New X Drivers PPA for Jaunty

[ghindo]

It seems that the X people from Canonical have heard our pleas for better X performance in Jaunty, and have answered with an official PPA:
We've started getting requests for new versions of X drivers, that
unfortunately missed the freeze deadline for Jaunty.

I've established a PPA for where updated drivers can be posted:

https://edge.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates/

I've pre-seeded it with some of the simpler ones to update. If you're
in ubuntu-x-swat, please feel free to add to the collection. It would
be nice to have mesa 7.4.1, -intel 2.7, and the new restricted drivers.

The idea here is to provide stable updates that we believe should
improve things beyond the stock install. So no git snapshots (unless
Debian is carrying them), and nothing requiring newer kernel or
xserver. Drivers that require new libdrm or other libs are ok, so long
as we also provide those deps in this ppa.

Brycehttps://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-x/2009-April/000518.html

[Kareeser]

New intel drivers? Let's see how this changes the performance on my i855 :)

[Mazza558]

What would really help is if these were tested enough to be added as an official update. That way, every intel graphics user who doesn't know how to add a PPA will suddenly get a performance boost after the updates.

[hanzomon4]

Well then get to testing! j/k

[=^,^=]

Does this include any ati driver updates?

[Kareeser]

I think at this point, the best we can hope for is backporting, and only for those who've enabled the backports repository :P

[Giant Speck]

I don't actually see any packages on that website...

[Daisuke_Aramaki]

I don't actually see any packages on that website...

right click on the source driver names and open it in a new tab, you will see the packages.

[Giant Speck]

right click on the source driver names and open it in a new tab, you will see the packages.

Thanks! I would have never thought of that!

[gletob]

I'm on an Intel i965 and my results amaze me. Running with no issues yet.

Old glxgears

2968 frames in 5.0 seconds = 593.453 FPS
3038 frames in 5.0 seconds = 607.432 FPS
3037 frames in 5.0 seconds = 607.384 FPS
2888 frames in 5.0 seconds = 577.478 FPS
New glxgears

27160 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5431.944 FPS
37861 frames in 5.0 seconds = 7572.053 FPS
34632 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6926.389 FPS
32513 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6502.451 FPS

[steeleyuk]

Big difference here on the laptop as well. While Compiz is NOT running, the jump with glxgears was from ~210 to ~1360 FPS. With Compiz, not much difference.

[Kareeser]

I'm on an Intel i965 and my results amaze me. Running with no issues yet.

Old glxgears

2968 frames in 5.0 seconds = 593.453 FPS
3038 frames in 5.0 seconds = 607.432 FPS
3037 frames in 5.0 seconds = 607.384 FPS
2888 frames in 5.0 seconds = 577.478 FPS
New glxgears

27160 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5431.944 FPS
37861 frames in 5.0 seconds = 7572.053 FPS
34632 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6926.389 FPS
32513 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6502.451 FPS


Sweet Jesus, that's a big jump. After upgrading, my glxgears result is comparable to your PRE-upgrade result!

Intel 855GM here.

[ghindo]

I'm using Intel graphics and I'm not sure how much of a difference this is making. Compiz still doesn't work, but that's probably because my chipset is still blacklisted.
I don't actually see any packages on that website...Follow these instructions (https://help.launchpad.net/Packaging/PPA#Adding%20a%20PPA%20to%20your%20Ubuntu%20reposi tories) to enable the PPA. Then, just check for updates and install said updates.

[Zorael]

glxgears numbers can be deceiving, since it's not benchmarking what you think it's doing. Even if one driver has twice the glxgears fps of another driver, the second one could still have better rendering performance. The only thing that tells you is that the first one writes to the screen faster; the actual animation (gears turning) is so simple it doesn't begin to tax your graphical processor. Even if the first one has twice the glxgears fps of the second one, the second one could still have twice the "real world" game fps of the first one.

It's not exactly like deciding which car runs faster by the time they can lower the windows, but it's not far off.

[Giant Speck]

Compiz still doesn't work 100% :(

I was hoping this would help. :(

[steeleyuk]

glxgears numbers can be deceiving, since it's not benchmarking what you think it's doing. Even if one driver has twice the glxgears fps of another driver, the second one could still have better rendering performance. The only thing that tells you is that the first one writes to the screen faster; the actual animation (gears turning) is so simple it doesn't begin to tax your graphical processor. Even if the first one has twice the glxgears fps of the second one, the second one could still have twice the "real world" game fps of the first one.

It's not exactly like deciding which car runs faster by the time they can lower the windows, but it's not far off.

I know that, someone else mentioned it in another thread. Its still a substantial enough difference though to suggest that there is something wrong somewhere, with the older drivers... from what I can tell anyway.

[Jay_Bee]

I installed drivers from this repo, enabled uxa acceleration, removed compiz blacklist and now everything works on my integrated intel x3100 (GM965), no freezing or anything :)

[snd242]

Still "no-go" for movies with ATI R600 + compiz enabled! When effects are disabled i can watch movies but the quality of the playback is worse than the open ATI drivers (radeon).
This release of fglrx driver is a litle bit better. Now i can minimize/maximize windows and adjust display properties. I even have played Unreal tournament 99, the performance is inadequate. My shitware is ATI 3650 HD on agp slot with 512 megs ddr2, works well under Uncle Bill's OS.


p.s. English is not my first language!