GPU Enabling and Usage

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Qualcomm Dragonwing Technical Guide

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Qualcomm Dragonwing Technical Guide

Table of Contents [Sticky]

• Introduction
  • What is the Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ9?
  • Why the Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ9?
  • RidgeRun Services
  • RidgeRun Products
• Carrier Boards
  • IQ-9075 EVK
• EVK Board Bring Up
  • Yocto Build
    • Setup Environment
    • Building an Image - Qualcomm Linux 2.0
    • Building an Image - Qualcomm Linux 1.8
    • Flashing an Image
    • Getting into the Board
  • Ubuntu
    • Features Available
    • Setup Environment
    • Flashing Ubuntu
    • Getting into the Board
• GStreamer
  • Enable GStreamer Support
  • Example Pipelines
  • Performance
• Multimedia Support
  • Video
    • Video Capture
    • Video Encoding
    • Video Decoding
    • Video Transformation
  • Streaming
    • Streaming over UDP
    • Streaming over RTSP
    • Streaming over MoQ
  • Hardware Acceleration
    • GPU Enabling and Usage
    • ISP Enabling and Usage
    • VPU Enabling and Usage
    • NPU Enabling and Usage
• Security Features
  • Secure Boot
  • Disk Encryption
  • TEE
  • OTA
• Contact Us

Problems running the pipelines shown on this page? Please see our GStreamer Debugging guide for help .

Introduction

These elements were tested both in the Ubuntu downloaded sources (Ubuntu 24.04.4) and the Yocto built image. GPU use was verified within the debugging logs generated from GStreamer for multiple pipelines with OpenGL elements and the following output confirms it:

GL_VENDOR: Qualcomm 
GL_RENDERER: Adreno (TM) 663

To verify the GPU usage, run the following test pipeline:

GST_DEBUG=glcontext:INFO GST_DEBUG_FILE=/tmp/gst.log gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc is-live=1 num-buffers=30 ! glupload ! gl-test-element ! gldownload ! fakesink && cat /tmp/gst.log | grep GL_

Change the gl-test-element accordingly and verify both the GL_VENDOR and GL_RENDERER properties. There should be a similar output to the previous output mentioned.

Testing OpenGL elements

Relevant GPU-related elements inclued: glupload, gleffects, gltestsrc, gloverlay, glcolorconvert.

Simple test source and sink

 gst-launch-1.0 -v gltestsrc ! glimagesink

Expected result

GPU-generated pattern

Basic GPU upload and display

gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! glupload ! glimagesink

Expected result

Test pattern displayed, stable playback, no crash

GPU color conversion

gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! glupload ! glcolorconvert ! glimagesink

Expected result

Correct colors, stable playback, no visible corruption

GPU shader effect: sepia

gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! glupload ! gleffects effect=sepia ! glimagesink

Expected result

Sepia effect visible, stable playback, no corruption

GPU shader effect: sobel

gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! glupload ! gleffects effect=sobel ! glimagesink

Expected result

Edge detection visible, stable playback, no corruption

Chained GPU effects

gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! glupload ! gleffects effect=blur ! gleffects effect=mirror ! glimagesink

Expected result

Blur and mirror effects visible, stable playback, no corruption

GPU overlay path

gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc pattern=smpte ! glupload ! gloverlay location=logorr.png offset-x=40 offset-y=40 ! glimagesink

Expected result

Video displayed with overlay path active, stable playback, no corruption, logo on top

Upload to download path

gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! glupload ! gldownload ! fakesink

Expected result

Pipeline runs without errors, stable buffer flow, no crash

High-load OpenGL effects stress

gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! glupload ! gleffects effect=blur ! gleffects effect=sobel ! gleffects effect=mirror ! glimagesink

Expected result

Multiple effects visible, stable playback, no freeze or corruption

Max-rate rendering check

gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! glupload ! glimagesink sync=false

Expected result

Fast rendering, smooth playback, no frame stalls

Performance measurements

GL Test Source performance

The following table summarizes performance results for gltestsrc at different output resolutions. Memory usage was collected from ps (RSS), GPU utilization was derived from /sys/class/kgsl/kgsl-3d0/gpubusy as busy / total * 100, and throughput metrics were collected with the perf element using the following pipeline:

gst-launch-1.0 -v gltestsrc ! "video/x-raw(memory:GLMemory),format=RGBA,width=$WIDTH,height=$HEIGHT" ! perf print-cpu-load=true ! fakesink

Resolution	%MEM	RSS (KB)	GPU Utilization (%)	Mean FPS	CPU (%)
1280x720	0.2	97620	12.38	1728.592	18
1920x1080	0.2	97768	30.32	1568.784	13
3840x2160	0.2	98008	99.95	1508.799	13

