ATI FireGL/FireProSoftmod - Discussion Thread for new members

Discussion in 'Rivatuner Statistics Server (RTSS) Forum' started by schoko, Jan 11, 2010.

  1. schoko

    schoko Guest

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    well, what other programs do you use regularly ? catia, solidworks, pro engineer ?

    since the autodetect feature of the firegl driver uses a default profile for opengl caps in the specviewperf and maya uses a different setting ( at least in the original atiogl.xml) this performance gap showed up in the first place.

    the specviewperf10 might not be very reliable concerning the performance in other programs, and those performance gaps between real world applications and the specview results might also show up with other programs.

    if you use another program that is benched in specviewperf also, it would be great to see a comparision between modded and unmodded drivers. this could reveal the lack of performance in other real world applications. if thats the case we could see if there is a solution to speed up those other programs also by editing the workstation profiles.
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2010
  2. Veselinbg

    Veselinbg Member

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    I do my main work with Adobe CS4 applications and since Adobe added GPU acceleration based on OpenGL API for some of them (Photoshop, After Effects), I'm interested in speeding up these features.

    However, for testing purpose I can download and perform the tests for other 3D applications, but also I'll need 3D models and scenes in order to do the tests.

    Here is the results from SPECapc Maya 2009:

    ATI Radeon 4850

    Overall: 3,11
    GFX: 2,51
    CPU: 5,71
    I/O: 4,16

    AMD FireStream 9250

    Overall: 3,17
    GFX: 2,58
    CPU: 5,63
    I/O: 4,25

    As you can see, there is almost no difference. It is very strange because in viewports there was significant improvements (higher framerates).
    I also noticed another strange thing- the first run of hand1.ma was very fast, up to 3 times faster than other 3 runs.
    The other scenes from SPECapc Maya 2009 has performed very steady.

    Here is the detailed scores in Excel spreadsheet (look in RawData worksheet):
    http://rapidshare.com/files/336570149/SPECapc_Maya_2009_AMD_FireStream_9250.xlsx

    P.S. I suspect that this strange behavior is memory related, because after SPECaps Maya 2009 finished, I checked is there some degradation in performance with other scenes.
    So, if I load for example bike.ma, run the scene and then close Maya - everything is ok. But if I don't close Maya and load Textbench.ma than framerates droped to unmodded state.
     
    Last edited: Jan 17, 2010
  3. schoko

    schoko Guest

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    well, that seems to be the same behaviour as i experienced. in some cases the performance drops back to normal... i guess the settings for the atiogl.xml ain´t 100 % right yet.

    btw. have you compared your scores in bike.ma and carbench.mb to the results posted in the benchmark subforum ? you pretty much smoked everything that has been benched before... :)

    will have a look into that matter of dropping framerates after tomorrow. for now the workaround is not perfect, but it is already a good sign that this high performance is available.
     
  4. schoko

    schoko Guest

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    i have made a slight change to the atiogl.xml again, and now i am experiencing less performance drops in maya.

    you can find this version here :
    after you have replaced the file in c:\windows do a reboot of the system, just to be sure...

    please test this and give some feedback about the performance in maya. i have tried to find out what the problem is. with the earlier version of this atiogl.xml i have had problems when i opened an older files ( maya7). after that the performance was gone. possibly there is an opengl capability feature call from maya not working well with the opengl features offered by the driver.
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2010

  5. Veselinbg

    Veselinbg Member

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    Ok, here is the results with the new version of Atiogl.xml:

    Bike: 85,1 fps
    MayaCarBench: 13,5 fps
    Mayascene: 11,9 - 19,2 fps
    Textbench: 63,4 fps (I have to restart Maya in order to get these numbers, otherwise framerate drops to ~20 fps)

    SPECapc Maya 2009:
    Overall: 3,17
    GFX: 2,58
    CPU: 5,63
    I/O: 4,26

    P.S. I have gone through detailed scores from SPECapc Maya 2009 and noticed that the worse results are with smoothShaded, smoothShadedHQ, textured, texturedHQ and texturedSelected.
    I made comparison between my results and real Quadro FX4800 from spec.org:
    http://www.spec.org/gwpg/apc.data/fujitsu/CELSIUS_M470_FX4800/maya2009/result.html

