Karmic Power!

Ok, without compiz gears show 40k+ (185)...it's bearable (some games are already playable) but still.....

 

The reason why the glxgears run slower in SLI is here

"Why is glxgears slower when SLI or Multi-GPU is enabled?


When SLI or Multi-GPU is enabled, the NVIDIA driver must coordinate the operations of all GPUs when each new frame is swapped (made visible). For most applications, this GPU synchronization overhead is negligible. However, because glxgears renders so many frames per second, the GPU synchronization overhead consumes a significant portion of the total time, and the framerate is reduced."

 

Yes, I understand, and wouldn't worry about it if SLI worked smooth in general. But I'm having the same choppy rendering in all 3D apps. So basically I can't use SLI even though it's enabled.

 

Meanwhile, there is another interesting question:
How to monitor MCP/9400 temps?
I installed lm-sensors and sensors-applet and can see the CPU(both cores), both GPUs and HDDs temps but not the MCP/9400. So I ran a manual detection:
sudo sensors-detect answering yes to all the questions. and there was a very interesting part:

"Found unknown SMBus adapter 10de:0aa2 at 0000:00:03.2.
Sorry, no supported PCI bus adapters found.
If you have undetectable or unsupported I2C/SMBus adapters, you can have them scanned by manually loading the modules before running this script."

this is probably our 9400/MCP79 or one of the conrollers associated with it since - "i2c-nforce2: Add support for MCP67, MCP73, MCP78S and MCP79"
Now the question is how to load the correct module.
I even wonder if it's possible to get the 9400 working in hybrid after that?...

 

nForce MCP79 10de:0AA2
This is definitely our MCP/9400!!! So now we just need to load the correct module....

 

Stamatisx , could you check your SLI when you get your system back? I need to know if you experience any stutter when running 3D apps. Also what is your score in glxgears? You could try running some desktop effects and see if the rendering is choppy.
I'm about to start experimenting with the VDPAU settings.
Just wanted to make sure that my drivers are ok.
Thanks

 

Another update, installed phoronix-test-suite and my worst fears were confirmed. I got a mere 128 in the lightsmark test, while I should be hitting 600+ with a single card.
I'm still searching for a possible cause...

 

Ok, there's a certain problem with my drivers.
As you can see from here, the cards are seen as PCI 8X instead of 16X in Nvidia X-server settings....
Also the best I've got so far in phoronix lightsmark is 136 FPS average.
The phoronix team made a review of a Clevo laptop with a single GTX 280M card and got 3 to 4 times better score...

 

Stamatisx, Ethrem,
I need your cooperation here. Managed to make SLI work with a significant FPS boost in the phoronix lightsmark test.
If you can, please run this test at 1920X1200 rez and tell me your average score. Also I need to know if you get PCI X8 or X16 in Nvidia X-Server.
So here is my lightsmark test result:
Single card - average 137 FPS
SLI - average 230 FPS
We are getting there eventually
Also, there is a way to enable coolbits/nvclock in linux to run the cards at their max clocks. Now working on it

 

Hardware Monitor from CPUz reads all temps including the 9400m and chipset

 

Are talking about windows?

 

Still on my netbook, I am on vacations that's why. That's normal the PCI X8. The card can support up to X16 but our configuration is for X8. Check windows GPUz and it will tell you the same thing.

Tell me something, how big is Phoronix because I have only 3 GBytes free in my partition and I don't think it's enough for installation.

As far as I remember I didn't experience any stuttering but I didn't try that many 3D applications. Phoronix could be our point of reference but....

Did you use the commands I posted to force the clocks at higher frequencies or you found another way?

