Driving 4k Display for OpenBSD Workstation

[Bryan Vyhmeister]

My goal for this project is to have an OpenBSD workstation (I run
-current) built around 4k displays. I have a Dell P4317W 4k display on
order and I am going to order a couple of other 4k displays as well. I
have a Radeon HD 6870 Eyefinity 6 card which should be supported by
radeondrm(4) but it does not support 4k displays at 60Hz. There is a
Radeon HD 7750 card that also has six Mini DisplayPort connectors and
does support 4k displays but I am not totally clear if it will work well
with radeondrm(4). Reading the archives is not quite clear on this.

The alternative is to use a Skylake processor with integrated graphics
and use efifb(4) and wsfb(4) for now which I presume would work well
enough although not as well as something supported by inteldrm(4). I am
using my ThinkPad X260 with efifb(4) and wsfb(4) which works pretty well
but it would be nice to have properly accelerated Xorg.

Any recommendations? Thank you.

Bryan

[l***@wrant.com]

Post by Bryan Vyhmeister
My goal for this project is to have an OpenBSD workstation (I run
-current) built around 4k displays.

[...]

Post by Bryan Vyhmeister
Any recommendations? Thank you.

Short answer from user level: I'd personally get more 2560x1440 27" IPS
monitors for now, and use the excess budget for another set of the same.
You'd probably have to get a slightly older & cheaper video card (6450).
I know of no justification for a 5K monitor yet, though I want one too..

[Bryan Vyhmeister]

Post by l***@wrant.com

Post by Bryan Vyhmeister
My goal for this project is to have an OpenBSD workstation (I run
-current) built around 4k displays.

Short answer from user level: I'd personally get more 2560x1440 27" IPS
monitors for now, and use the excess budget for another set of the same.
You'd probably have to get a slightly older & cheaper video card (6450).
I know of no justification for a 5K monitor yet, though I want one too..

I am not interested in a 5k monitor, only 4k monitors. I recognize the
Radeon HD 6450 cards work well. I have one now. I also have a 30-inch
2560x1600 and 34-inch 3440x1440 monitor which all work well. I would
just like more screen real estate which is why 4k monitors are
interesting, particularly the 43-inch Dell P4317W. I would like some
feedback if the Radeon HD 7750 cards work decently with radeondrm(4). I
also know Skylake inteldrm(4) is in the works but is not here yet.

Bryan

[Jonathan Gray]

Post by Bryan Vyhmeister

Post by l***@wrant.com

Post by Bryan Vyhmeister
My goal for this project is to have an OpenBSD workstation (I run
-current) built around 4k displays.

Short answer from user level: I'd personally get more 2560x1440 27" IPS
monitors for now, and use the excess budget for another set of the same.
You'd probably have to get a slightly older & cheaper video card (6450).
I know of no justification for a 5K monitor yet, though I want one too..

I am not interested in a 5k monitor, only 4k monitors. I recognize the
Radeon HD 6450 cards work well. I have one now. I also have a 30-inch
2560x1600 and 34-inch 3440x1440 monitor which all work well. I would
just like more screen real estate which is why 4k monitors are
interesting, particularly the 43-inch Dell P4317W. I would like some
feedback if the Radeon HD 7750 cards work decently with radeondrm(4). I

There is kernel support for TAHITI/PITCAIRN/CAPE VERDE southern islands
but no userland acceleration as both 2d and 3d acceleration require LLVM.

The marketing names are a mess, see
https://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature/
to decode them.

[Bryan Vyhmeister]

Post by Jonathan Gray
There is kernel support for TAHITI/PITCAIRN/CAPE VERDE southern
islands but no userland acceleration as both 2d and 3d acceleration
require LLVM.
The marketing names are a mess, see
https://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature/
to decode them.

Thanks for the clarification. That makes sense. Sounds like the better
option is to wait for Skylake inteldrm(4) and use efifb(4) and wsfb(4)
for now. Does Skylake inteldrm(4) require LLVM or anything like that?

