OpenSource driver performance

[loopx]

Hi folks,


This is a little post to get some information about OpenSource driver performance (ati [radeon] and nvidia [nouveau]). I was using the "radeon" driver for about 2 years (HD4550) and then, I've read that the "radeon" driver has poor performance ... I come back to proprietary driver and .. that's true! But, with binary driver from ATI, and even with a stable Gentoo, I've got some issue ... especially with flash player (only in fullscreen)...


It's been many years I'm using Linux ... only with ATI. Now, I really start to be bored and, for the first time, I will may be buy an nvidia instead of ati ...


So, how are performances of "nouveau" OpenSource driver for newer NVidia graphic cards ??? With radeon, it was divided by 4!!! What is your experience ? Can I expect a correct utilization of a newer GPU without any proprietary driver ???


Thanks
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[ppurka]

Look at phoronix for some benchmarks. They do that quite regularly for all types of cards, comparing the opensource drivers with the proprietary ones.
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emerge --quiet redefined | E17 vids: I, II | Now using kde5 | e is unstable :-/

[loopx]

Mesa 8.1 seems to bring us some significative improvements


.. unfortunately, I left the "radeon" driver before 8.x branch ...
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[frostschutz]

I switched from nvidia to ati (hd 5850), and from fglrx to the open radeon driver, and I don't regret it. Performance with fglrx was better but came with lots more issues.

However I don't play 3D games - that's what Windows is there for. Also no desktop effects for me (don't want them). I do watch Full HD movies however and that works.

[Etal]

I agree with frostschutz about videos - MythTV play 1920x1080 H.264 videos on the same-sized screen on my Radeon HD 4250, and it works perfectly.

If you're planning to use the open-source driver, I think radeon is the way to go, considering that AMD releases the specs and actually pays people people to work on the drivers, while nouveau is reverse-engineered by third parties.
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“And even in authoritarian countries, information networks are helping people discover new facts and making governments more accountable.”– Hillary Clinton, Jan. 21, 2010

[loopx]

I play sometime to Nexuiz and I use Kwin. But right now with Mesa 7 (but not tried last instable), it's not so fast as fglrx (I see it even though Kwin).

If I can't get flash to work correctly in fullscreen, I will probably return to radeon
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[LiquidAcid]

The radeon driver is the DDX, which is only responsible for the 2D part.