Ubuntu : Optimized Free Graphics Drivers.

Ubuntu doesn't really deliver post release update of new mesa driver code to its users which is really sad as the Graphics drivers are progressing very fast and it ain't smart move to stick to old mesa stack especially when you know there are some glitches in compositing/rendering in Ubuntu.

I have been testing/debugging latest optimized mesa stacks by Oibaf and I would like to mention that its been awesome. Awesome enough to make me ditch proprietary graphics drivers. Working with opensource drivers was impossible (atleast for my hardware) with stock ubuntu mesa stack (no hardware rendering, wms taking 100% cpu load etc etc), let alone gaming!

Gotta admit the fact that since I upgraded mesa stack to 10.5 (from 10.1.3 stock) using Oibaf's stack I am very much satisfied with the performance. Hardware rendering - yes, <5% cpu load in compiz, mutter & gala. Plus, games are working nice too.

So, if you are finding too dead slow graphics rendering in your ubuntu based distros, I suggest you to use Oibaf's stack. I have Intel (IGPU) 4400HD based and AMD (APU) Radeon R5 system, I have tested both of my machines and honestly thing is smooth like butter. I didn't tested Nvidia GPU, so I have no idea of Nouveau performance. (Nvidia is piece of shit when it comes to opensourcing their hardware, no wonder why Nvidia optimus still lack support and Linus pointed middle finger on them)

Proprietary glxgears result :
Screenshot from 2014-11-28 21-11-38

Oibaf Mesa optimized stack glxgears result :
Screenshot from 2015-01-30 07:34:17

(PS : GLXgears is not benchmarking tool)

What optimization Oibaf did I am not aware of. But if you are having latest driver and using an year old distro, having compositing/rendering problem in stock mesa and seeking for latest mesa, Oibaf is at rescue!

To install Oibaf's maintained mesa stack :
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Since Ubuntu is not my main system, I will pull Oibaf's stack and will try to use in openSUSE. Hope things work well.

Replies

  • Abhishek Rawal
    Abhishek Rawal
    Faster Gaming Experience On Wine

    Basic scenario while using Wine for gaming is : DirectX layer -> openGL -> Gallium. Well there's always a loss when more layers comes between the source & destination. So remove, openGL for wine.
    That means DirectX => Gallium.

    Does that make difference ? Hell yes. Plenty Windows games has noticed about 30%-45% in FPS, and that is really not a small difference. That difference is enough to make an unplayable game to 'playable'.

    How to use ?
    GitHub - iXit/Mesa-3D: Please use official https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/ !
    GitHub - iXit/wine: Wine patched to work with the D3D9 state tracker.

    Compile patched wine and mesa from above source.
    Read more : d3d9 [iXit Group]
  • Abhishek Rawal
    Abhishek Rawal
    Hitman 4 Blood Money WITHOUT Gallium Nine.
    BloodMoneyWithoutD3D


    Hitman 4 Blood Money WITH Gallium Nine patched Wine.
    BloodMoneyWithD3d

    Around 100% improvement for sure. Will find few more games and will test it.
    PS : My GPU is pretty old-school.
  • Abhishek Rawal
    Abhishek Rawal
    Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (Disabled Gallium Nine)
    Screenshot from 2015-03-15 08:20:13

    Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (Enabled Gallium Nine)
    Screenshot from 2015-03-15 08:21:59

    Note : I am using 'ondemand' governor and not 'performance' so there is loss of fps. While on AC charge or forcing to performance governor manually, the fps does increases.
    The fps does reaches 60-70 in close room environment.

    However, without Gallium Nine it is just not possible to play. 7-10 fps in world and 10-15 fps in closed room is shit.

    Overall conclusion : Gallium Nine is one awesome hack!
    Will keep posting more results as I get time.

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