Open-Source graphics (Nvidia and ATI) drivers: Current state

[stmok]

An update of what's happening with the open driver for ATI cards...
=> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...green_3d&num=1

AMD continues to abide by their commitment to provide open-source support for their graphics cards and as proof of that this afternoon they have released their initial hardware acceleration code that supports the ATI Radeon HD 5000 "Evergreen" family of consumer grade graphics processors. While this Evergreen support isn't yet finished and for the time being is targeted towards Linux developers and enthusiasts, you can now play around with your ATI Radeon HD 5000 graphics processor on an open-source driver while having 2D EXA, X-Video, and OpenGL acceleration.

The basic gist is that the small team of AMD employees have laid out the foundation for the open driver 2D/3D/video support of Radeon HD 5xxx. The rest is now up to the community. (There are bugs to be resolved!). Those same AMD employees will then be re-tasked to work on bringing support for upcoming GPUs...So, we should have decent support for up to Radeon HD 5xxx series by the time Ubuntu 11.04 is released. (Unfortunately, it'll miss the Ubuntu 10.10 release.)

An interesting thing is that support for HD 6xxx series (currently codenamed "Southern Islands"), is expected to come much sooner as the core elements of that GPU is really from the 5xxx series, while the "uncore" components is from the next generation "Northern Islands". (Southern Islands is coming in November. Northern Islands is coming in mid-2011 or so.)

Overall, the future looks bright for Radeon owners expecting "out of the box" support from their favourite distro.

Side note: If you ever run into AMD's Alex Deucher, Richard Li, and John Bridgman. Don't forget to thank them for their work! (They're making plans for Radeon HD 6xxx support.)

Update: 22nd August 2010

Nouveau's Gallium3D Driver Gets Some Love Too
=> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...item&px=ODUzNQ

...

And be sure to check the Feature Matrix for each brand of cards:

For Radeon owners
=> http://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki/RadeonFeature

For Geforce owners
=> http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/FeatureMatrix

You can see that AMD's actions in being more cooperative with the open community has resulted in great progress with the open ATI driver.

Currently, there's no support for Geforce GTX 4xx series ("Fermi").

[foxmulder881]

I guess can only be a good thing for the open-source and linux community.

[Deanodriver]

A bit of a change from not so long ago when nVidia was pretty much the only choice for 3D graphics on Linux.

[$3@N]

Originally Posted by Deanodriver

A bit of a change from not so long ago when nVidia was pretty much the only choice for 3D graphics on Linux.

Open Source drivers on Windows would be the epicmount.

[cleary]

Originally Posted by $3@N

Open Source drivers on Windows would be the epicmount.

Given the size of the community userbase, that would actually be a really interesting thing to see imo

[$3@N]

Originally Posted by cleary

Given the size of the community userbase, that would actually be a really interesting thing to see imo

Yeah i am sick of the mods being frowned upon, they are awesome, imagine that talent put to good use.

We could see card specific drivers, imagine the optimization!

[houseofzeus]

I recently bought an Asus N71 series laptop with ATI onboard but unfortunately it didn't appear to be supported yet, hopefully I will be able to switch to the open source drivers some time in the near future though.

For now however I have installed the Catalyst drivers which are actually working quite well these days. The main downside to them, which an open driver gets rid of as an issue, is of course that ATI never release them in step with Xorg releases.

[stmok]

Its been three months...So here's an update.

Benchmarks Of AMD's Newest Gallium3D Graphics Driver
=> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...00g_q410&num=1

This compares classic Mesa driver, newer Gallium3D driver, and the closed Catalyst driver. Don't be shocked that the two open source drivers are slow.

It is incredible to see that in just the past couple of months the driver (Gallium3D) has went from not being able to run any proper OpenGL applications to now outperforming the classic Mesa R600 driver in most cases and is at a near parity with the classic driver.

The Gallium3D driver performance will also improve once the latest color tiling and page-flipping patches have been merged, which should happen soon.

Even the Radeon Feature matrix has seen some updates.
=> http://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki/RadeonFeature

So they ain't resting on their laurels!

And for those who plan to bag themselves an AMD Fusion (Bobcat) based netbook/nettop/etc in 2011...

