Directx 11 (10) benchmark - comparison with Windows server STD 2008's directx 10

I am trying out both the beta of Windows 7 (build 7000) and release of Windows server 2008 (standard edition). Since it is on the same machine, naturally benchmark comparison was possible and made sense.

Specs :
Windows 7 - Installed on a defragmented 40gig logical partition of 7200SATA disk, which still has other stuff and has 12 gigs free. Regular install, default drivers for sound (doesn't matter in this case).

Windows server 2008 - Installed on a defragmented 20gig primary partition of same disk, which has 5 gigs free. Regular install, Google's drivers for sound (again, doesn't matter in this case).

PC config :
Pentium D 820 (2.8GHz) (I know it is crappy... not a gamer's processor and all, but that's what I've got)
Intel 946GZIS mobo (PCIE 16x), 667MHz FSB.
2Gig (dual channel) RAM.
NVidia 8800GS, factory OC at 650MHz/mem 950MHz, a dx10 card.
Driver version 181.20 (used the same binary on both installations).
(again, that's a budget card; but it is sufficient for me)

3DMark Vantage settings - res 1280x1024, no AA
everything else Extreme, all tests were conducted.

Windows 7 (dx11)
GPU score = 4337.75
CPU score = 17495.47
3DMarks = 5342.16

Windows server 2008 std (dx10)
GPU score = 3975.24
CPU score = 17995.19
3DMarks = 0 (!!)

The demos visually ran faster on DX11 (though I do not have the FPS numbers at the moment).

The GPU scores for DX11 show 9.1% improvement over DX10. In all, windows 7 definitely is worth giving a try IMO (provided I can afford it OR my school has MSDNAA agreement for it). It has other cool 'features' too, of which I doubt the usefulness.

Please drop a comment if you have any suggestions; since as you can see, I am new to graphics benchmarks :)

Writing mathematical equations in OpenOffice

I was writing a report which contained some quite intensive mathematical equations. Naturally, my first options would have been the good old LaTeX. But this time my team-mates decided to go with OpenOffice, as they initially thought it would take less time (because of whatever reasons - GUI etc.). Now here I am, writing a part of a report that is filled with some pretty tough-to-write-in-tex equations, and trying to write it in OpenOffice. After a little Googling, I figured that using Lyx to convert my part of the document to OO format would not be easy.

Just for sake of it, I visited the OpenOffice extensions website and searched for latex. Found OOoLatex !!

After downloading from sf.net, installation was simple. In OpenOffice word:

tools -> Extension manager
choose add and add the downloaded file (version 4.0 beta2 at the time of writing).
and restart ooword.

A new toolbar was added.

Since I am working on Linux, I already have latex and ghostscript installed, so I can freely use the 'Equation' mode which makes a png of the equation and saves the LaTeX in the image properties. Although not as easy as plain LaTeX, it certainly saved me from the pain of inserting all the weird Greek symbols and dealing with subscripts and superscripts, with summations and big matrices :D

Nice utility (or better put - bunch of macros) to keep!

Installing Picasa on Windows Server 2008

Normally, if you try to install picasa on winows server 2008, you would get "current user not authorized to install" error. This happens because of some strange reason and seems to work when these steps are done-

Start->Administrative Tools->Server Manager (as admin)
Select "Features" from the list and then click the "Add feature" link.
Select "Desktop Experience" and restart.

After this, I could install picasa and also got a bunch of other regular desktop utilities.

Sun VirtualBox problem

I just upgraded to VirtualBox-2.0.2_36488_fedora9-1.i386 [not the OSE] and it wouldn't start.
The error message was

Failed to create the VirtualBox COM object.
The application will now terminate.
Callee RC: NS_ERROR_FACTORY_NOT_REGISTERED (0x80040154)


I don't know what it means, but probably looks like some interprocess communication issue.

Ahh ! I removed the [root owned, something I find very weird] directory /tmp/.vbox-prashant-ipc and vbox started very well; but now somehow it can not connect to the host sound.

CPU about to vaporize !!

One fine day, I suddenly felt the urge to OC my CPU for no apparent reason. I had not looked at the temps since a long time, so I just checked the temps before OC'ing, just to get the feel how worse it could get when I actually OC.

I happen to own a powerhouse CPU (~100W), the infamous Pentium D 820. On top of that, I still use the stock cooling, and the room temperature is around ~30 degree Celsius, making board ambient temp~50. I have not even OC'd the chip.
When I run my experimental DES cracker on this dual core boiler-plate, this is what happens - CPU temperature is 84 degrees. The fun part is that this is not the accurate temperature as Intel did some cheap cost-cutting. Some say that the actual could be higher by 10 degrees than what's reported.



Then I realized that I had not cleaned the box for quite some time. I took it apart and get the reason -- ~2mm thick dust layer on the heat sink baffles.


The sad part is that the thermal paste has disappeared and I can no longer get it for free. So the worst case temps are still around 75-80. Hope things will improve when I apply it.

The spurious OC (s)urge went down as fast as it rose.

NVidia PhysX - Driver update

With the updated NVidia forceware driver version 178.13, my cheap little GeForce 8800GS (OC'd) started supporting NVidia PhysX. Tech demos from NVidia, like 'The Great Kulu' and the demo game 'Warmonger' work just awesome. Physics unlike any I had ever seen on my machine! It is a big big plus over CPU physics.

Can't wait to play some interesting game which uses Nvidia PhysX for a better gameplay and effects!

The driver update also claims ~10% boost in performance - which is evident when playing "Assisin's Creed (DX10)" :)

Even the Linux driver version 177.80 has numerous improvements wrt. kde4 rendering. Makes me even more happier :D

--update Crazy machines 2 by FAKT uses PhysX. Can't wait to play it !

networked sound using pulseaudio/phonon

It just happened so that my machine did not have any speakers attached, my room mate had them; and we wanted to watch a movie on my 19". We tried with lamer options like ssh with X forwarding; but the bandwidth of 100mbps lan was quite not enough (the mvk video was close to HD btw). The jitter was high.

Then we realized that ssh was not made for audio/video streaming; and we started looking for audio streaming solutions.

Turns out that the new pulseauadio that ships with fedora9 can deliver networked sound, wow ! we tried the $PULSE_SERVER approach, but could not get it to work.

The config that finally worked was this one.

this is what it says -
++cut++

On the sender side simply load the RTP sender module:

pactl load-module module-rtp-send

On the reciever sides, create an RTP source:

pactl load-module module-null-sink sink_name=rtp
pactl load-module module-rtp-recv sink=rtp
pactl set-default-source rtp_monitor

Now the audio data will be available from the default source rtp_monitor.

--cut--

UPDATE : does not seem to work any more with pulseaudio 0.9.21 :(

--
prashant