Xorg 7.4 Review

Xorg 7.4 was released recently although the biggest features touted for this version, namely DRI2 and randr 1.3 were dropped from this release. Despite this there have been significant improvements. This is the first release for me that actually displays acceptable performance using the EXA acceleration extension with the Intel driver. This means I can use XV to for accelerated video rendering with Compiz. Before this was only possible using a patch for mplayer and a special plugin for Compiz. This was not a great solution though because no other players worked with this plugin, which meant no Totem, Xine, or even Gnome-Mplayer which also did not work correctly. I've also noticed that Blender works much better now with Compiz. It no longer flickers uncontrollably.

So for the only regressions I have experienced is a slower recovery from suspend and some minor artifacting on my Gnome Panel applets. The artifacts seem to go away when mousing over. Despite these minor regressions I think it is a good upgrade for anyone using the Intel driver. If you're anything like me you've been waiting a long time for a proper Intel EXA implementation to accelerate video while using Compiz or another compositing window manager.

Meanwhile Intel has announced that they want a release of xorg server 1.6 before the year is out. This release should include DRI2 using GEM and randr 1.3. Knowing the history of Xorg release schedules I have my doubts about getting 1.6 out that quickly but the latest Xorg has pacified me for now.

Xorg 7.4 Review

Xorg 7.4 was released recently although the biggest features touted for this version, namely DRI2 and randr 1.3 were dropped from this release. Despite this there have been significant improvements. This is the first release for me that actually displays acceptable performance using the EXA acceleration extension with the Intel driver. This means I can use XV to for accelerated video rendering with Compiz. Before this was only possible using a patch for mplayer and a special plugin for Compiz. This was not a great solution though because no other players worked with this plugin, which meant no Totem, Xine, or even Gnome-Mplayer which also did not work correctly. I've also noticed that Blender works much better now with Compiz. It no longer flickers uncontrollably.

So for the only regressions I have experienced is a slower recovery from suspend and some minor artifacting on my Gnome Panel applets. The artifacts seem to go away when mousing over. Despite these minor regressions I think it is a good upgrade for anyone using the Intel driver. If you're anything like me you've been waiting a long time for a proper Intel EXA implementation to accelerate video while using Compiz or another compositing window manager.

Meanwhile Intel has announced that they want a release of xorg server 1.6 before the year is out. This release should include DRI2 using GEM and randr 1.3. Knowing the history of Xorg release schedules I have my doubts about getting 1.6 out that quickly but the latest Xorg has pacified me for now.