[Dri-devel] Re: [GATOS]Radeon 7500 3D performance

[Nicholas C. L. <nc...@em...>]

> Apologies if this is off-topic.
> 
> Does anyone here know roughly what kind of DRI performance I could
> expect with a Radeon 7500 using the gatos drivers?  I'm thinking of
> replacing my trusty Matrox G400, and have found only scant
> information via Google regarding XFree86 and the 7500.

If I'm not mistaken, the 7500 is the same basic core as the original
Radeon.  (card is +/- other features, and maybe different speed).

I ran a G400 for ages.  It has a crystal clear, crisp image, and
has given excellent performance.  (~100FPS in Q3A @640 in 16bpp)

I then purchased a Radeon (64MB ddr w/vivo).  It is definitely faster.
It will, however, get much faster when the T&L code gets finished and
added to the driver, which I'm anxiously awaiting.  Currently, I get
about 80-200+ FPS in 640x480@16bpp in Q3A--totally adequate.  I get
good perfomance in 32bit mode, but it just isn't enough.  If the
level is heavily loaded or there's a lot of particles it dips too
low for comfort, so I stick with 16bpp.  I imagine the T&L code will
alleviate this issue considerably.  That's at least what I'm hoping
for.

The only thing I don't like about my Radeon, is that the image is not
nearly as crisp, nor even as stable.

My setup is:

Video card <-- vga --> kvm <-- vga --> Monitor.

But, even with just:

Radeon <-- vga --> Monitor

it has serious ghosting (8mm @ 1600x1200) artifacts, and if I look
closely at the image, it is not steady--little dots are floating
around.  I live with it because it is so much faster, and I use the
video in features--which work great btw.  Perhaps I have a bad board,
or my cable is too long, but this is what I observe.  The G400, even
with the kvm in between, does not exhibit this at all.

So in short, if you care more about image quality, and/or your eyes
are bothered by unsteady display (I'm not, really), I'd recommend
sticking with the G400.  If you really want a boost in speed, go for
the Radeon, and be happy to know that it will actually get faster
for free in the near future.

Nick