Radeon Linux 4.4 vs. Catalyst Benchmarks of a few Radeon tests on the Linux 4.4 kernel then compared to Catalyst 15.9 from AMD.com. Benchmarks by Michael Larabel for a future article on Phoronix.com. HD 6870: Linux 4.4 Radeon: Processor: Intel Core i7-5960X @ 3.50GHz (16 Cores), Motherboard: Gigabyte X99-UD4-CF, Chipset: Intel Xeon E7 v3/Xeon, Memory: 16384MB, Disk: 240GB OCZ VERTEX3, Graphics: Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6870 1024MB, Audio: Realtek ALC1150, Monitor: SyncMaster, Network: Intel Connection OS: Ubuntu 15.10, Kernel: 4.4.0-rc1-phoronix (x86_64) 20151118, Desktop: Unity, Display Server: X Server 1.17.2, Display Driver: radeon 7.6.99, OpenGL: 3.3 Mesa 11.1.0-devel (padoka PPA) Gallium 0.4, Compiler: GCC 5.2.1 20151010, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 2560x1600 R9 290: Linux 4.4 Radeon: Processor: Intel Core i7-5960X @ 3.50GHz (16 Cores), Motherboard: Gigabyte X99-UD4-CF, Chipset: Intel Xeon E7 v3/Xeon, Memory: 16384MB, Disk: 240GB OCZ VERTEX3, Graphics: XFX AMD Radeon R9 290 4096MB, Audio: Realtek ALC1150, Monitor: SyncMaster, Network: Intel Connection OS: Ubuntu 15.10, Kernel: 4.4.0-rc1-phoronix (x86_64) 20151118, Desktop: Unity, Display Server: X Server 1.17.2, Display Driver: radeon 7.6.99, OpenGL: 4.1 Mesa 11.1.0-devel (padoka PPA) Gallium 0.4, Compiler: GCC 5.2.1 20151010, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 2560x1600 R7 370: Linux 4.4 Radeon: Processor: Intel Core i7-5960X @ 3.50GHz (16 Cores), Motherboard: Gigabyte X99-UD4-CF, Chipset: Intel Xeon E7 v3/Xeon, Memory: 16384MB, Disk: 240GB OCZ VERTEX3, Graphics: MSI AMD Radeon R7 370 / R9 270/370 OEM 4096MB, Audio: Realtek ALC1150, Monitor: SyncMaster, Network: Intel Connection OS: Ubuntu 15.10, Kernel: 4.4.0-rc1-phoronix (x86_64) 20151118, Desktop: Unity, Display Server: X Server 1.17.2, Display Driver: radeon 7.6.99, OpenGL: 4.1 Mesa 11.1.0-devel (padoka PPA) Gallium 0.4, Compiler: GCC 5.2.1 20151010, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 2560x1600 R7 370: Catalyst: Processor: Intel Core i7-5960X @ 3.50GHz (16 Cores), Motherboard: Gigabyte X99-UD4-CF, Chipset: Intel Xeon E7 v3/Xeon, Memory: 16384MB, Disk: 240GB OCZ VERTEX3, Graphics: MSI AMD Radeon R7 370 4096MB (1030/1400MHz), Audio: Realtek ALC1150, Monitor: SyncMaster, Network: Intel Connection OS: Ubuntu 15.10, Kernel: 4.2.0-18-generic (x86_64), Desktop: Unity, Display Server: X Server 1.17.2, Display Driver: fglrx 15.20.3, OpenGL: 4.4.13399, Compiler: GCC 5.2.1 20151010, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 2560x1600 R9 290: Catalyst: Processor: Intel Core i7-5960X @ 3.50GHz (16 Cores), Motherboard: Gigabyte X99-UD4-CF, Chipset: Intel Xeon E7 v3/Xeon, Memory: 16384MB, Disk: 240GB OCZ VERTEX3, Graphics: Supported device 67B1 4096MB (947/1250MHz), Audio: Realtek ALC1150, Monitor: SyncMaster, Network: Intel Connection OS: Ubuntu 15.10, Kernel: 4.2.0-18-generic (x86_64), Desktop: Unity, Display Server: X Server 1.17.2, Display Driver: fglrx 15.20.3, OpenGL: 4.4.13399, Compiler: GCC 5.2.1 20151010, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 2560x1600 HD 6870: Catalyst: Processor: Intel Core i7-5960X @ 3.50GHz (16 Cores), Motherboard: Gigabyte X99-UD4-CF, Chipset: Intel Xeon E7 v3/Xeon, Memory: 16384MB, Disk: 240GB OCZ VERTEX3, Graphics: Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6800 1024MB (900/1050MHz), Audio: Realtek ALC1150, Monitor: SyncMaster, Network: Intel Connection OS: Ubuntu 15.10, Kernel: 4.2.0-18-generic (x86_64), Desktop: Unity, Display Server: X Server 1.17.2, Display Driver: fglrx 15.20.3, OpenGL: 4.4.13399, Compiler: GCC 5.2.1 20151010, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 2560x1600 OpenArena 0.8.8 Resolution: 2560 x 1600 Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better HD 6870: Linux 4.4 Radeon . 