[cobalt60]

Hello all. I was just wondering if there were some tips and tricks to improving the frame rate of UrT when using the free radeon driver. Distro is Debian Testing, GPU is 6870(1GB), kernel is 3.14, CPU is Core2 Quad @2.7GHz, RAM is 3GB, resolution is 1600x1200.

Frame rates can dip to below 60 and most of my settings are fairly low. I used to have a nicer computer with GTX560Ti using non free driver and eben with settings almost all at max I could keep frame rate pinned to 125fps.

Thanks for any suggestions

[FS |HSO|RaideR]

cobalt60, on 03 June 2014 - 11:00 PM, said:

Hello all. I was just wondering if there were some tips and tricks to improving the frame rate of UrT when using the free radeon driver. Distro is Debian Testing, GPU is 6870(1GB), kernel is 3.14, CPU is Core2 Quad @2.7GHz, RAM is 3GB, resolution is 1600x1200.

Frame rates can dip to below 60 and most of my settings are fairly low. I used to have a nicer computer with GTX560Ti using non free driver and eben with settings almost all at max I could keep frame rate pinned to 125fps.

Thanks for any suggestions

the engine doesn't work like that... i very much doubt that your "PC" is the issue ... its more likely something else ... sadley the state of a old ass engine...

[cobalt60]

RaideR, on 03 June 2014 - 11:38 PM, said:

i very much doubt that your "PC" is the issue ...

I dont think the hardware is the issue, I think the issue is the free radeon driver. I can get up to the max 120fps the game supports, but if theres a lot of action or objects it can dip to below 60. My GTX560Ti that I used to have was able to pin the frame rate to 120fps no matter how much action. A GTX560Ti and Radeon 6870 are both similarly performing cards. So yes I know my hardware is fine. But the free radeon driver has only recently started to compete well against the proprietary ones. I think it just needs some tweaking.

Heres how I start UrT BTW; it displays on the monitor I want it to on my dual monitor setup and forces anti-aliasing:

export SDL_VIDEO_FULLSCREEN_HEAD={0};export GALLIUM_MSAA=4;/home/cobalt60/UrbanTerror42/Quake3-UrT.x86_64

[thelionroars]

So are you running the open driver because it handles dual screen better? Because a stable version of the proprietary driver would solve your frame rate issues. I can get 125fps on a 5770 with the stable closed driver on Ubuntu, no problem. Paired with a 3.2GHz dual-core phenom.

[cobalt60]

thelionroars, on 04 June 2014 - 07:52 AM, said:

So are you running the open driver because it handles dual screen better? Because a stable version of the proprietary driver would solve your frame rate issues. I can get 125fps on a 5770 with the stable closed driver on Ubuntu, no problem. Paired with a 3.2GHz dual-core phenom.

I am running the free driver because I strongly prefer running free software to non-free software. My choice in video hardware was specifically so I could use the free radeon driver and I am truly amazed and pleased that there is now a totally free driver that performs well. Fact is its already running well enough that I am not at all motivated to use the non-free driver.

Have you tried running the free driver? It seems to be a little more optimized for the 5xxx series like you have. Phoronix has extensively tested a handful of Radeon cards on both the free and non-free driver. One of the cards they tested (over and over again) was the 5830, which actually performed close to as well as the 6870. They did not test the 5770, it may turn out that it runs really well. Heres the link to one of their benchmark articles:

http://www.phoronix....312_major&num=3

[Fenix]

The problem is using AMD based GPU on Linux . I had the very same problem too using Ubuntu and AMD Radeon HD GPU (40-60 FPS). Switched to Windows, and now I have 125 stable

[cobalt60]

Fenix, on 04 June 2014 - 12:22 PM, said:

The problem is using AMD based GPU on Linux . I had the very same problem too using Ubuntu and AMD Radeon HD GPU (40-60 FPS). Switched to Windows, and now I have 125 stable

The whole reason I use Linux is because it is free (as in freedom) software, and the whole reason I play UrT is because it runs on Linux. Maybe my thread title is mis-leading; I am not complaining about poor performance. I am looking for performance tweaks to improve upon what I am already getting.

According to the link I posted, Open Arena at 1920x1080 on a 6870 using the free driver can get over 570fps! Reaction Quake can get about 480fps!

[thelionroars]

cobalt60, on 04 June 2014 - 11:38 AM, said:

Have you tried running the free driver? ...it may turn out that it runs really well.

Yes. The proprietary driver performed much better. As desirable as open software is, I choose performance over openness when it comes to graphic drivers.

If you are going to stick with the open drivers, you can try lowering the resolution, removing the blood and bullet shells and using the smaller gun setting. You can also try compiling r00t's build http://www.r00t.cz/SW/UrbanTerror and seeing if that performs better. I linked a compile against Ubuntu 12.04-3 32 bit in the dedicated forum thread to that client as well.

This post has been edited by thelionroars: 04 June 2014 - 01:12 PM

[cobalt60]

thelionroars, on 04 June 2014 - 01:07 PM, said:

If you are going to stick with the open drivers, you can try ... removing the blood and bullet shells...

Hmmm, just tried this and frame rates were at 125fps for quite a bit and didnt see them drop below 100fps. Thanks!

[cobalt60]

Actually just played on Uptown and was having frame rates down to below 50. Algiers seems to stay above 90-100 though. Guess I still have some more tweaking to do.