 

Phoronix by itself is a very small program, also we don't need to run all the tests, just the lightsmark for now. Go to www.phoronix.com and download the latest stable version 2.2 (ubuntu has an older 2.0 in repos.) install it and then run from the terminal : phoronix-test-suite benchmark lightsmark. You can find all available tests on their webpage, but for now we just need the lightsmark as it's our gpu vantage equivalent.
I didn't change the frequencies and the GPUs never got past power level 1 - 275MHz/301MHz. That's probably the reason for a much lower score than that of the phoronix team. They used an older driver with built-in coolbits allowing them to change the frequencies.
But let's start with our stock drivers (195.30) and frequencies.
Another thing, if you can run Compiz and see if you have any stutter when rotating the cube. I know SLI and Compiz don't play nicely together but have high hopes for the latest drivers. They really did improve a lot.

 

I got in SLI 88 FPS average, the fps dropped till 18 during test

No stuttering with compiz though...

 

Did you run it with all the effects off? Even the normal effects can cause the drop of FPS.
Also, I was googling through many SLI related forum threads and found that when enabling SLI you don't need to have both GPUs described (BusID etc) in xorg. Here is my xorg.conf:

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder58) Fri Dec 18 18:35:05 PST 2009


Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 28.0 - 33.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BusID "PCI:2:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "SLI" "Auto"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

 

This is good news - SLI can work !
The bad news is .... I will need another re-install...

 

i run the test with all the effects on, in your xorg.conf you load the glx module, in mine I don't so I guess this is a residue from the previous drivers installation, I don't know if that made the difference.

Rerun the test with all the effects off, during the test the SLI indication was not on, so I assume I was running the test with one card. The average FPSscore was 243

In SLI mode the average FPS was 116 with compiz effects off

 

Re-installed the OS again, put 195.30 and ran the lightsmark with SLI on and effects off - 240 FPS.
However, I still have the problem with Compiz.... Minor freezes are still there...
Can you post your xorg again?

 

I just uninstalled the 195.30 and enabled the Ubuntu drivers. The result is after the reboot the screen to go black and the system to halt. I have to press the power button to shut it down. I have to do a fresh install now and it won't be today.

Option "Coolbits" "1"

Use this under the device section to enable the overclocking hidden option

I will post my xorg after the new clean install

 

Looks like there's no way to force the power level beyond 1, with coolbits enabled the frequencies are set to min for 2D and max for 3D, but they never rise to the max regardless of the Ds....
When you do re-install try another driver - 185 or 190.
Meanwhile, I'll test all the SLI options to find the best for 195.
Then will restore my backup (did as you suggested ) and try a different driver.

 

Ok, I screwed up again and had to reinstall the system again. tried the 185 drivers and wasn't too happy with 3D rendering even with a single card. So I'm back to 195. Unfortunately, can't afford to experiment any more right now as there's a huge project in programming under linux that I have to finish in a short time. So need my system steadily operational.
But I'll watch your progress and look for insights on the web.
One guy on the nvidia forums claimed he had found the perfect way to configure SLI in Linux. He disconnected the second GPU before installing the drivers, than after installing them he put the second card in and turned the SLI on. That way he got everything smooth. We might try that some time.

 

Ok, so after quite a bit of testing I'm going to edit the first post to give an update on the overall situation of running Ubuntu 9.10 on M17X.

Correct me if you have different insights but so far:

Installation order:
1) Boot from Ubuntu 9.10 cd/dvd, install the O.S. (make sure you have an Ethernet cable plugged-in)
2) Run the Update Manager and install all the updates. Reboot*.
3) Wireless: System-> Administration-> Hardware Drivers-> Activate the wireless STA driver. Reboot*.
4) Video: System->Administration-> Hardware Drivers-> Activate the recommended 185 driver. Reboot*
5) Sound: System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager - find the backports-alsa (choose your kernel version) - Apply. reboot*

* you can try installing all of the above and then just restart once.
I played it slow and safe.

