Mesa 3D 9.1 brings OpenGL 3.1 support on Radeon GPUs

The 3D graphics drivers that are available in Mesa 3D 9.1 offer improved support for current and expected-soon graphics chips and promise enhanced 3D performance. The new version of the graphics library, which is typically used by default by Linux distributions for their 3D drivers, now includes an OpenGL driver that, together with a driver in Linux 3.8, supports the graphics core of Intel's Haswell processors. These processors are scheduled to be launched as Core i-4000s in a few months and will supersede Intel's current "Ivy Bridge" generation.

Mesa 3D's r600 driver for the graphics chips in the Radeon HD 2000 to 6000 series now supports OpenGL 3.1; the i965 driver for recent Intel chips has offered this functionality since Mesa 3D 9.0. In version 9.1, the driver for the Radeon X1000 series supports multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA); in addition, the opinion in developer circles is that the driver for Radeon's Southern Islands graphics chips generation (HD7750 and newer Radeon HD cards) has made progress and is gradually getting ready for production use. The driver for Intel graphics cores in the 2000, 2500, 3000 and 4000 HD Graphics series now supports OpenGL ES 3.0, and the developers have added a range of improvements to the Nouveau OpenGL driver. The new version also includes basic components to support OpenGL 3.2 and 3.3, which several developers are currently implementing in Mesa 3D.

Mesa 3D 9.1 is classed as a developer version; stability-conscious users should stick with the latest edition in the 9.0 line or wait for version 9.1.1. However, some distributors will likely integrate the new version in the near future. Mesa 3D 9.1 can be downloaded from the freedesktop.org FTP server.

(fab)