97.47 |=============== R9 290: Linux 4.4 Radeon .. 179.53 |============================= R7 370: Linux 4.4 Radeon .. 135.50 |====================== R7 370: Catalyst .......... 156.03 |========================= R9 290: Catalyst .......... 270.50 |=========================================== HD 6870: Catalyst ......... 115.87 |================== OpenArena 0.8.8 Resolution: 2560 x 1600 - Total Frame Time Milliseconds < Lower Is Better HD 6870: Linux 4.4 Radeon . MIN: 3.0 AVG: 10.3 MAX: 23.0 R9 290: Linux 4.4 Radeon .. MIN: 2.0 AVG: 5.6 MAX: 40.0 R7 370: Linux 4.4 Radeon .. MIN: 2.0 AVG: 7.5 MAX: 33.0 R7 370: Catalyst .......... MIN: 1.0 AVG: 6.4 MAX: 42.0 R9 290: Catalyst .......... MIN: 1.0 AVG: 3.7 MAX: 41.0 HD 6870: Catalyst ......... MIN: 1.0 AVG: 8.6 MAX: 42.0 Tesseract 2014-05-12 Resolution: 2560 x 1600 Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better HD 6870: Linux 4.4 Radeon . 87.38 |=================== R9 290: Linux 4.4 Radeon .. 141.67 |============================== R7 370: Linux 4.4 Radeon .. 113.39 |======================== R7 370: Catalyst .......... 115.47 |========================= R9 290: Catalyst .......... 201.18 |=========================================== HD 6870: Catalyst ......... 89.08 |=================== Unigine Valley 1.0 Resolution: 1920 x 1080 - Mode: Fullscreen Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better HD 6870: Linux 4.4 Radeon . 39.30 |==================== R9 290: Linux 4.4 Radeon .. 86.70 |============================================ R7 370: Linux 4.4 Radeon .. 57.07 |============================= R9 290: Catalyst .......... 74.19 |====================================== HD 6870: Catalyst ......... 30.28 |=============== Xonotic 0.8 Resolution: 2560 x 1600 - Effects Quality: Ultra Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better HD 6870: Linux 4.4 Radeon . 103.21 |===================== R9 290: Linux 4.4 Radeon .. 186.57 |====================================== R7 370: Linux 4.4 Radeon .. 151.34 |=============================== R7 370: Catalyst .......... 188.86 |======================================= R9 290: Catalyst .......... 208.67 |=========================================== HD 6870: Catalyst ......... 155.39 |================================ Xonotic 0.8 Resolution: 2560 x 1600 - Effects Quality: Ultimate Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better HD 6870: Linux 4.4 Radeon . 66.58 |================= R9 290: Linux 4.4 Radeon .. 150.85 |====================================== R7 370: Linux 4.4 Radeon .. 115.46 |============================= R9 290: Catalyst .......... 171.01 |=========================================== HD 6870: Catalyst ......... 105.29 |========================== GpuTest 0.7.0 Test: Furmark - Resolution: 2560 x 1600 - Mode: Fullscreen Points > Higher Is Better HD 6870: Linux 4.4 Radeon . 1005 |=============== R9 290: Linux 4.4 Radeon .. 2961 |============================================= R7 370: Linux 4.4 Radeon .. 1778 |=========================== R9 290: Catalyst .......... 2953 |============================================= HD 6870: Catalyst ......... 1303 |==================== GpuTest 0.7.0 Test: Triangle - Resolution: 2560 x 1600 - Mode: Fullscreen Points > Higher Is Better HD 6870: Linux 4.4 Radeon . 109767 |========== R9 290: Linux 4.4 Radeon .. 159024 |============== R9 290: Catalyst .......... 491042 |=========================================== HD 6870: Catalyst ......... 249960 |======================