are reporting 3d rendering as not working.

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep WW gives:

Quote:

(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(WW) fglrx(0): board is an unknown third party board, chipset is supported
(WW) fglrx(0): Specified desktop setup not supported: 10
(WW) Couldn't load XKB keymap, falling back to pre-XKB keymap

Any help would be appretiated and if more information is needed just ask.

Here is my xorg.conf file (It was mostly written by the fglrxconfig program quite some time ago but I have been trimming it since then):

Quote:

# File: xorg.conf
# **********************************************************************
# DRI Section
# **********************************************************************
Section "dri"
Mode 0666
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Module section -- this section is used to specify
# which dynamically loadable modules to load.
# **********************************************************************
Section "Module"

# This loads the DBE extension module.

Load "dbe" # Double buffer extension

SubSection "extmod"
Option "omit xfree86-dga" # don't initialise the DGA extension
EndSubSection

# This loads the Type1 and FreeType font modules
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"

# This loads the GLX module
Load "glx" # libglx.a
Load "dri" # libdri.a

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Files section. This allows default font and rgb paths to be set
# **********************************************************************

Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"

# FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local/"
# FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
# FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
# FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
# FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
# FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/"
# FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
# FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"

# ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Server flags section.
# **********************************************************************

Section "ServerFlags"
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Input devices
# **********************************************************************

# **********************************************************************
# Core keyboard's InputDevice section
# **********************************************************************

Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "Keyboard1"
Driver "kbd"

Option "AutoRepeat" "500 30"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Core Pointer's InputDevice section
# **********************************************************************

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"

EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Graphics device section
# **********************************************************************
Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI fglrx"
Driver "fglrx"

BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Option "DesktopSetup" "horizontal"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "UseFastTLS" "2"
Option "EnablePrivateBackZ" "on"
Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Screen sections
# **********************************************************************
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "ATI fglrx"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24

Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0 # initial origin if mode is smaller than desktop
EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "XVideo" "Enable"
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# ServerLayout sections.
# **********************************************************************

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Server Layout"
Screen "Screen0"
InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"

EndSection

### EOF ###

PTrenholme · 10-16-2006, 10:55 AM

Hum. I'm not much into 3d stuff, but my 200M "built-in" in this Gateway MA3 laptop gets about 500 f/sec. (2000 GHz AMD processor, 1GB RAM).

And there is a warning in my Xorg.0.log that the board is an unknown third party board, chipset is supported, so I suspect that's a comment generated by most "built in" ATI graphics support.

Have you played with the aticonfig command? It will parse your xorg.conf file and (hopefully) correctly make changes for you.

AChi · 10-16-2006, 11:19 AM

I've played a bit with it changing a few options on and off like vsync and fsaa. But half the problem is I'm not sure which should be on and which should be off.

PTrenholme · 10-16-2006, 02:32 PM

Well, for what it's worth, my xorg.conf file is much simpler than yours. Of course, my needs and hardware are also different.

Here's the relevant section:

Code:

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Videocard0"
	Driver      "fglrx"
	VendorName  "Videocard vendor"
	BoardName   "ATI Technologies Inc ATI Radeon XPRESS 200M 5955 (PCIE)"
	Option	    "VideoOverlay" "on"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Videocard0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     16
		Modes    "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
		Modes    "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

<edit>A thought: Is your mtrr set for DMA to your card?

Code:

$ cat /proc/mtrr
reg00: base=0x00000000 (   0MB), size=1024MB: write-back, count=1
reg01: base=0xd4000000 (3392MB), size=  64MB: write-combining, count=1

</edit>

AChi · 10-16-2006, 03:03 PM

Well here is what cat /proc/mtrr give me so it looks like it is.

Quote:

reg00: base=0x00000000 ( 0MB), size=1024MB: write-back, count=1
reg01: base=0xfeda0000 (4077MB), size= 128KB: write-through, count=1
reg02: base=0xd0000000 (3328MB), size= 128MB: write-combining, count=1

I'll give a trimed down xorg.conf file based off yours a try when I get a chance and see what happens

Electro · 10-16-2006, 03:58 PM

Using glxgears to benchmark a video card 3D performance is stupid. You should use glxgears to test if 3D rendering is working properly. A real test is using game demos and running game scripts to benchmark the video card. If you really want to know if it is using hardware 3D rendering, type 'glxinfo | grep -i mesa'. If this prints out anything, you are using software 3D rendering.

Type what 'eselect opengl list' prints out. It should not be org-x11.

AChi · 10-16-2006, 04:06 PM

I'm well aware that glxgears is not the best way to benchmark a card. I'm also aware that with glxgears I should be getting something much higher then I am getting which indicates to me that there is something wrong somewhere. And a couple of my other programs are reporting that there is a problem with 3d acceleration.

As for 'glxinfo | grep -i mesa' it doesn't print out anything and 'eselect opengl list' prints out both ati and xorg-x11 with a star beside ati indicating it is selected.

*edit* As a note the program that is reporting it as failing (cedega) is using glxgears to benchmark it.

Electro · 10-16-2006, 04:36 PM

glxgears is not a benchmark tool. Just ignore Cedega tests. If you can play demos of Quake or Unreal Tournament, then you can play any Windows games in Cedega.

PTrenholme · 10-16-2006, 07:13 PM

You should also have available the amusing take on glxgears, fgl_glxgears. (Which gives me about 130 fps, but, hey, that's the only 3D app. I actually run. And, as you saw above, my video card only has 64MB DMA. <sarcasism>I guess I won't be able to install Vista -- if it's ever released.

</sarcasism>])

Your mtrr listing shows two 128MB DMA areas. I presume that your ATI card either has 256MB memory accessed as two regions (perhaps one region for each monitor), or (probably more likely) you've only got 128MB in the card, and the other region is some other piece of hardware. (Just guessing here, and probably not of any significance.)

Electro · 10-17-2006, 07:15 PM

I recommend do not mess around with mtrr unless you know what you are doing.

It could be the composite module that is screwing up glxgears FPS calculations. When I enable the composite module, the FPS is around 100 to 200 FPS although it plays fine in Unreal Tournament. My video card is nVidia GeForceFX 5700 Ultra. With out using the composite module it gives me a little above of 5000 fps. If I am running folding@home during the Cedega tests, it fails the test.

Again if either Quake or Unreal Tournament runs fine, you can play any Windows game in Cedega.

AChi · 10-18-2006, 12:33 PM

Well system shock at 640x480 is giving me low fps maybe around 5-10. I will have to get ahold of quake of Unreal to test them but Ii'm betting its going to be the same thing.

What is the composition module? A setting in xorg.conf or a kernel module?

Electro · 10-18-2006, 06:19 PM

Its an X11 module that handles opaque levels or transparency effects of windows.