I just installed slackware 10 with kernel 2.4.26 on my system. Every is working just fine (until my noobie fingers eventually screw something up). I installed the lastest drivers for my ATI 9700 pro. Everything went well, direct rendering works. I ran glxgears (avg 2869fps) and fgl_glxgears (avg 560fps).

That seems a little low to me.

On a separate hard drive (currently not hooked up) in the same system. I am running Fedora Core 2 (kernel 2.6.7) and Winblows XP. My glxgears is about 1000 fps higher and my fgl_glxgears is about the same when compared to my slackware install.

The ati drivers are the same for both installs. Would the difference in kernels be why the difference in glxgears? both system are running xorg-X11 and both are in KDE.

The 64million dollar question is:
Would a kernel update give me better performance?

I would like to have my slackware 10 have boot option of more than one kernel, so I can compare.

Eventually, I plan to add my hdd to the system again and get my winXP dual booting back.

Looking for feedback. thanks

Sounds like the only way to satisfy your curiosity is to install the new kernel and see.
You can have more than one kernel and set LILO up for multiboot.

Apologies if you knew that already.

cheers

that has been a consideration. I need to figure out how to do that. Any idea how to mulit-boot?