xorg-driver/xf86-video-ati-6.14.0: Worse performance since last update

[Roland Smith]

On Tue, Mar 08, 2011 at 07:16:05PM +0100, O. Hartmann wrote:
> Since the last update of Xorg stuff, including the 
> xf86-video-ati-6.14.0, the video performance of all of our 
> AMD/ATi-driven boxes went worse.
> The bad performance also occur with the recommendations made in 
> ports/UPDATING for driver "radeon". Without those recommendated adding 
> of options even with a working xorg.conf file the performance stays worse.

The recommendations have been removed from UPDATING; with the exception of the
"DynamicPM" option, all the others are at their default settings and therefore
not necessary.

> Worse means: using vlc (also after recompilation after upgrades made!), 
> videos are massively bumpy and can not be watched with vlc-screen fully 
> expanded to 1900x1200 pixel with HD4830 graphics card - this worked 
> perfectly before.

Check out the logfile '/var/log/Xorg.0.log' if you see anything unusual.

> Moving windows around now looks like having chunks of video content 
> floating around - as on unaccelerated/slow graphics boards.

When looking at the logfile '/var/log/Xorg.0.log', does it say the following;

(II) RADEON(0): Acceleration enabled
(II) RADEON(0): Set up textured video

Personally, I have built this port with one of the patches removed. In my case
the patch in question hung my machine every time! (there was quite a large
thread about it on the mailing-list) Try removing the patch
/usr/ports/x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati/files/patch-src-radeon_driver.c and
re-install the driver. If that works you can make the change permanent like
this:

    # cd /usr/ports/x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati/files
    # truncate -s 0 patch-src-radeon_driver.c
    # chflags schg,sunlnk patch-src-radeon_driver.c


Roland
-- 
R.F.Smith                                   http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/
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