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XFree86 4.0 vs. XFree86 3.3.x

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the x-actly-what-ya-want-to-know dept.

Patrick Mullen writes "I've recently compiled a comparison of XFree86 4.0 vs. 3.3.x. The review includes benchmarks, an overview on 4.0, the bugs still in 4.0 and a few other tidbits. " Its a bit sparse but its a good overview piece. It looks as if its definitely not for everyone quite yet.

1 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. This is a lame review... by m2 · · Score: 5
    This means we'll start seeing more standard 3D acceleration on cards-not just 3dfx anymore. With the present state, 3dfx is actually behind on DRI drivers, which is rather surprising.

    Actually, it's the other drivers that are behind

    The new GLX extension is OpenGL 1.2 compatible, meaning here comes 3D graphics, CAD and other such professional uses. This is starting to make Mesa look less and less desirable

    And Mesa happens to be at the heart of the OpenGL implementation in XF4...

    especially after seeing how OGL 1.2 performs on nVidia's .90 beta DRI drivers.

    whose OpenGL 1.2 implementation is not complete/100% conformant

    Taking Initiative It's clear who really wants this. nVidia clearly is fighting for victories on both Windows and Linux-what next, Macintosh? nVidia pushed the drivers out the door almost immediately, and in some cases it shows, but in others the drivers prove to be exceptional for performance-even if unoptimized. If nVidia gets on the ball and optimizes the drivers, they're looking to destroy Windows performance. I've never seen performance quite this fast on the first release candidate. Now only if nVidia would get off their lazy asses and release something new, maybe from the Detonator 500 series of drivers. We can all wish, right? Matrox also looks to be getting their hands in things, as they always do. They made the push on Windows, and proved to be one of the first mainstream cards to have OpenGL, and again they're a pioneer. The more the better, I say.

    Which has very little to do with XF4, which is what is suppossed to being reviewed. Nvidia released a new server and a matching OpenGL implementation (without programmer's documentation or at least a dammed header, mind you). An own OpenGL implementation (or SGI's) is supposed to be behind it...

    Unfortunately, with all new releases, some things just don't work quite as planned. Since it's Open-Source some of these problems can be expected, and it is also free. Here's a run-down of the problems faced in this release:

    And you are comparing apples and oranges here... it doesn't say which Voodoo driver is being used, and I'd suppose it's compared against the nVidia recently released drivers. The point is nVidia says their drivers are beta, while the Voodoo ones are still in development.

    I'm kinda surprised taco posted this, next thing he'll post is my (rather long) email that says "XFree86 sucks" or "XFree86 rulez"... :-(