On Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:40:29 +0000 (UTC), James <wirel...@tampabay.rr.com> wrote: > Hello everyone, > > > I just saw something very interesting about kernel 2.6.32: > > "3D graphics on AMD/ATI's series 2000, 3000 and 4000 Radeon graphics cards. > Improving 3D graphics support should help improve Linux' standing as a > gaming > platform, among other benefits." > > > "performing mode-setting for graphics card resolution and > depth mode settings in kernel-space offers advantages over > user-based mode-setting"[1] > > Anyone seen any improvements yet? Is it just for the ati-drivers or > does any of the open source drivers make use of these kernel > enhancements?
I can only talk about my experience, I have no direct knowledge about what changes at source code level. The two brands where you are likely to see more improvement are Intel and Ati. Overall, Ati, because its 3d support for anything above the r500 chips is still nowhere never complete, so on each release you are likely to see some noticeable advances on r6xx and r7xx chips. Some basic 3d applications will work, some others will exhibit weird behavior or will fail to run at all. This is only for the radeon and radeonhd drivers. The ati proprietary blob uses its own drm just like nvidia does. However, in which regards 3d, you are not likely to see anything working at all unless you use a git libdrm, mesa and xf86-video-ati (or radeonhd) in conjunction with this new kernel. The kernel alone by itself doesn't do any 3d work, it just provides a convenient way for applications to access the hardware on a straight way. -- Jesús Guerrero
