Would the ATI drivers really increase Mogul performance?

[bedoig]

First, I would love to see some progress on the video acceleration front.

That said, it seems strange that everyone fixates on the lack of drivers for the ATI chip. Personally, I don't buy into the argument that the physical presence of some piece of hardware in a chipset implies that it will be used in every production device. It seems that HTC and the courts are also of that opinion. Device performance does suck though (ok, it's not HORRIBLE, but could definetly be a lot better).

To my knowledge, the 6700 (and most other older devices) didn't have any kind of hardware video acceleration, and yet they performed significantly better than devices based on the new Qualcomm chipsets. The difference apparently lies solely with the processors. These 400mhz Qualcomms appear to perform much worse than the 416mhz Intel's from older devices. And the Qualcomm chip even has that second core that is supposed to handle phone/radio functions. Hopefully the new revisions in the upcoming HTC devices (7200a or something like that?) perform at least at the level of the old Intel chips. Maybe with the combination of the higher CPU clock speed and the video acceleration we'll see better performance.

Anyway, I'm not trying to call anyone out on talking about the video drivers or anything. I've done it plenty of times myself. It just seems that no one takes the crappy Qualcomm processors into consideration. I'll be waiting to see how the Diamond performs. Maybe it's time to jump ship for a while.

Edit: Sorry, that was way off topic. More on topic: it should in theory help a lot. It would allow the processor to offload most/all video related tasks. This would speed up everything from watching videos, to GPS nav program performance, to screen redraws (portrait to landscape, scrolling, etc). The processor wouldn't be loaded down with all that junk, and the device would perform better overall. There is no way of knowing just how much better without actually having it working though.

[EtherealRemnant]

bedoig, it has nothing to do with the processors being slower. That is quite far from the case - but you have to understand that without a working 2D accelerator (which the 6700 DID have), anything that involves the screen (which is everything except for making calls) is going to be extrememly sluggish.

The Qualcomm processors are actually significantly faster than the old PXA processors (unless you overclocked your PXA like I did - then the Qualcomm chip seems REALLY slow in comparison to a 624MHz PXA270) but they have no support for their acceleration functions included with these devices.

Also, I think the move to ARM11 is causing issues too. Its a new processor architecture built off of the old ARM9 specifications that I don't believe Windows Mobile was really tweaked to support so we're not seeing the full performance of our processors anyway.

[bedoig]

Originally Posted by EtherealRemnant

...you have to understand that without a working 2D accelerator (which the 6700 DID have)

Never knew the 6700 had any kind of graphics acceleration. That's interesting.

Originally Posted by EtherealRemnant

The Qualcomm processors are actually significantly faster than the old PXA processors

Why do you say that? I haven't seen any *decent* benchmarking tools, so my evaluation has been entirely subjective. The differences are dramatic though.

So you're saying the better performance was due almost entirely to the 2d acceleration on the 6700's? Where did you see that the 6700 has video acceleration? Not doubting, just curious

[steps]

I thought Nochems 5066 may have had the drivers or performance update since my Titan flies. Videos play smoothly with DirectDraw, I don't see the redraw lag when scrolling, etc....may want to check out that rom

[bedoig]

Originally Posted by steps

I thought Nochems 5066 may have had the drivers or performance update since my Titan flies. Videos play smoothly with DirectDraw, I don't see the redraw lag when scrolling, etc....may want to check out that rom

It would appear that no2chem has directdraw working now. USB mass storage w/o CardExport or WM5torage as well. Exciting stuff.

[steps]

Originally Posted by bedoig

Never knew the 6700 had any kind of graphics acceleration. That's interesting.



Why do you say that? I haven't seen any *decent* benchmarking tools, so my evaluation has been entirely subjective. The differences are dramatic though.

So you're saying the better performance was due almost entirely to the 2d acceleration on the 6700's? Where did you see that the 6700 has video acceleration? Not doubting, just curious

I remember reading somewhere (may have been the spec sheet) that the 6700 does have a graphics chip for 2D acceleration (ati also I believe though not sure.) Then again I could be wrong lol

[bedoig]

Check out the HTCClassAction site. Apparently there is a TyTN II ROM out that incorporates some calls to the graphics hardware. Maybe that's where no2chem got his stuff. Interesting info about the progress on porting the KS20 drivers as well.

[EtherealRemnant]

I don't believe that the 6700 had any specialized drivers that specifically accelerated 2D but rather, it was built in to the chip by Intel.

As for the Qualcomm processors being significantly faster than the old PXA processors, its all subjective just as it is for you, but I honestly think if we could get the video acceleration working on the whole device the Qualcomm chip would vastly outperform the PXA.

Keep in mind that the Qualcomm gets obliterated on any test involving video but it can keep toe to toe with the PXA270 in most other areas...

[no2chem]

drivers, couldn't be ported, but if htc were to use new ones with better bitblt...

[92GTA]

Originally Posted by no2chem

drivers, couldn't be ported, but if htc were to use new ones with better bitblt...

That sucks