    Regards
     
    Last edited: Jan 17, 2010
  6. schoko

    schoko Guest

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    well, i have tested a bit with maya myself, and i found something really interesting. at some point, i don´t know yet what causes it, but the performance drops back to normal.
    the performance drop only happens in one of the viewports. just make an perspective out of one of the orthographic views and you will see that the firegl performance is still available in the other viewports.
    don´t know yet what the cause for this strange behaviour might be, but it might have to do with a function call or the redraw of the viewport.

    it would be great to know the technical details of maya´s viewport model and the bitmask that is used in the atiogl.xml to distinguish the different settings.

    @ veselinbg

    thanks for giving some feedback again. btw. i do think your SPECapc Maya 2009 results could be way higher, if the not one of the scenes that are loaded would make that specific request for the function that slows down the viewport.

    edit //

    i could reproduce the performance degradation with an old mayafile i once produced with maya 7. i have changed some settings in the atiogl.xml , and voila there seems to be no degradation in performance anymore.

    please use this file to test :
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2010
  7. khogan112

    khogan112 Member Guru

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    Veselinbg : what was your screen resolution ?

    The official SPECapc Maya 2009 have to be run at 1920x1200 resolution.

    To be able compare them apples to apples, we need to know your screen resolution. If they are comparable, then your results are very good indeed.
     
  8. Veselinbg

    Veselinbg Member

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    @ Schoko,
    I tried the new version of Atiogl.xml with SPECapc Maya 2009, but Maya crashed. I ran SPECapc 3 times and Maya crashed at the ToyStoreSPEC.mb scene, smoothShaded.
    I have to note that there was performance improvement, according to framerates reported by Maya, but since I couldn't finish the whole test I can't give any scores.

    @Khogan112
    My screen resolution is 1600x1200 and I performed all the tests at this resolution.
    I agree with you that to be fair comparison, I have to run SPECapc Maya 2009 at higher resolution. I just didn't know about this specification.
    Once we get the right version of the driver, I'll run SPECapc Maya 2009 at 1920x1200 resolution.
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2010
  9. shappy

    shappy New Member

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    hd 2600 xt to firegl v5600

    I have ati radeon hd 2600 xt 512mb I can hd 2600xt to firegl v5600 on windows xp but I cant on win7 64 bit edition How I can ?? please help me
     
  10. schoko

    schoko Guest

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    hmm, i didn´t experience a crash here. i guess i´ll have to look into these settings again. at least the performance was steady when i tetsted the different scenes.

    i´m beginning to wonder why ati has used the settings that render the firegl´s slow in maya in the first place. would be nice to have someone with a real firegl here testing the different maya benchmarks and see if the performance of the real firegl´s is as bad as our results with the original atiogl.xml settings.

    if that´s the case, then ati uses a compatibility mode for maya, because the original driver has it´s problems with maya´s viewport model. if there is nothing to repair, because ati themselves can´t figure out how to speed up maya without having problem with stability or speed we´ll have to accept the slow performance for now.

    i´give it another try and see if there is a setting that is stable and has steady high perfromance.
     

  11. schoko

    schoko Guest

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    @ veselinbg

    i have to ask you what version of maya did you use to run the spec cap for maya. i did try maya2010 and exactly when it loaded the toystore scene maya closed itself. same happened with maya 2009 (no sp1).

    i had a look at the mel script that is used for the spec cap and there is a command to close maya after the benchmark. i commented the closing command out, and when i ran spec cap again in maya 2010 i got an error message about "missing stereo cameras" or something like that.

    i read at autodesk, that there was a bug in 2009 concerning ati graphic cards and stereo cameras.that bug was fixed with maya 2009 SP1, so i thought i´d give it a try and download 2009 sp1.

    i am running the spec cap benchmark now and the toystore scene is working.

    i have used a slightly different setting now, i ´ll be testing it a little more, and if it works i´ll upload the file later.
     
