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.

Comments

Will it work with my distro?

[NotDrWho]

Because my distro is the best.

Re:Will it work with my distro?

[Chrisq]

Fuck you, mine is better.

I'm waiting for it to be ported to HURD

Re:Will it work with my distro?

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree. The only thing it is missing is a good text editor.

Re:Will it work with my distro?

[Anonymous Coward]

As a longtime user of both "My Distro" Linux and "Mine" Linux, I can honestly say that I have never noticed a performance difference between them. However, I can emphatically state that "Your Distro" Linux sucks.

Benchmark Bit

[bluefoxlucid]

It's the Benchmark Bit!

Re:Benchmark Bit

[TheRealMindChild]

Probably the "Official driver" bit

Re:Benchmark Bit

[Anonymous Coward]

The Intel drivers for Linux are official and open source. They are actively maintained by Intel themselves. This is not like the Nvidia/Nouveau split, Intel are actually very open source friendly in this area.

The "paid Microsoft tax" bit, apparently

[pla]

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.

Re:The "paid Microsoft tax" bit, apparently

[Anonymous Coward]

You read the article, but did you read the summary?

"However, the patch setting this bit isn't public yet as apparently it's breaking video acceleration in certain cases."

now you've done it...

[funkymonkjay]

you've flipped the EVIL bit!

"apparently it's breaking video acceleration in ce

[grahamtriggs]

That's probably why it wasn't being set then.

This one simple bit bumps your performance by 20%

[Overzeetop]

...and you won't believe how easy it is!

C'mon editors, it's like you missed the entire social media headline writing class.

Re: Pointless improvement?

[bill_mcgonigle]

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.