Open-Source AMD Fusion Driver For Ontario Released
=> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...rio_open&num=1

While we are still waiting on open-source support for the AMD Radeon HD 6000 series of graphics cards that were released last month, today AMD is releasing their initial open-source support for their Ontario hardware. AMD's Ontario is their low-powered Fusion processor designed for use in netbooks and other such devices. This dual-core chip with integrated Radeon HD 6250 graphics is only starting to ship now, but the open-source support for this first AMD Fusion chip is now available to Linux users, complete with 3D support.

This AMD Fusion Linux support was written by AMD's Alex Deucher. John Bridgman of AMD says this initial open-source support should be at around the same level of support and capabilities as where the open-source Radeon HD 5000 "Evergreen" support is at right now. This includes user-space mode-setting, kernel mode-setting, 2D EXA, X-Video, and 3D/OpenGL support. John also said a bulk of the changes in bringing up the Ontario support is within the Radeon DRM kernel area. "The graphics portion of Ontario is very similar to the entry-level Evergreen GPU, at least for the portions used by the open drivers. There are a few enhancements but we haven't looked at those yet. We want to get Northern Islands supported next."

Open driver support before the hardware is out? I'm shocked! I wonder if Ubuntu 11.04 will incorporate this AMD code drop?

Side note:

Intel Windows vs. Linux GPU Performance Q4'2010
=> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...in_linq4&num=1
Intel IGP comparison: open driver in Ubuntu vs closed Windows driver in Win7.

VIA Graphics Still Lack Any Real Linux Progress
=> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...item&px=ODgxNg
Poor support for VIA's graphics solutions is due to neglect. All talk and no action.

Overall, more reasons for free-software and open source folks to buy Intel and AMD hardware.

[kronikabis]

Does anyone know if you can drive 3 monitors using open source driver?

Or is it still limited to the closed source? (im not even sure on this ... looking to upgrade shortly to ATI due to one of my nvidia cards dying)

is it just a matter of etching an xorg.conf?

[stmok]

Update for 2011...

The Open-Source ATI Driver Is Becoming A Lot Faster
=> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...pflipper&num=1

Kernel 2.6.38 is needed.

Performance improves as specific features (like Hyper-Z, GLSL , etc) are implemented. Check the following feature matrix.
=> http://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki/RadeonFeature

Slow and steady folks.

[houseofzeus]

For what it's worth using the version of this driver which is currently in Fedora's rawhide repositories my card is now supported. Believe it's a mobility HD 5730.

[stmok]

Intel's Linux Sandy Bridge Graphics Still Troubling
=> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...y_breaks&num=1
If you have plans to buy Intel's newest Core i-series processor and use its IGP right now...Don't. Just get it with the P67 chipset (automatically disables IGP) and a decent discrete video card to save yourself any troubles.

Further Testing Shows More Hope For ATI Gallium3D
=> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...expanded&num=1
Getting better as performance related features are being added. In one test case, beating the proprietary driver!

VIA Chrome 9 Hardware Documentation Released
=> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...item&px=OTAzMQ
Chrome 9 => VIA VX900 IGP

This documentation covers the 2D, 3D, and video engines for these integrated graphics processors.

[stmok]

Another Look At The Latest Nouveau Gallium3D Driver
=> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...11_take2&num=1

Not as good as the open ATI Gallium3D driver, but not bad considering Nvidia refuses to release their docs/specs compared to AMD.

[stmok]

An update on current events...

AMD Opens Up XvBA! Their Catalyst Linux Video API
=> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...item&px=OTEzNg

XvBA (X-Video Bitstream Acceleration) is AMD's equivalent to Nvidia's VDPAU. It allows one to access the Radeon GPU's Universal Video Decoder (UVD) feature...Like the Nvidia solution, it still needs the closed proprietary driver.

AMD have set up a Sourceforge page for it.
=> http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawik...itle=Main_Page

They are doing this because they need to address a feature gap for their Fusion APU line under Linux. (A key thing in their Fusion line is the GPU-based IGP.)

Now its up to developers from projects like VLC, MPlayer, MythTV, etc to use it.

Intel Gallium3D Graphics Driver Performance
=> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...um3d_915&num=1

They use the IGP in an Intel Atom N270. (1st generation Atom)...Comparing the classic Mesa against the newer Gallium3D driver.

[Menthu_Rae]

I just bought a laptop with nVidia Optimus and it is the devil I haven't yet delved into trying to get it up and running and switching off the nVidia GPU but all my research into the subject at hand is rather scary for a Linux novice like myself