185.19 and smaller pixmaps

[shaundennie]

The X driver now allows pixmaps smaller than 32x32 pixels to be placed in video memory.

I noticed this from the release notes of the driver and I remember long ago AaronP saying that a lot of the poor performance in Firefox was related to it constantly creating tons of pixmaps. The InitialPixmapPlacement and GlyphCache help with newer versions of the driver (as does the firefox beta) but, is this change also aimed at Firefox performance?

[AaronP]

Not Firefox in particular, just performance in general. Any application that uses small pixmaps should see an improvement.

[Vadim P.]

Would this mean that they dont need recomplication? Just install the driver and it works?

[AaronP]

Originally Posted by Vadim P.

Would this mean that they dont need recomplication? Just install the driver and it works?

That's right.

[sternklang]

I see a dramatic increase in Firefox scrolling performance with this beta. Excellent work, guys!

[mooninite]

Originally Posted by sternklang

I see a dramatic increase in Firefox scrolling performance with this beta. Excellent work, guys!

Dramatic is correct. Scrolling no longer causes Performance Level increases. I have smooth scrolling on a 9650M GT at 150mhz. Before it would have to bump up to 550Mhz (100%) and raise temps by 10c.

[kmare]

is it supposed to be working on the 6xxx-7xxx series as well?

[AaronP]

Originally Posted by kmare

is it supposed to be working on the 6xxx-7xxx series as well?

They could already place small pixmaps in vidmem, but the initial pixmap placement defaults to sysmem for those GPUs. This is an improvement for GeForce 8 and up.