Marek Olšák has recently sent word to the AMD mailing list that they have found a reason for some games performing poorly using Mesa. Another developer noted that a patch is already in progress.
Marek goes on to detail how to reproduce it and suggests some workarounds.
The good news is that another message from Christian König states they they are already working on it, and they may have something to show rather soon:
It's really great to see some attention to performance and not just getting their feature list up to spec. Onwards and upwards!
I've said for a long time now to heated debates that AMD drivers (both open and closed) need work on performance and that it's not purely down to game porters. It will be great if this helps certain games gain official support on AMD with Mesa in future. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
QuoteI'm seeing random temporary freezes (up to 2 seconds) under memory
pressure. Before I describe the exact circumstances, I'd like to say
that this is a serious issue affecting playability of certain AAA
Linux games.
Marek goes on to detail how to reproduce it and suggests some workarounds.
QuoteIn order to reproduce this, an application should:
- allocate a few very large buffers (256-512 MB per buffer)
- allocate more memory than there is available VRAM. The issue also
occurs (but at a lower frequency) if the app needs only 80% of VRAM.
Example: ttm_bo_validate needs to migrate a 512 MB buffer. The total
size of moved memory for that call can be as high as 1.5 GB. This is
always followed by a big temporary drop in VRAM usage.
The good news is that another message from Christian König states they they are already working on it, and they may have something to show rather soon:
QuoteHi Marek,
I'm already working on this.
My current approach is to use a custom BO manager for VRAM with TTM and
so split allocations into chunks of 4MB.
Large BOs are still swapped out as one, but it makes it much more likely
to that you can allocate 1/2 of VRAM as one buffer.
Give me till the end of the week to finish this and then we can test if
that's sufficient or if we need to do more.
Regards,
Christian.
It's really great to see some attention to performance and not just getting their feature list up to spec. Onwards and upwards!
I've said for a long time now to heated debates that AMD drivers (both open and closed) need work on performance and that it's not purely down to game porters. It will be great if this helps certain games gain official support on AMD with Mesa in future. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I Agree that customers should expect proper performance right now and not wait for another year, also this fix will probably go into the radeonSI userspace driver and not MESA.
Still, AMD has contributed much code to MESA in the past years, show me some from NVIDIA (no please not any Tegra DRM code)?
If you are using Linux for freedom/open source idealism, ideologically you SHOULD buy AMD products and not tell me how a 1060 overpowers an RX480 today. AMD had no obligations towards supporting MESA or opening up millions of lines of DPM code for their chips. They still did.
Support a company that supports your platform.
If you don't follow the open source philosophy and using Linux just because you like say the millions of widget themes it supports or for any other reason, buy Nvidia.
Still, AMD has contributed much code to MESA in the past years, show me some from NVIDIA (no please not any Tegra DRM code)?
If you are using Linux for freedom/open source idealism, ideologically you SHOULD buy AMD products and not tell me how a 1060 overpowers an RX480 today. AMD had no obligations towards supporting MESA or opening up millions of lines of DPM code for their chips. They still did.
Support a company that supports your platform.
If you don't follow the open source philosophy and using Linux just because you like say the millions of widget themes it supports or for any other reason, buy Nvidia.
13 Likes, Who?
Quoting: babaialso this fix will probably go into the radeonSI userspace driver and not MESA.Forgive me if I am wrong, but isn't radeonSI part of Mesa?
Also, it's Mesa not MESA isn't it? http://www.mesa3d.org/ "The Mesa 3D..." :)
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Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: babaialso this fix will probably go into the radeonSI userspace driver and not MESA.Forgive me if I am wrong, but isn't radeonSI part of Mesa?
Also, it's Mesa not MESA isn't it? http://www.mesa3d.org/ "The Mesa 3D..." :)
Yeah, I should have probably written "Core Mesa".
I would have labelled you a grammar nazi, but since Linux is case sensitive, you're right, it should be Mesa. :)
2 Likes, Who?
Quoting: babaiProbably the best fun use of that I've ever seen :DQuoting: liamdaweQuoting: babaialso this fix will probably go into the radeonSI userspace driver and not MESA.Forgive me if I am wrong, but isn't radeonSI part of Mesa?
Also, it's Mesa not MESA isn't it? http://www.mesa3d.org/ "The Mesa 3D..." :)
Yeah, I should have probably written "Core Mesa".
I would have labelled you a grammar nazi, but since Linux is case sensitive, you're right, it should be Mesa. :)
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Quoting: babaiIf you are using Linux for freedom/open source idealism, ideologically you SHOULD buy AMD products and not tell me how a 1060 overpowers an RX480 today. AMD had no obligations towards supporting MESA or opening up millions of lines of DPM code for their chips. They still did.
Support a company that supports your platform.
If you don't follow the open source philosophy and using Linux just because you like say the millions of widget themes it supports or for any other reason, buy Nvidia.
Oh please. "SHOULD buy" - are you kidding me?
Linux is all about freedom, and now you are telling me what I should buy? So much for freedom. Thanks.
5 Likes, Who?
A custom BO manager? You mean, like, heavy-duty underarm deodorant?
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: Purple Library GuyA custom BO manager? You mean, like, heavy-duty underarm deodorant?Yeah the main issue is the BO problem, they are working on a spray for it.
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: grenadecxQuoting: babaiIf you are using Linux for freedom/open source idealism, ideologically you SHOULD buy AMD products and not tell me how a 1060 overpowers an RX480 today. AMD had no obligations towards supporting MESA or opening up millions of lines of DPM code for their chips. They still did.
Support a company that supports your platform.
If you don't follow the open source philosophy and using Linux just because you like say the millions of widget themes it supports or for any other reason, buy Nvidia.
Oh please. "SHOULD buy" - are you kidding me?
Linux is all about freedom, and now you are telling me what I should buy? So much for freedom. Thanks.
Freedom is not incompatible with responsibility. Linux, lest we forget, is GPLed, not BSD licensed.
4 Likes, Who?
Quotethis is a serious issue affecting playability of certain AAA
Linux games.
Shadow of Mordor included in that grouping perchance?
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Quoting: grenadecxQuoting: babaiIf you are using Linux for freedom/open source idealism, ideologically you SHOULD buy AMD products and not tell me how a 1060 overpowers an RX480 today. AMD had no obligations towards supporting MESA or opening up millions of lines of DPM code for their chips. They still did.
Support a company that supports your platform.
If you don't follow the open source philosophy and using Linux just because you like say the millions of widget themes it supports or for any other reason, buy Nvidia.
Oh please. "SHOULD buy" - are you kidding me?
Linux is all about freedom, and now you are telling me what I should buy? So much for freedom. Thanks.
This is for those who are are proponents of freedom. If you use Linux for the freedom, and still buy Nvidia products(which are as closed source as they can be, remember the famous middle finger?!) for a 20% performance improvement then you are a hypocrite.
QuoteThose who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. --Benjamin FranklinYou tell us that you're all for freedom, and don't support a freedom friendly company... that makes you a hypocrite.
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