Is ATI/OpenGL acceleration working?

[David Abrahams]

Ken Siersma <siersmak at ekkinc.com> writes:

> dave_abrahams wrote:
>> direct rendering: Yes
>>
>>
>>   
> Good.  AFAIK, that means that acceleration is working properly. 
>
> So I have to wonder if you have more reason to think that OpenGL is
> not working.

Well I'm watching the screensaver where you fly through a tunnel right
now and the frame rate is seriously jerky and uneven.  Doesn't seem
right.  This is on a 2.16 Ghz Core Duo.  I have a 500Mhz PIII laptop
(inspiron 8100) where it looks better.

Of course, this could just be due to other processes getting in the
way, but that doesn't seem right either.

> I wouldn't say that screensavers soaking up CPU is indicative
> of OpenGL not working properly.  Non-OpenGL screensavers take up CPU
> too.  

Of course.

> On machines where I can't spare CPU, I set the screensaver to
> blank screen.

I plan to do that, eventually; to save battery on my laptop...  at
least when it's not plugged in.

The screensaver is just a convenient way of seeing OpenGL do its thing.

> On my Radeon Mobility 9200 I was seeing FPS around 200 with
> fgl_glxgears, but about 1000 with glxgears.  I wonder if you see
> approximately the same ratio of FPS.  .

When I run glxgears it doesn't print anything to the console, unlike
some people whose posts I've seen.  What's up with that?

> Although, depending on the model of your video card, I *think* the X
> server may be able to enable direct rendering through the use of the
> open source radeon or ati driver (I think they are actually the same
> nowadays).  Therefore, I'd double check that you have 'Driver "fglrx"'
> in the "Device" section of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. 

Oh, checked and double-checked.  I put it there myself.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com