[Sussex] Graphics cards and stuff
John D.
john at johnsemail.eclipse.co.uk
Sun Mar 6 16:31:37 UTC 2005
Hi ho there list.
After a recent bout of "emerging" (oh er, missus, I'm all of an emerge
:-P ) I've notice that my graphics seem to be a bit "jerky".
So after a delve into the gentoo forums, I'm none the wiser.
Now there is some suggestion that the latest e-build of the nvidia
driver may be problematic, the older version is alledgedly available at
the CVS (I've looked but couldn't find it - what the hell is a "CVS"
anyway???).
So after some more digging, I found a couple of possibilities, some of
which might seem rather unlikely, but are just something different to
try instead of just seeing what I'm getting with "glxgears" (including
"tuxracer", which yes, does jerk the "picture" everytime tux gets a
herring).
bash-2.05b$ glxgears
3160 frames in 5.0 seconds = 632.000 FPS
3855 frames in 5.0 seconds = 771.000 FPS
3511 frames in 5.0 seconds = 702.200 FPS
3513 frames in 5.0 seconds = 702.600 FPS
3606 frames in 5.0 seconds = 721.200 FPS
3512 frames in 5.0 seconds = 702.400 FPS
3604 frames in 5.0 seconds = 720.800 FPS
3857 frames in 5.0 seconds = 771.400 FPS
3518 frames in 5.0 seconds = 703.600 FPS
3511 frames in 5.0 seconds = 702.200 FPS
3608 frames in 5.0 seconds = 721.600 FPS
3510 frames in 5.0 seconds = 702.000 FPS
3599 frames in 5.0 seconds = 719.800 FPS
3863 frames in 5.0 seconds = 772.600 FPS
3512 frames in 5.0 seconds = 702.400 FPS
3507 frames in 5.0 seconds = 701.400 FPS
3604 frames in 5.0 seconds = 720.800 FPS
3493 frames in 5.0 seconds = 698.600 FPS
[2]+ Stopped glxgears
bash-2.05b$
Now I know that my graphics card is no "spring chicken" but surely I
should get better results than that??
I did some more digging at the gentoo forums and I then tried to see
what I'm getting with "glxinfo", which was this
bash-2.05b$ glxinfo
name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
server glx version string: 1.3
server glx extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig,
GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_SGI_swap_control
client glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
client glx version string: 1.3
client glx extensions:
GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info,
GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_SGI_video_sync,
GLX_NV_swap_group, GLX_NV_video_out, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig,
GLX_SGIX_pbuffer,
GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_NV_float_buffer
GLX extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig,
GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_SGI_swap_control,
GLX_ARB_get_proc_address
OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce4 MX 420/AGP/SSE2
OpenGL version string: 1.5.2 NVIDIA 66.29
OpenGL extensions:
GL_ARB_imaging, GL_ARB_multitexture, GL_ARB_point_parameters,
GL_ARB_point_sprite, GL_ARB_shader_objects, GL_ARB_shading_language_100,
GL_ARB_texture_compression, GL_ARB_texture_cube_map,
GL_ARB_texture_env_add, GL_ARB_texture_env_combine,
GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3, GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat,
GL_ARB_texture_rectangle, GL_ARB_transpose_matrix,
GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object, GL_ARB_vertex_program,
GL_ARB_vertex_shader,
GL_ARB_window_pos, GL_S3_s3tc, GL_EXT_texture_env_add, GL_EXT_abgr,
GL_EXT_bgra, GL_EXT_blend_color, GL_EXT_blend_minmax,
GL_EXT_blend_subtract, GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint,
GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array, GL_EXT_Cg_shader,
GL_EXT_draw_range_elements, GL_EXT_fog_coord, GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays,
GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_paletted_texture,
GL_EXT_pixel_buffer_object,
GL_EXT_point_parameters, GL_EXT_rescale_normal, GL_EXT_secondary_color,
GL_EXT_separate_specular_color, GL_EXT_shared_texture_palette,
GL_EXT_stencil_wrap, GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc,
GL_EXT_texture_cube_map, GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp,
GL_EXT_texture_env_combine, GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3,
GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic, GL_EXT_texture_lod,
GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias, GL_EXT_texture_object, GL_EXT_vertex_array,
GL_IBM_rasterpos_clip, GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat,
GL_KTX_buffer_region, GL_NV_blend_square, GL_NV_fence,
GL_NV_fog_distance, GL_NV_light_max_exponent,
GL_NV_packed_depth_stencil,
GL_NV_pixel_data_range, GL_NV_point_sprite, GL_NV_register_combiners,
GL_NV_texgen_reflection, GL_NV_texture_env_combine4,
GL_NV_texture_rectangle, GL_NV_vertex_array_range,
GL_NV_vertex_array_range2, GL_NV_vertex_program,
GL_NV_vertex_program1_1,
GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap, GL_SGIS_multitexture, GL_SGIS_texture_lod,
GL_SUN_slice_accum
glu version: 1.3
glu extensions:
GLU_EXT_nurbs_tessellator, GLU_EXT_object_space_tess
visual x bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer ms cav
id dep cl sp sz l ci b ro r g b a bf th cl r g b a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x21 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x22 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x23 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x24 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 0 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x25 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x26 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 4 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x27 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 4 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x28 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 0 4 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x29 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 4 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x2a 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 4 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x2b 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 4 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x2c 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 0 4 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x2d 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 4 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x2e 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x2f 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 0 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x30 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x31 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 4 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x32 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 4 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x33 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 0 4 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x34 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 4 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x35 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 4 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x36 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 4 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x37 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 0 4 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x38 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 4 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
bash-2.05b$
though what that's telling me is a bit of a mystery.
I've also had a look at what the system might be seeing things as, so I
got this
bash-2.05b# cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/card
Fast Writes: Supported
SBA: Not Supported
AGP Rates: 4x 2x 1x
Registers: 0x1f000017:0x1f000114
bash-2.05b# cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status
Status: Enabled
Driver: AGPGART
AGP Rate: 4x
Fast Writes: Enabled
SBA: Disabled
bash-2.05b# cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/host-bridge
Host Bridge: Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset Host Bridge
Fast Writes: Supported
SBA: Supported
AGP Rates: 4x 2x 1x
Registers: 0x1f000217:0x00000114
bash-2.05b#
It was me that found a bit about modifying the /etc/modules.d/nvidia so
that "Fast Writes" and "SBA" where enabled, though it looks like the
card (a generic nvidia NV17 geforce 4 MX 420) doesn't support "SBA"
(though I haven't managed to find out what that means either).
What, if anything, should I look into next ???
regards
John D.
p.s. Oh and if I went and threw £35 or so at PC World, I could get a
more up to date graphics card, but the later models seem to be 8x AGP
cards, does that mean that it wouldn't work/fit or just that it'd only
operate at 4x AGP as thats what is supported by my "host-bridge" ???
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