Bad 3D performance with Radeon 7500 in opensuse 11.1

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#1

I used to be able to play Wolfenstein Enemy Territory and a lot of other
games relatively well on my Radeon 7500 using open source drivers.
However, once I switched to opensuse 11.1, everything is laggier. Even
the mouse lags in the Wolfenstein menu screen. When I run these games in
the console I get a lot of “[driAllocateTexture:636] unable to allocate
texture” messages. Is something wrong with my xorg configuration?

Code:

/…/

SaX generated X11 config file

Created on: 2009-01-06T19:32:43-0800.

Version: 8.1

Contact: Marcus Schaefer <sax@suse.de>, 2005

Contact: SaX-User list <https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/sax-users>

Automatically generated by [ISaX] (8.1)

PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!

Section “Files”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/local”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/Type1”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/URW”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/Speedo”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/PEX”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/Type1”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin7/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/baekmuk:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/japanese:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/kwintv”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/truetype”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/uni:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/CID”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/ucs/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/ucs/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/ucs/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/Type1”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/misc/sgi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/xtest”
FontPath “/opt/kde3/share/fonts”
InputDevices “/dev/gpmdata”
InputDevices “/dev/input/mice”
EndSection

Section “ServerFlags”
Option “AllowMouseOpenFail” “on”
Option “ZapWarning” “on”
EndSection

Section “Module”
Load “freetype”
Load “extmod”
Load “dbe”
Load “glx”
Load “dri”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “kbd”
Identifier “Keyboard[0]”
Option “Protocol” “Standard”
Option “XkbLayout” “us”
Option “XkbModel” “microsoftpro”
Option “XkbRules” “xfree86”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “mouse”
Identifier “Mouse[1]”
Option “Buttons” “7”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/mice”
Option “Name” “Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical”
Option “Protocol” “explorerps/2”
Option “Vendor” “Sysp”
Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “synaptics”
Identifier “Mouse[3]”
Option “Buttons” “5”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/mice”
Option “Emulate3Buttons” “on”
Option “HorizScrollDelta” “0”
Option “InputFashion” “Mouse”
Option “Name” “Synaptics;Touchpad”
Option “Protocol” “explorerps/2”
Option “SHMConfig” “on”
Option “Vendor” “Sysp”
Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5”
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
DisplaySize 304 228
HorizSync 30-50
Identifier “Monitor[0]”
ModelName “LCD MONITOR”
Option “DPMS”
Option “PreferredMode” “1024x768”
VendorName “LGP”
VertRefresh 43-60
UseModes “Modes[0]”
EndSection

Section “Modes”
Identifier “Modes[0]”
EndSection

Section “Screen”
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection “Display”
Depth 15
Modes “1024x768” “1024x600” “800x600” “768x576” “640x480”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 16
Modes “1024x768” “1024x600” “800x600” “768x576” “640x480”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Modes “1024x768” “1024x600” “800x600” “768x576” “640x480”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “1024x768” “1024x600” “800x600” “768x576” “640x480”
EndSubSection
Device “Device[0]”
Identifier “Screen[0]”
Monitor “Monitor[0]”
EndSection

Section “Device”
BoardName “Radeon LW”
Driver “radeon”
Identifier “Device[0]”
Option “SaXDualHead”
Option “XAANoOffscreenPixmaps” “true”
Option “monitor-LVDS” “Monitor[0]”
Option “SaXDualMonitorVendor” “–> LCD”
Option “SaXDualOrientation” “RightOf”
Option “SaXDualResolution” “1440x900”
Option “SaXDualMode” “Xinerama”
Option “SaXDualHSync” “50-70”
Option “SaXDualMonitorModel” “1440X900@60HZ”
Option “SaXDualVSync” “50-60”
Option “SaXExternal” “Identifier&EXT+DisplaySize&304 228+VendorName&–> LCD+RightOf&Monitor[0]+PreferredMode&1440x900+HorizSync&50-70+ModelName&1440X900@60HZ+VertRefresh&50-60”
Screen 0
VendorName “ATI”
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
DisplaySize 304 228
HorizSync 50-70
Identifier “EXT”
ModelName “1440X900@60HZ”
Option “RightOf” “Monitor[0]”
Option “PreferredMode” “1440x900”
VendorName “–> LCD”
VertRefresh 50-60
EndSection

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “Layout[all]”
InputDevice “Keyboard[0]” “CoreKeyboard”
InputDevice “Mouse[1]” “CorePointer”
InputDevice “Mouse[3]” “SendCoreEvents”
Option “Clone” “off”
Option “Xinerama” “off”
Screen “Screen[0]”
EndSection

Section “DRI”
Group “video”
Mode 0660
EndSection

Section “Extensions”
EndSection

Any help is appreciated.

–
Benjamin_Xiao

Benjamin_Xiao’s Profile: http://forums.opensuse.org/member.php?userid=2015
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#2

I don’t use the radeon driver, but others have reported similar video
performance issues with recent Xorg versions. This ‘thread’
(http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=754712) may help with this. It
suggests editing your xorg.conf ‘Device’ section by adding these
options:

Option “VideoOverlay” “off”
Option “OpenGLOverlay” “on”
Option “TexturedVideo” “off”

Make sure you backup your current working xorg.conf first with
something like:

cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.working

Good luck.

–
deano_ferrari

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#3

That thread deals with flickering images during video playback. I am
just complaining about slow rendering of 3D games and the many

Code:

[driAllocateTexture:636] unable to allocate texture

messages that I get in the console. I will try the above options though
and see where that gets me.

–
Benjamin_Xiao

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#4

I don’t see where 3D is enabled in your Xorg file (am I missing
something?) I had heard it was enabled by default in 11.1. True or
false?

–
foresthill

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#5

Okay, I found the fix. According to the Radeon DRI site, ‘DRI Wiki -
ATIRadeon’ (http://tinyurl.com/p3bh9),
the radeon drivers as of September 2007 work better with EXA
acceleration than XAA. Sure enough adding

Code:

Option “AccelMethod” “EXA”

in the Device section of xorg.conf restored 3d performance to what it
was before.

Hope this helps anyone encountering this problem.

–
Benjamin_Xiao

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#6

Thanks for update. I was going to mention that as well.

‘man radeon’ (http://linux.die.net/man/4/radeon)

–
deano_ferrari

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#7

Actually I spoke too soon. While switching to EXA did speed up the menus
in Wolfenstein, actually playing the game was still abysmally slow. Plus
EXA seems to introduce lag in the KDE 4 interface and crashes X when
Kwin Desktop effects are enabled. EXA does help a bit in terms of 3D,
but I don’t think its the core issue here. Any other suggestions?

–
Benjamin_Xiao

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#8

New update. I turned off EXA as it was slowing down the GUI way too
much. However, while I was browsing through my Xorg.0.log, I found an
entry regarding Max desktop size. It said that using the Virtual option
in xorg.conf, you can decrease this max desktop size and help 3D
performance. The Max desktop size was set at 1600 x 1200, which was WAY
to big for my LCD laptop panel (1024 x 768) anyway, so I added “Virtual
1024 768” in the 24-bit depth Display Subsection in the Screen section
of xorg.conf. This essentially increased Wolfenstein performance more
than just turning on EXA alone. However, still not up to opensuse 11.0
speeds yet.

–
Benjamin_Xiao

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#9

Any ideas guys? Maybe I should try reverting to an older or newer
version of X11? Anyone know how I can easily do that without
recompiling?

–
Benjamin_Xiao

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