X1000/X5000 HD/RX Graphics cards

Hello dear AmigaOs4 community.

On Os4welt.de a German speaking forum we are currently discussing the biggest differences between HD and RX graphics cards X1000/X5000.

I myself use an RX580 in my X5000 and would like to know what differences it makes compared to an HD graphics card.

The only thing I know is that the disadvantage of RX graphics cards is that our machines can no longer be started via the fast warm start and we have no access to the firmware (uBoot).

So the advantages of an HD card are obvious, we can use the warm reset, but what about games or accelerated video output?

What is currently the fastest RadeonHD graphics card supported by AmigaOs4.1 and how far is it from RXRadeon cards? ? Are there any benchmarks available?

If this topic has already been discussed, I'm sorry, but I couldn't find it.

No.

it's not the card that prevents warm reboot, it's the driver.

Latest RX driver and HD driver (5.x for the latest) prevent warm reboot. HD driver V.3.x allows warm reboot.

Main advantage of RX cards: full support for video decoding acceleration.

@Maijestro

Radeon HD v5 driver is for Southern Islands chipsets, the fastest being R280X cards.
Radeon RX v2 driver is for most Polaris chipsets, the fastest being RX580 cards. Im unsure if a RX590 (Polaris30) is supported as that was a newer 'die-shrink' version of a RX580 (Polaris20). There are some people that have had better results with a RX570 over a RX580.

Once the OS has loaded there are no real feature differences between Radeon HD v5 driver and Radeon RX v2 driver, however a RX card will give you usable video playback and be just that bit faster all around thanks to them being that much newer than SI cards.

There are some small quirks between hardware platforms but I can say both work fine on the X5000, however some driver fixes are not yet released to the public.

Even though a RX580 is the fastest card purely going by specifications, there is a point where a faster gfx card does not make much difference due to internal OS and other hardware restrictions.

For some context, I have used R270, R270X, RX560 and RX580 cards in my X5000.

Let's start on the performance though this also includes x1000 vs. x5000 Personally I expect the biggest speed difference comes from RX vs. HD though.

Heretic 2 x1000 RadeonHD 7700 -> 97 fps in 1920x1080
Heretic 2 x5000 RadeonRX 580 -> 180 fps in 1920x1080

Other tests:

x1000 42 fps 640x480 software-renderer
x5000 65 fps 640x480 software-renderer

Twice the fps in HW Renderer indicates the RX Cards are faster considerably. Data from PC indicates the same.

But on x1000 you have to switch a jumper and do no longer get a boot menu.

@K-L

Quote:Not necessarily.

I have a Radeon HD6670 in my X1000 with RadeonHD 3.x, and I do not have working warm reboot.

Best regards,

Niels

Quote:
And I have an R7 250 in my X1000, using RadeonHD 3.7, and it doesn't warm boot, either. It tries, but hangs with a black screen.

@msteed

I used to use a R7 250 with 3.x driver with my X1000 and had no problem warm rebooting.

When I upgraded to 5.x, I lost this functionnality.

I'm now using a RX560 with my X1000 so no OF nor warm reboot but it's worth it.

@MaijestroQuote:

There is no complete benchmark.
For basic you can use Hans's GfxBench2D Results for 2D compositing benchmark and also for VRAM write speed.

In general, for AmigaOS is the best CGN4 / Polaris and CGN 1 / Southern Islands cards, both with Warp3D Nova and video acceleration ( VA ).

Polaris +:
- the most modern and most powerfull 3D and FullHD VA
- includes also H.265 decoder, so there is possibility for future video upgrade
- RadeonRX driver with GART and VA support are inclued in Enhancer drivers.

Polaris -:
- not supported by linux - so for me Polaris card is show stop for example on A1222+
- not firmware output on X1000, so they cannot be used in multi-OS configuration here
- not supported by Sam440ep-flex firmware, they cannot be used at all
- warm reboot issues

Southern Island +:
- compatible also with X1000 and Sam440ep-flex firmware
- has powerfull 3D
- has VA H.264 HD quality
- supported by linux/unix with 2D hw accel ( 3D software )

Southern Island -:
- not works with H.264 FullHD videos and not have H.265 decoder
- RadeonHD v.3.7 included in Enhancer not include GART and VA support, RadeoHD v.5 for X5000, X1000 and Sam460 should be purchased separately
- Radeon HD v.5 not exist for Sam440ep-flex and especially for A1222+.

So generally, if you has only AmigaOS, or if you can have more graphics cards ( X1000, X5000 ), Polaris is the best choice. Otherwise depends on your priority.

Unfortunatelly, I have no complete benchmark ( some years before I made it for Sam440ep-flex ).
As @derfs said, most powerful are Polaris RX580 and Southern Island R9 280X and HD7970 - in theory
In practise, 270X was for me faster than 280X on my X1000 - but this result depends on exact used type graphics card.
For example, in Sam440 testing I have very big difference between HD 7750-1GD5 and HD 7750-FMLII ( which has exactly the same specs ): FMLII was 40% slower in some tests.

@all

Thank you all for this valuable information.

@Maijestro

Quote:

Not universally true - uBoot works fine in my X5000 with RX580, the lack of warm boot though, yes - and that is very irritating.

@MartinW
Quote:And in mine with RX560.

I think the problem with not being able to see the firmware output and interact with the firmware menus etc. only pertains to CFE, i.e. the X1000 (and Pegasos?).

Best regards,

Niels

Same here,

RX570 and RX550 and Uboot ore no problem in my X5000/20.

@nbacheQuote:

Yes of course I have access to the boot menu (Uboot) and the settings when I press ESC on the keyboard before the AmigaOs4.1 logo. I was referring to the X1000, sorry I misspoke.

@Skateman

Not sure if others have this issue but I have several keyboards and for me, ESC does not work at all but a spacebar does.

Is the Early Boot supposed to be accessed but ESC or Space or either?

I have some keyboards that just plain won't work yet others work.

Example, a nice RGB keyboard that won't but a $7 Fry Electronics cheapest keyboard does.

My clear G4 Cube USB Keyboard does but that one won't let me boot from a USB stick but will get me into early boot.

Ah the Voodoo of these sorts of computers is fun.

haha

TJ