Why the 185 driver?
Well, it appears that the latest 190.x and 195.x beta drivers do not really help with SLI. You can enable SLI with them but playing the latest games will be next to impossible due to jagged 3D-rendering. With SLI disabled you can actually get a better performance with the Ubuntu modded 185 drivers as they also:
a) Do not block the brightness changing (Fn+F4/5 will work normally)
b) Do not slow down/ freeze the computer when on battery!

Verdict:
Performing a clean Install of Ubuntu Karmic Koala following the above steps should give you a stutter free machine with no sound/video issues, lower temps and way faster than under Vista/W7 in about 40min of your time.

Our next step is the Software Guide.
Stay tuned...

 

58K+ with ATIs at glxgears
305 FPS average with Lightsmark

 

Wow, can you provide the steps to correct installation? The LIVECD boots to black screen on me... and my Karmic partition is lost and reformatted.

 

The steps.... don't laugh but I mixed somehow the .iso files and installed on the usb stick the 32 bit version of my netbook. LOL I didn't realize until after, where I had to install the drivers for the ATI cards. I would suggest to try with the 64bit and if it fails then use the 32bit. If you make it work with the 64bit I will do the installation again.

Anyways, first plug it on an ethernet cable and download all the updates. After that it will detect your wireless card. Then download the latest catalyst from ati. Finally type:
sudo apt-get install build-essential cdbs fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf dkms libQtGui4 (I don't know if you really need all of them by I do it by default)
sudo sh ati-driver-installer-10-1-x86.x86_64.run
reboot and you are good to go

*EDIT*
Forgot to mention that you can enable the crossfire from the Catalyst Control Center (use the admin mode)
The easiest installation ever by the way (i don't know about games performance tho...)
The scores are with visual effects disabled (I didn't optimize anything, I left the default values at CCC)

 

Tried 64bit from a CD - no go. Maybe the USB-stick variant will work better. If not - 32bit.
But this is very good! If it works including the CF - ... I thought that day would never come, hehe.

 

To be honest I will try to install the 64bit because now I am curious. Who knows maybe the scores will go even higher...

 

Just installed Ubuntu 9.10 the 64bit version.
Installation without problem
will run benchmark in a few minutes


*EDIT*
To my dissappointment
55.5K on glxgears
292 FPS at lightsmark hmmmm....

I don't want to jump to conclusions but it seems that the 32 bit version of Ubuntu and ATI drivers have better results and performance

 

Did you install it from a CD or USB-stick?

IMHO the difference in scores is not that big.
BTW are you able to see/change the clocks? Do they rise to max?

Will do the installation on Saturday, too busy right now...

 

I don't burn the ISO to CDs anymore. I use the unetbootin-windows-357 (I am sure that there are more updated versions) to make a bootable usb stick. (very handy for my netbook)
This way I managed to install both 32 and 64 bit version.
I can't check if the clocks are running at maximum frequencies
Compiz is running flawlessly (never saw that kind of performance) and I am waiting for you to try a couple of games and tell me the difference. I don't have any games unfortunately (what an irony since it is a gaming laptop ) to try...

 

AlienFX now in ubuntu:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=458528

 

I'm very excited to try this, but being really busy with my programming project. I'll do it on this long weekend. In the meanwhile you can try the Nexuiz. You can install it from Synaptic or terminal. The game is not too graphically demanding however, I couldn't run it with SLI and single GPU on max settings without glitches and some slowdowns.

 

With all the settings at max, the lowest FPS I got was 30. Usually around 60

 

I will give it a try too Wattos, thanx, it will be very useful

 

That is very very impressive. I'm installing the drivers right now.
The first OS install failed due to some strange crash after activating the STA driver (it happened many times before with both Ubuntu and SUSE) so I decided to play with the broken install and try the Ubuntu ATI drivers - 43k in gears but not without some glitches.

 

Hmmm,.. Now I'm worried. After installing the catalyst, got 47k with a single card and 42k with CF and a very choppy rendering as always
Let's retrace the steps:
Just made a clean install and then without running any updates:
sudo apt-get install build-essential cdbs fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf dkms libQtGui4

And then :
sudo sh ati-driver-installer-10-1-x86.x86_64.run


Did I miss something?