  12. Veselinbg

    Veselinbg Member

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    I'm using Maya 2009 x64 with SP1a, without SP1a I can't run the whole SPECapc, because Maya crashed - no matter modded or unmodded driver.

    The benchmark close Maya, when run 4 times every particular scene and the ToyStoreSPEC scene is not the last one.
     
  13. schoko

    schoko Guest

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    ok...

    well, it was my mistake, i could have concluded that.the settings of the atiogl.xml i have uploaded this morning seems to have some serious problem with one of the drawing buffers... don´t know that yet. you can experience that in the mayascene2 with the island.

    thats exactly what happened when you ran the toystore scene in shaded mode.

    the setting i am using now does not show these problems. it looks quite promising. will show some results and upload the file if everything works out well.

    could be another hour or two...
     
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2010
  14. schoko

    schoko Guest

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    well, this one looks promising. in spec cap for maya i´ve had no problems with performance drops. i had the same high performance for all testruns in every scene, so this could be the solution, but i´m not sure yet. btw, i did 4 consecutive testruns in a row (mayaTest(4,4))

    the new atiogl.xml can be found here :
    please could you guys test this and report back if some problem arises with maya. haven´t checked for selection bugs and general behaviour in maya, so it is up to you to find bugs if there are some... ;)
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2010
  15. isomorphous

    isomorphous New Member

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    Thank You!

    I hope I'm not detracting from the current discussion, I just wanted to say thank you and inform everyone of my success. Following your steps, I successfully modded my 4870 to a v8700. I use ProE and Solidworks.
    I used to mod gf 5k, 6k, not to mention ATI's 9500 but I stopped when >6GB models necessitated a switch to a 64bit OS among other things. I dealt with the pain for a few years but now things are back on track and manipulating models is many times faster than before and I have my sanity back. Thanks schoko, you're a hero in my book along with Unwinder. Don't let the masses pull you down.
     

  16. Veselinbg

    Veselinbg Member

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    Unfortunately, I'm experiensing the same problems with SPECapc Maya 2009- Maya hangs and performance drops after first run.

    Here is more details:
    When start SPECapc for first time it stops even at werewolf.ma, wireframe, the framerate was very high (over 200 fps).
    After restarting both Maya and SPEcapc again Maya hanged, but this time at Squid.ma, wireframe and again the framerate was over 200 fps.
    However, after 3 unsuccessful atempts, the forth run of SPECapc finished without problems, but this time performance dropped after first round of tests. The final score is the same as the previous one.

    Regards.
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2010
  17. rogerio

    rogerio New Member

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    Hi schoko, first, thank you very much! I have a HD4890 runnnig 80 frames the on Maya's bike scene whit new XML on XP64 (now I am on W7-32). Well, it's the same result as a quadro fx4600 mayabikescene posted here.

    Do are you thinking about also optimizing 3DS MAX, Catia ?

    And, do you know why my HD 4890 card had less performance than the 4850 ? ( Veselinbg obtained 85 frames on your radeon 4850)

    great work schoko.
     
  18. schoko

    schoko Guest

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    hm... the more i look into this, the more i begin to think the guys at ati did use a compatibility setting for a reason.


    @ veselinbg

    could you set the mayaTest.mel to not close maya after the test ?
    when you have commented out the quit command like this:
    maya won´t close after a problem arises during the test.
    so when the benchmark stops you can open script editor and see why maya stops. would be great to see why your maya stops the benchmark.
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2010
  19. Veselinbg

    Veselinbg Member

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    @Schoko,

    I tried to edit the script MayaTest.mel with Script editor, but when tried to save it gave me Error: Select the text that you wish to save.

    Here where Maya hanged again:
    [​IMG]

    When this happen, I can't do anything with Maya and can't open the script editor.
     
  20. schoko

    schoko Guest

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    here is the modified mayatest.mel :

    maybe this one helps.

    // edit

    btw. when maya hangs and it does not let you do anything, is the performance stopping, and then speeding up to your 200fps right before maya becomes unresponsive ?

    i had that behaviour with the mayascene2 , but with a different setting.

    and btw. what happens when you manually open the spec cap scenes in maya and press play in the various shading modes ? is the framerate steady and high as it should be ?
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2010

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