Bryan

[Jonathan Gray]

Post by Bryan Vyhmeister

Post by Jonathan Gray
There is kernel support for TAHITI/PITCAIRN/CAPE VERDE southern
islands but no userland acceleration as both 2d and 3d acceleration
require LLVM.
The marketing names are a mess, see
https://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature/
to decode them.

Thanks for the clarification. That makes sense. Sounds like the better
option is to wait for Skylake inteldrm(4) and use efifb(4) and wsfb(4)
for now. Does Skylake inteldrm(4) require LLVM or anything like that?

There is no kernel support for skylake and it will require firmware.
https://01.org/linuxgraphics/intel-linux-graphics-firmwares

The intel code in Mesa does not use gallium or LLVM.

Using efifb with a 4k display would likely be horribly slow due to the
high number of pixels to push.

[Bryan Vyhmeister]

Post by Jonathan Gray
There is no kernel support for skylake and it will require firmware.
https://01.org/linuxgraphics/intel-linux-graphics-firmwares
The intel code in Mesa does not use gallium or LLVM.
Using efifb with a 4k display would likely be horribly slow due to the
high number of pixels to push.

I guess I will find out just how slow. I have two 4k monitors on the
way (the Dell P4317W and also an HP Z27s). Perhaps I will pick up some
more 30-inch 2560x1600 monitors for now. Thanks for all the info.

Bryan

[l***@wrant.com]

Post by Bryan Vyhmeister

Post by Jonathan Gray
There is no kernel support for skylake and it will require firmware.
https://01.org/linuxgraphics/intel-linux-graphics-firmwares
The intel code in Mesa does not use gallium or LLVM.
Using efifb with a 4k display would likely be horribly slow due to the
high number of pixels to push.

I guess I will find out just how slow. I have two 4k monitors on the
way (the Dell P4317W and also an HP Z27s). Perhaps I will pick up some
more 30-inch 2560x1600 monitors for now. Thanks for all the info.

27" are less expensive, plus have all the better colour depth numbers, see:

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/panel_parts_content_files/sheet008.htm

You will see there are much less panels in the database above 27", which is
another hint for you, on top of the ~100 DPI paper / book printing quality.

Post by Bryan Vyhmeister
Short answer from user level: I'd personally get more 2560x1440 27" IPS
monitors for now, and use the excess budget for another set of the same.
You'd probably have to get a slightly older & cheaper video card (6450).
I know of no justification for a 5K monitor yet, though I want one too..

[Nick Bender]

I just got a 50" Vizio E50u-D2 working at 3840x2160 @60hz with my Macbook
Pro running an AMD Radeon R9 M370X. The TV was $570 at Costco and I needed
a mini display port to display port adaptor, a display port to HDMI
adapter, a Club3D Displayport 1.2 to HDMI 2.0 adapter and a high speed HDM
cable. Throw in SwitchResX to convince OS X to drive it at 60hz and I'm
under $650 total for 50" of 4K happiness.

So the hardware and adaptors are now in place for 4K on consumer TVs, not
sure about the software under OpenBSD...

Post by l***@wrant.com

Post by Bryan Vyhmeister

Post by Jonathan Gray
There is no kernel support for skylake and it will require firmware.
https://01.org/linuxgraphics/intel-linux-graphics-firmwares
The intel code in Mesa does not use gallium or LLVM.
Using efifb with a 4k display would likely be horribly slow due to the
high number of pixels to push.

I guess I will find out just how slow. I have two 4k monitors on the
way (the Dell P4317W and also an HP Z27s). Perhaps I will pick up some
more 30-inch 2560x1600 monitors for now. Thanks for all the info.

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/panel_parts_content_files/sheet008.htm
You will see there are much less panels in the database above 27", which is
another hint for you, on top of the ~100 DPI paper / book printing quality.

Post by Bryan Vyhmeister
Short answer from user level: I'd personally get more 2560x1440 27" IPS
monitors for now, and use the excess budget for another set of the same.
You'd probably have to get a slightly older & cheaper video card (6450).
I know of no justification for a 5K monitor yet, though I want one too..