 

Ok, I went to re-install and next time will load the updates first.....

 

Now I'm really puzzled. Absolutely no difference.
CF on - the performance is lower .
with CF enabled - 42k in gears with all the effects off...
Any suggestions?

 

After a clean install, first do the updates and do not install ubuntu display drivers. The ATI catalyst 10.1 support ubuntu. I suspect that the low performance has to do with the mix of ubuntu and ATI catalyst drivers

 

But, I just did a fresh install and after finishing updates - installed the 10.1. Do you imply that together with the updates Ubuntu put some proprietary drivers?

Did you install the auto or custom? I did the auto, and on the next screen let it build the kernel specific (default).
Totally lost here...

 

During the update, when it will update the GRUB, a window will pop up asking "keep the local version currently installed" or install the maintainer's version. I click on the drop down menu and select the install the maintainer's version. After reboot you will see that GRUB has both the kernel version when you first installed Ubuntu and the latest kernel version of the update.
If you booted with the newly installed kernel version and did not install any Ubuntu proprietary drivers but only the ATI catalyst 10.1 I don't see why you can't get the expected performance... ???

The sequence goes:
Install Ubuntu
Install updates -On the pop up window for GRUB select "install maintainer's version"
Reboot and select to boot on the latest kernel version
Install ATI drivers

 

I picked the "keep the currently installed version" but I did boot into the latest kernel : 2.6.31-19-generic.
Before that tried the older one and the result was the same.
Will try the "maintainer".

 

Are you using Gnome or KDE? I'm with Gnome.

 

Got it:
My gears result with a single card : 47k
With the CF: 43k
Lower than yours only because of the weaker CPU.
Lightsmark max rez, single card: 260FPS
with the CF enabled: 250FPS
your 300FPS is lower than it should be with the CF: we should be able to hit 450+.

I have a strong suspicion that the CF is not working in Ubuntu.
Could you run the lightsmark with a single card?
Anyway I'm impressed as a single 4870 runs better than 280X2 under linux

 

When disabling the CrossFire I get lower FPS.
I leave the default settings for the driver since tampering with them from Catalyst CC resulted in lower scores.

The 32bit version of Ubuntu will give you higher scores.

 

I used the default settings as well. But the most intriguing part is why do we get the different results with the CF ON/OFF??
What is your score with a single card? The difference in FPS with CF should be +60%. With 280s we got 140 to 240 jump with SLI ON. So if you have a little lower FPS with a single card -> the CF is not working properly.
And another thing...is your CPU still @3.4?



>>> I almost started suspecting a hardware problem but my W7 vantage score is 11k @stock and everything is smooth in games. Just ran Crysis on high with no problem. I assume it's the installation/driver. However, did 3 re-installs so far and all my results are similar....Weird.

 

I disabled crossfire and the results were only 5 FPS less. I try to think why it doesn't give me a better score when CF is enabled. I try to run the tests of Unigine and I can't. I will install the 32 bit version of Ubuntu and run the tests again. Not today though, have too much stuff to do for tomorrow.

 

Ok, just to confirm that we are on the same page here:
64-bit:
CPU @3.06GHz
CF disabled
lightsmark: 292.5 FPS average
GLXGears: 56k

Looks like CF/SLI still unsupported in Linux.

 

I had burning, water, rendering 3D image, the glx gears inside the cube and a couple more that I don't remember. No problem even while watching a video at the same time. I don't have the Nvidias anymore to try again.

 

Don't you think that with an equal hardware and clean install (many re-installs actually) we shouldn't get totally different results?
I'm sure we just looked from different angles at the same thing.
But if one of us (in this case - me) was unhappy with visuals after all those hours of tweaking, then maybe there is a problem, it's just not always can be re-produced.