4 ms·

How come, that the open source drivers did not show much better performance?

pothibo 12y ago
Because the documentation for the hardware is not open source. You need to sign very strict papers to be able to look at the hardware documentation which means few selected people have access to it which means not much support, etc. Can't remember why I know this but it was something related to my linux open source back in the days.
- wtallis 12y ago
  I think things have shifted a bit away from that. IIRC, AMD's pretty free with the documentation for everything that isn't part of the DRM-enforcement chain, so their open source drivers are mostly lacking in manpower. NVidia just won't release the docs at all, so the open source drivers for them are reverse-engineered and plagued by problems like an inability to get most GPUs out of power-saving mode. I'm not sure how open Intel's documentation is, but their only Linux driver is the open-source one that they do significant in-house work on and it has often been competitive with the Windows driver.
  - pothibo 12y ago
    Good to know it's moving towards a more open environment. Also good to know that my memory wasn't playing tricks on me. Thank you for the update.
- zanny 12y ago
  AMD and Intel publish ISA documentation and design docs for their gpu parts. Intel usually does it same day as release, AMD usually do it a few months post release. Nvidia, Qualcomm, etc all release nothing, and therefor everything is proprietary and must be reverse engineered from scratch.
lambda 12y ago
A long time without access to hardware documentation, and even now that that is sometimes more forthcoming, simply a lot fewer resources than the proprietary drivers have. The proprietary drivers have many years worth of several full-time developers, testers, access to hardware engineers to solve problems together, etc. The open source drivers have frequently been written by volunteers, or professionals who do it as only a small part of their job, have had to spend more time and effort reverse-engineering rather than having documentation and the ability to talk to hardware engineers, and are perpetually at least a few months to a few years behind the proprietary developers who had access to all of this before the hardware even came out. It's impressive what the open source drivers have managed to accomplish, and they are improving, but they are severely handicapped compared to the proprietary drivers. This excludes, of course, Intel, but Intel focuses on lower end integrated graphics rather than high-end discrete graphics, so it's not quite comparable.

Because the documentation for the hardware is not open source. You need to sign very strict papers to be able to look at the hardware documentation which means few selected people have access to it which means not much support, etc. Can't remember why I know this but it was something related to my linux open source back in the days.

wtallis 12y ago
I think things have shifted a bit away from that. IIRC, AMD's pretty free with the documentation for everything that isn't part of the DRM-enforcement chain, so their open source drivers are mostly lacking in manpower. NVidia just won't release the docs at all, so the open source drivers for them are reverse-engineered and plagued by problems like an inability to get most GPUs out of power-saving mode. I'm not sure how open Intel's documentation is, but their only Linux driver is the open-source one that they do significant in-house work on and it has often been competitive with the Windows driver.
- pothibo 12y ago
  Good to know it's moving towards a more open environment. Also good to know that my memory wasn't playing tricks on me. Thank you for the update.
zanny 12y ago
AMD and Intel publish ISA documentation and design docs for their gpu parts. Intel usually does it same day as release, AMD usually do it a few months post release. Nvidia, Qualcomm, etc all release nothing, and therefor everything is proprietary and must be reverse engineered from scratch.

lambda 12y ago

A long time without access to hardware documentation, and even now that that is sometimes more forthcoming, simply a lot fewer resources than the proprietary drivers have. The proprietary drivers have many years worth of several full-time developers, testers, access to hardware engineers to solve problems together, etc. The open source drivers have frequently been written by volunteers, or professionals who do it as only a small part of their job, have had to spend more time and effort reverse-engineering rather than having documentation and the ability to talk to hardware engineers, and are perpetually at least a few months to a few years behind the proprietary developers who had access to all of this before the hardware even came out. It's impressive what the open source drivers have managed to accomplish, and they are improving, but they are severely handicapped compared to the proprietary drivers. This excludes, of course, Intel, but Intel focuses on lower end integrated graphics rather than high-end discrete graphics, so it's not quite comparable.