Kernel update

[Ector]

Hi everyone,

There is a drop in performance after upgrading from 2.6.33.7 to 2.6.37.2 both with the same 260.19.44 nvidia driver. I saw choppy behavior when opening yakuake  and checked that with glxgears (yes I know its not a good graphics card benchmark) and it showed miserable 1250 fps vs. 3500 fps I had with the old kernel. Maybe it has something to do with the new scheduler (just guessing) but for now I recommend all nvidia owners to check if the new kernel is really worth installing.

Ector

[Old-Polack]

[root@fatman ~]# uname -r                                                                                                
2.6.37.3-pclos1.pae

[root@fatman ~]# glxgears
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
31788 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6357.595 FPS
32103 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6420.419 FPS
32116 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6423.077 FPS
32104 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6420.787 FPS
32090 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6417.931 FPS
32104 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6420.750 FPS
10832 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2165.730 FPS
2990 frames in 5.0 seconds = 597.972 FPS             <-- Full screen
2990 frames in 5.0 seconds = 597.906 FPS
2990 frames in 5.0 seconds = 597.937 FPS
8483 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1696.566 FPS
32017 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6403.281 FPS
32114 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6422.634 FPS


                                                                                                                       

[AS]

Hi,
can't agree with your result:

glxgears, default window size:

41509 frames in 5.0 seconds = 8301.614 FPS
40505 frames in 5.0 seconds = 8100.883 FPS

glxgears -fullscreen: (1440 x 900)
4124 frames in 5.0 seconds = 824.658 FPS
4157 frames in 5.0 seconds = 831.215 FPS

Kernel: 2.6.37.3-pclos1.pae

video drv: dkms-nvidia-current-260.19.44-1pclos2011, x11-driver-video-nvidia-current-260.19.44-1pclos2011
card:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G86 [GeForce 8600M GS] (rev a1)

AS

[Ector]

Yes I know that glxgears "measures" the overall system performance and I know that changing the window size will change the frame rate but I run the test in identical conditions. I see the difference in 3D games as well so the difference between those to kernels is definitely something real.

uname -r
2.6.37.2-pclos1.bfs
6962 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1392.225 FPS
3693 frames in 5.0 seconds = 738.494 FPS <-- full screen

the other is 2.6.33.7-plcos6.bfs

My graphics card is
nVidia Corporation GT216 [GeForce GT 330M] (rev a2)


@as
The glxgears results are incomparable as they depend on graph.card, processor, screen resolution, etc. My point was that the results are different on the very same machine tested in identical conditions on just two different kernels.
E.

[thorper]

Upgraded my xfce desktop to 2.6.33.7-pclos6.bfs. Only problem I have found was the video, onboard Geforce 6150SE graphics chip with bios set to 256MB of memory from 1GB of RAM. Playing foobilliard does become jerky from time to time. I went back to using 2.6.33.7

[AS]

@as
The glxgears results are incomparable as they depend on graph.card, processor, screen resolution, etc. My point was that the results are different on the very same machine tested in identical conditions on just two different kernels.
E.

Agreed, both my results and Old-Polack results come from a 2.6.37.3-pae kernel, may be you want to try the latest kernel version and/or pae version.

AS

[Old-Polack]

@as
The glxgears results are incomparable as they depend on graph.card, processor, screen resolution, etc. My point was that the results are different on the very same machine tested in identical conditions on just two different kernels.
E.

Agreed, both my results and Old-Polack results come from a 2.6.37.3-pae kernel, may be you want to try the latest kernel version and/or pae version.

AS

I just upgraded to this kernel from the  2.6.37.2-pae kernel, and the change for glxgears was indistinguishable; neither up nor down.

[Ector]

Good idea but I can only see 2.6.37.2-pclos1.bfs and 2.6.37.2-pclos1.pae in the Synaptic. Maybe the *.37.3-* were not mirrored from the main repo yet. I'll try the 2.6.37.2-pclos1.pae for now.

E.

@Old-Polack
but can you try the 2.6.33.7 kernel. It would be good to see if the problem is reproducible.

[Old-Polack]

[root@fatman ~]# uname -r
2.6.33.7-pclos6.bfs

[root@fatman ~]# glxgears
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
31220 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6244.000 FPS
31266 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6253.136 FPS
31260 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6251.924 FPS
31290 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6257.995 FPS
31322 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6264.263 FPS
31231 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6246.068 FPS
12614 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2522.536 FPS
2885 frames in 5.0 seconds = 576.990 FPS                     <-- Full screen
2884 frames in 5.0 seconds = 576.683 FPS
2878 frames in 5.0 seconds = 575.486 FPS
22346 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4469.198 FPS
31278 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6255.600 FPS
31299 frames in 5.0 seconds = 6259.615 FPS

This kernel is slightly slower.

[AS]

my result using 2.6.33.7-pae show a little increase over 2.6.37.3-pae:

43628 frames in 5.0 seconds = 8725.514 FPS
43063 frames in 5.0 seconds = 8607.785 FPS

4580 frames in 5.0 seconds = 915.989 FPS
4619 frames in 5.0 seconds = 923.611 FPS

AS

[Ector]

Ok, I tested the pae kernel. So to summarize here are the results for all kernels

2.6.33.7-plcos6.bfs
3500 fps

2.6.37.2-pclos1.bfs
1392 fps

2.6.37.2-pclos1.pae
2800 fps

so the 37.2-pae kernel gives increase in speed by a factor of 2 comparing to its bfs counterpart and this is something that I see in aps using 3D. Still the oldest kernel is the "fastest".

I want to migrate to the new kernel branch in hope that the the atheros driver for my AR9285 wifi chip is fixed (i have constant disconnections on the 33.7) and that I'll menage to fix the brightness issue (I can't adjust it, right now its maximum all the time). Still I would not like to exchange one problem for another.
Now I wait for the 2.6.37.3-pclos1.pae and will post the result.

E.

[T6]

this netbook atom 1.66 ghz with a intel gma 3150 windowed

1362 frames in 5.0 seconds = 272.309 FPS
1283 frames in 5.0 seconds = 256.242 FPS

fullscreen

407 frames in 5.0 seconds = 80.997 FPS
381 frames in 5.0 seconds = 76.054 FPS



about the update, the new kernel brought a nice improvement, i can change screen brightness in my netbook!!!   

right now i'm using 2.6.37.2-pclos1.a64, still testing it to see if remains stable, previous a64 didn't worked well on this atom

[AS]

this netbook atom 1.66 ghz with a intel gma 3150 windowed

right now i'm using 2.6.37.2-pclos1.a64

Hi Titus T6us,

kernel-*.a64 is the version optimized for AMD / K8, at least it is described this way in synaptic. Why you are using it on Intel Atom ?  What I'm missing here ?

AS

[T6]

yes, it is meant to be used with a amd 64 bit cpu but other recent cpus, atom included can use this kernel, or at least this is what i have been told in the past

by using it now in this stable way it is working now i can conclude that this info was correct

[Crow]

yes, it is meant to be used with a amd 64 bit cpu but other recent cpus, atom included can use this kernel, or at least this is what i have been told in the past

by using it now in this stable way it is working now i can conclude that this info was correct

I have an atom CPU,

                                     are you sure??   

It would be good news