Gl Effects performance

The following table summarizes performance results for gleffects at different resolutions and input formats. For formats I420 and NV12, a videoconvert was needed for cap negotiation

effect=sobel

• With videotestsrc

gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! video/x-raw,width=$WIDTH,height=HEIGHT,format=RGBA ! glupload ! gleffects effect=sobel ! perf print-cpu-load=true ! fakesink

Resolution	%MEM	RSS (KB)	GPU Utilization (%)	Mean FPS	CPU (%)
1280x720	0.3	112648	12.39	163.991	15
1920x1080	0.3	130632	17.97	114.968	15
3840x2160	0.6	228156	33.75	49.418	15

• With camera

gst-launch-1.0 -v -e qtiqmmfsrc camera=0 ! 'video/x-raw,format=NV12,width=1280,height=720,framerate=30/1' ! queue max-size-buffers=4 leaky=downstream ! glupload ! glcolorconvert ! gleffects effect=sobel ! perf print-cpu-load=true ! fakesink

Resolution	%MEM	RSS (KB)	GPU Utilization (%)	Mean FPS	CPU (%)
1280x720	0.2	106928	3.03	29.812	14
1920x1080	0.3	108944	6.45	30.098	14
3840x2160	0.3	117744	25.28	30.043	14

effect=blur

• With videotestsrc

gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! video/x-raw,width=$WIDTH,height=HEIGHT,format=RGBA ! glupload ! gleffects effect=blur ! perf print-cpu-load=true ! fakesink

Resolution	%MEM	RSS (KB)	GPU Utilization (%)	Mean FPS	CPU (%)
1280x720	0.3	112524	13.27	145.456	14
1920x1080	0.3	130068	25.54	118.819	15
3840x2160	0.6	226716	40.88	58.632	14

• With camera

gst-launch-1.0 -v -e qtiqmmfsrc camera=0 ! 'video/x-raw,format=NV12,width=3840,height=2160,framerate=30/1' ! queue max-size-buffers=4 leaky=downstream ! glupload ! glcolorconvert ! gleffects effect=sobel ! perf print-cpu-load=true ! fakesink

Resolution	%MEM	RSS (KB)	GPU Utilization (%)	Mean FPS	CPU (%)
1280x720	0.2	105920	3.48	30.080	14
1920x1080	0.2	107524	7.54	30.079	13
3840x2160	0.3	118344	28.59	30.002	15

effect=blur + effect=sobel

• With videotestsrc

gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! video/x-raw,width=$WIDTH,height=HEIGHT,format=RGBA ! glupload ! gleffects effect=blur ! gleffects effect=sobel ! perf print-cpu-load=true ! fakesink

Resolution	%MEM	RSS (KB)	GPU Utilization (%)	Mean FPS	CPU (%)
1280x720	0.3	113040	16.63	101.118	15
1920x1080	0.3	131016	35.66	98.014	15
3840x2160	0.6	228592	60.45	48.459	15

• With camera

gst-launch-1.0 -v -e qtiqmmfsrc camera=0 ! 'video/x-raw,format=NV12,width=3840,height=2160,framerate=30/1' ! queue max-size-buffers=4 leaky=downstream ! glupload ! glcolorconvert ! gleffects effect=blur ! gleffects effect=sobel ! perf print-cpu-load=true ! fakesink

Resolution	%MEM	RSS (KB)	GPU Utilization (%)	Mean FPS	CPU (%)
1280x720	0.2	107496	5.37	30.197	15
1920x1080	0.3	108476	11.65	30.200	14
3840x2160	0.3	117652	45.38	30.021	15

Element latency

Element Latency for sobel effect in 720p

element	count	avg_ms	min_ms	max_ms	p50_ms	p90_ms	p95_ms	p99_ms
glcolorconvertelement0	84	2.362	0.671	39.794	1.895	2.534	2.631	3.086
queue0	84	1.905	0.122	71.153	0.597	0.722	0.821	43.013
gleffectsgeneric0	84	1.655	0.425	48.884	0.825	1.713	1.748	2.297
gluploadelement0	84	1.538	0.430	5.672	1.572	1.782	2.095	3.194
capsfilter0	84	0.080	0.032	0.129	0.082	0.089	0.092	0.122
perf0	84	0.075	0.023	0.424	0.060	0.085	0.098	0.389

Total Average Summary

metric	value
TOTAL_AVG_SUM_MS	7.615
TOTAL_AVG_SUM_NS	7615400

Qualcomm Dragonwing Technical Guide

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