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Major Performance Improvement Discovered For Intel's GPU Linux Driver
An anonymous reader writes: LunarG, on contract with Valve Software, discovered a critical shortcoming with the open-source Intel Linux graphics driver that was handicapping the performance. A special bit wasn't being set by the Linux driver but was by the Windows driver, which when enabled is increasing the Linux performance in many games by now ~20%+, which should allow for a much more competitive showing between Intel OpenGL performance on Windows vs. Linux. However, the patch setting this bit isn't public yet as apparently it's breaking video acceleration in certain cases.
I notice TFA has almost no detail beyond what TFS says. Yeah, so they found this bit that apparently has no side effects to anything else but magically boosts performance by 20%? I'll admit I haven't written a graphics card driver since back in the VESA2 days, but I can't even conceive of what function such a bit could have, without having some down side... Something like (and I don't mean this literally) disabling vsync but accepting tearing.
Probably the "Official driver" bit
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
That's probably why it wasn't being set then.
Removing flush() from code boosts DBMS performance by 40% but that patch wasn't yet accepted as in rare cases it makes data disappear after power failures.
People are quick to yell "games" as if the entire desktop hasn't been 3D-accelerated for a decade.
In many cases if a chip can be done 30% faster, not only is the user happy with the visuals, but that silicon can enter low-power mode more quickly. A laptop user might get a few more minutes' battery life with this bit on and the world might burn a few less tons of coal for all of the systems.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Your comment is misleading. Just because a performance boost causes stability issues (whilst still under development!) doesn't mean those issues can't be ironed out. If the bit works on Windows, most likely it will work on Linux too after the devs make the right adjustments. The fact that it wasn't set was a mistake, not a design decision.