Intel ports AMD compiler code for a 10% performance boost in Linux gaming

[backstreetboy]

Intel ports AMD compiler code for a 10% performance boost in Linux gaming

The results are promising so far.

www.pcgamer.com

Linux gaming may not be as popular as gaming in Windows, but it is a growing segment. It is also improving, both in terms of support and performance. As it pertains to the latter, Jason Ekstrand, a member of Intel's open source 3D driver team, is seeing some promising results in a handful of games running in Linux after porting AMD compiler code to Intel graphics hardware.

The code is derived from ACO, short for AMD COmpiler, which is essentially a shader compiler spearheaded by Valve. First announced last July, Valve at the time said it was intended to deliver the "best possible code generation for game shaders, and fastest possible compilation speed." It was also intended to replace AMD's own LLVM compiler.

As spotted by Phoronix, Ekstrand has enabled an I/O vectorization pass in an Intel driver for Linux, based on open source code originally written for ACO for use in AMD's Radeon Vulkan drivers.

If all of this sounds Greek to you, here's the plain English breakdown—using code originally written for AMD graphics hardware, Ekstrand built an Intel GPU driver that is improving performance in some OpenGL and Vulkan games by around 10 percent in Linux.

 

[CT_Biker]

I thought Intel have absolutely no interest in Graphics, but here they go again with a quick foray into graphics to learn what they need to learn and apply that to CPU’s.

Intel night as well start using Zen2 under license while they’re using AMD products

 

[cguy]

I thought Intel have absolutely no interest in Graphics, but here they go again with a quick foray into graphics to learn what they need to learn and apply that to CPU’s.

Intel night as well start using Zen2 under license while they’re using AMD products

How do you translate building GPUs for 22 years, a multi billion investment in the Larrabee, hiring any real time raytracing researchers they could find, and now their current discrete GPU project to “absolutely no interest in graphics”?

 

[CT_Biker]

How do you translate building GPUs for 22 years, a multi billion investment in the Larrabee, hiring any real time raytracing researchers they could find, and now their current discrete GPU project to “absolutely no interest in graphics”?

They have no interest in releasing a commercial GPU product, they have had 22 years to release a product.
They arent offering remarkable onboard graphics either - they re using Graphics as a means to research computation and more efficient ways to improve computing - I have no doubt about that

 

[cguy]

They have no interest in releasing a commercial GPU product, they have had 22 years to release a product.
They arent offering remarkable onboard graphics either - they re using Graphics as a means to research computation and more efficient ways to improve computing - I have no doubt about that

You realize that onboard GPUs are commercial GPUs, right?

Their onboard graphics have thus far almost exclusively been for graphics. Intels graphics serves a particular market segment where price and power trump absolute performance.

Also, Intel had its own graphics card back in 1998.

 

[CT_Biker]

They are more likely to release a GPGPU(This is what Larabee was anyway) rather than a proper GPU as we traditionally know, which has far wider applications than a normal GPU running in compute mode.

I do believe their brief, and spotty dabbles with graphics are to use 'gaming' as a benchmark and for load testing.

 

[genetic]

So still a 90% left until we get to Windows levels of gaming performance....

 

[CT_Biker]

So still a 90% left until we get to Windows levels of gamin performance....

No HDR too

 

[genetic]

No HDR too

or real-time ray tracing.

 

[CT_Biker]

or RTX.

Not that much of an issue compared to the lack of HDR, I know here are definite issues with trying to get it to work on AMD card as I use an RX570 but I cannot comment on Nvidia - I havent owned a Nvidia product for ages.

 

[cguy]

They are more likely to release a GPGPU(This is what Larabee was anyway) rather than a proper GPU as we traditionally know, which has far wider applications than a normal GPU running in compute mode.

I do believe their brief, and spotty dabbles with graphics are to use 'gaming' as a benchmark and for load testing.

They are very unlikely to produce something like the Larrabee again (where only texture units were dedicated graphics hardware), it would be a disaster for the same reasons the Larrabee was a disaster.

Like other GPUs, it will have a lot of fixed function hardware for graphics and cores designed for embarrassingly parallel computation such as shaders, AI and Linear Algebra.

Their current graphics cores are very much unrelated to their CPU cores architecturally, since they solve entirely different problems.

If you call pushing Nvidia out of the absolutely enormous entry level graphics market, which netted them 10s of billions “spotty dabbles”, you really don’t understand the industry.

 

[CT_Biker]

They are very unlikely to produce something like the Larrabee again (where only texture units were dedicated graphics hardware), it would be a disaster for the same reasons the Larrabee was a disaster.

Like other GPUs, it will have a lot of fixed function hardware for graphics and cores designed for embarrassingly parallel computation such as shaders, AI and Linear Algebra.

Their current graphics cores are very much unrelated to their CPU cores architecturally, since they solve entirely different problems.

If you call pushing Nvidia out of the absolutely enormous entry level graphics market, which netted them 10s of billions “spotty dabbles”, you really don’t understand the industry.

I don’t see you doing CAD or CFD I’m stock Intel Hardware.

 

[cguy]

I don’t see you doing CAD or CFD I’m stock Intel Hardware.

So what? Intel ships 2/3rds of the world's GPUs. You seem to think that because they don't make the fastest GPUs, they're not serious about it. It's not all about absolute performance.

 

[CT_Biker]

So what? Intel ships 2/3rds of the world's GPUs. You seem to think that because they don't make the fastest GPUs, they're not serious about it. It's not all about absolute performance.

No it isn’t about sheer performance if you essentially have a regulated monopoly