Resonable performance from an ATI Radeon 7000VE

[scott]

Run glxgears -printfps
I initially got 250fps and Google Earth was totally unusable.

Starting with a basic Dapper install download the latest radeon snapshot from here:
http://dri.freedesktop.org/snapshots/
Extract to a folder in your home directory, eg: /home/???/radeon-20060403-linux.386/

Open synaptec package manager and enable the universe repository and install:

Linux Kernel Headers
linux-headers-x86
make
gcc
driconf


Open up a terminal and cd to the radeon directory above. Then run sudo ./install.sh
If all goes well type:
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and change the Device section to look like the following:

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Radeon"
	Driver		"radeon"
	BusID		"PCI:1:0:0"
	Option		"AGPMode" "4"
	Option		"AGPFastWrite" "true"
	Option	        "EnablePageFlip" "True"
	Option	        "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"
	Option	        "backingstore" "true"
	Option	        "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
	Option          "RenderAccel" "true"
EndSection

Ensure that you use the same identifier in the screen section if you change it in this section, leave it be is probably best.

Save and exit.

Now run driconf. Do not run this as sudo, some user space applications will not pickup the changes if you do. In my case google earth would not run properly until I ran it as a regular user. (had to sudo rm .drirc before running as a regular user after I had run it as root.)

Change the TCL mode to "Use Software TCL Pipeline" and Use HyperZ to Yes. Save and quit.

Reboot and run glxgears -printfps. Mine went up from around 250fps to 850fps and I nolonger have funny artifacts all over preventing me from using Google Earth.

Please post if this works or if you have any tweaks to improve it.

Scott

[louistan3]

8243 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1648.496 FPS
7913 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1582.543 FPS
8421 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1684.034 FPS
8387 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1677.380 FPS
8389 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1677.794 FPS

wow.. great howto.... improved my fps by a lot.. lol.. i had 700 fps at first.. now i got 1600 fps.. thanks!!!

but my google earth still wont work.. when i run it.. the earth is kinda blurry and the stars go liney and stuf.. its just unusable.. eh.. any help?

[TSMJ]

Yo
Is it possible for you to condense the synaptic package list into an apt-get command? I had to install synaptic especially and couldn't find 'linux-headers-x86'.

My attempt failed at this last night, complaining of some kind of kernel problem, but I was 1/2 way though recompiling it anyway, so will try again. Great news to find something relating to the 7000 card btw, I've been looking for ages.

Cheers

[theProf]

Wow. This is great. I went from ~430 FPS to about 1450 FPS. Thanks for the info.

[NerdyShinobi]

For some reason, this didn't work for me. I am using a custom compiled kernel, which is probably it. I'm willing to recompile to make this work. It tells me that it cannot find my current kernel modules, and compilation fails.

Here are the contents of dri.log:

make DRM_MODULES=radeon.o modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/robb/source/radeon-20060403-linux.i386/drm/linux-core'
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.17-beyond3/source SUBDIRS=`pwd` DRMSRCDIR=`pwd` modules
make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.17'
CC [M] /home/robb/source/radeon-20060403-linux.i386/drm/linux-core/ati_pcigart.o
/home/robb/source/radeon-20060403-linux.i386/drm/linux-core/ati_pcigart.c: In function ‘drm_ati_free_pcigart_table’:
/home/robb/source/radeon-20060403-linux.i386/drm/linux-core/ati_pcigart.c:87: error: ‘struct page’ has no member named ‘count’
make[3]: *** [/home/robb/source/radeon-20060403-linux.i386/drm/linux-core/ati_pcigart.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** [_module_/home/robb/source/radeon-20060403-linux.i386/drm/linux-core] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.17'
make[1]: *** [modules] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/robb/source/radeon-20060403-linux.i386/drm/linux-core'
make: *** [radeon.o] Error 2

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong, or what needs to change?

[yoyoned]

I have the PCI version. I went from 150 to 380 fps. Not as fast s some of the other reports, but still a good increase. A note to anyone elsewith the PCI version who wants to try this. I changed the "BUSID line to match the above post and X would not start until I restored it to its orginal state:

BusID		"PCI:0:8:0"

Thanks for the great howto.

[virgee]

I am getting arror about inserting drm module - Cannot allocate memory. I have Radeon 9600 M, but I suppose it should be the same ase with 9700VE.
Anyone met this? thx

[barbarian]

Scott, thank you very much! I have poor Radeon 9200SE. And because of driconf i've achieved 1068 fps. And i had 750 fps before.

Though if i put Options:
Option "AGPMode" "4"
Option "AGPFastWrite" "true"
Option "EnablePageFlip" "True"
Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"
Option "backingstore" "true"
Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
Option "RenderAccel" "true"

my X stuck from boot..

But anyway thanx, i will play with those options tomorrow.

[chadk]

This just for the 7000VE? How about x800?

[barbarian]

And with:

Option "EnablePageFlip" "True"

2000fps! -even more then with fglrx!

sweet, thak you again!