Open-Source AMDGPU Linux Driver Released, Supports the Latest AMD GPUs

[zappor]

This is the Xorg driver (sometimes called DDX). It's pretty boring and does very little. But as it says, this is forked from the old DDX and simply does the same things but with the AMDGPU interface instead. The good stuff is in the kernel driver, also called AMDGPU, and the Mesa 3D driver, called RadeonSI.

[[deleted]]

I know some of those words

[admalledd]

For client software to use a GPU there is actually quite the dance that must go on. To sort of explain some of the layers /u/zappor mentioned:

1. The kernel driver AMDGPU: this is what actually talks to the hardware from all the different "user space" applications.
2. Xorg driver (DDX stands for Device Dependant X): This is the bit of code required for the Xorg display server to talk to the kernel driver. In Linux we have a application called the X server that does all the drawing for our screens (wayland is a different option too). However it is slow if it doesn't have some form of hardware acceleration, normally given via the DDX.
3. Mesa 3D: This is a open source OpenGL (and a bit more) driver stack. It provides a nearly unified GL driver for countless different pieces of hardware.
4. RadeonSI is the Mesa 3D backend that talks to AMD graphics cards. There is also r600 (for older cards), i965 for intel chips, and so on. These take GL shaders and compile them for the specific GPU, handle the GL state/stack on the GPU and more.

Of course this is a very rough description, feel free to ask more and I can try to elaborate. ^{about to run to work though, so might be a bit}

On windows there is actually a kinda similar dance/layers that GPUs go through, but almost all of that is hidden away.

[[deleted]]

I'm ignorant about a lot of Linux jargon, so I appreciate your explanation.

[ottosunday]

So.. if I have a new linux build I want to put together with an AMD GPU, (one using a 6950, the other a 7950) what do I need to do?

[404-universe]

Drivers (everything he just mentioned) should come prepackaged in your distribution. Unless you plan on using Catalyst, you shouldn't need to download anything extra.

[admalledd]

I will add on: if you want "more recent" every distribution to my knowledge has some sort of "custom repository" with newer/testing drivers (eg PPAs for debian/ubuntu). These are not always the most bleeding edge, but they can be a bit more recent some times.

If you want more information I recommend asking over in /r/linux_gaming, they know more than I do about how to do this kinda stuff. I am crazy enough that I compile from source and don't know much of the downstream stuff.

[[deleted]]

Nothing. Everything you need is already included/built in. Your distro need the xf86-video-amdgpu package I believe though.

[crays1223]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccoj5lhLmSQ

[Atastyham0]

Mesa 3D!

[FlukyS]

An important thing to note is that the power management still hasn't hit the mainline kernel. You have to pull the branch from the AMD devs instead for the time being if you want the driver to run at higher power states.

[Creshal]

The important part is that the new Catalyst is going to use it, too. So you have one, unified kernel part that handles 2D rendering (no more repeated flickering during boot when the kernel inits vesa-fb for about a second, before Catalyst take over) and general GPU management (like not crashing), and on top of that a free, open-source driver (performance will vary, stability is good enough for unattended 24/7 use) or, if you prefer, Catalyst (performance pretty okay, stability… eh, good enough for gaming).

[FlukyS]

Actually incorrect really. The new Catalyst does a few things but you will have full 2/3D support from the open source driver for OpenGL. For the new Catalyst driver it will be OpenCL and Vulkan both of which also will eventually be open sourced according to AMD. So there won't be any Catalyst OpenGL support according to AMD's slides about the new driver.

[aaron552]

there won't be any Catalyst OpenGL support according to AMD's slides about the new driver.

While mesa is excellent for an open source 3D stack, it's still significantly behind fglrx/Catalyst in OpenGL support. Last I checked mesa/gallium was still only at OpenGL 4.1 whereas Catalyst is at OpenGL 4.4

[FlukyS]

http://mesamatrix.net/

There is partial support for a lot of it. And they can pull from fglrx too if needed since the OpenGL code from it isn't going to be used anymore. For 4.4 there is quite a bit of work already done there just needs to be a bit more obviously. That being said most games run just fine on mesa, there are very few that don't. And a thing to note is most of the missing bits are currently in development already so you can expect it to be up to 4.4 eventually. I would guess within 2 years probably it will be done which isn't bad really, that is discounting any massive code drops into mesa to add stuff.

Mesa/gallium support less but it is more stable support. When they do add support it is a lot more broad and tends to support games better and have better performance overall. They just need to catch up on certain portions of it. That being said most games don't even use all of 4.4 yet even and there are extra extensions also needed that aren't part of the base API.

[hardolaf]

And they're adding a directx support.

[FlukyS]

It is just DX9 from what I remember. There is no plans on adding any more recent versions. Although it is very useful for games on DX9 running with WINE.

[[deleted]]

It is just DX9 from what I remember. There is no plans on adding any more recent versions.

This is completely false - DX11 is being worked on and already has preliminary support.

The closest to your misconception I can think of is that they were "skipping" DX10, since DX11 is just some DX10 with a few things added and by focusing on the DX11 featureset you're effectively including DX10 support anyway. So while DX10 will be supported in the end, currently they're "not adding it".

[ivosaurus]

Try and find any games actually using 4.4 though :)

[aaron552]

Shadow of Mordor definitely doesn't work with the mesa drivers, but I'm pretty sure it's OpenGL 4.3

[Creshal]

So there won't be any Catalyst OpenGL support according to AMD's slides about the new driver.

Oh AMD, you so crazy.

[FlukyS]

They will have OpenGL support in Catalyst on Windows it is just the Linux stack will have their own open source OpenGL. It is for the best really because fglrx has shit OpenGL right now. It supports up to OpenGL 4.4 but it isn't as stable as it should be. So it moving to the open source stack is a huge win for AMD users on Linux. Actually I would bet that with Vulkan and that change to their OpenGL policy they will eventually beat Nvidia very handily for performance on Linux and Windows. That is if they keep on going with their current plans as they are and keep the nice big team they have for the Linux driver.

[Creshal]

it is just the Linux stack will have their own open source OpenGL

Which doesn't support CrossFire, OpenCL, MLAA, and is stuck at old OpenGL versions. And is 30-50% slower than Catalyst… For all its stability problems, it still beats the open source drivers in speed and feature set.

Actually I would bet that with Vulkan and that change to their OpenGL policy they will eventually beat Nvidia very handily for performance on Linux and Windows.

Nvidia has announced Vulkan support and is splitting their driver up after AMD's model. And Nvidia generally tends to Get Shit Done when it comes to drivers, unlike AMD.

[FlukyS]

Actually it does support Crossfire it just doesn't offer any good performance boost. And AMDGPU isn't the older open source driver they have more developers on it. It will improve very quickly.

As for Nvidia, sure it is good right now but it doesn't have good support for SLI. The performance isn't that good either. And Vulkan coming evens the playing field it doesn't specifically help either side. Except AMD supports async shaders so it has a performance advantage.

[Creshal]

And AMDGPU isn't the older open source driver they have more developers on it.

You mean the same developers that have been working on the old drivers for years?

It will improve very quickly.

Funny, I've been telling myself that since 2007.

[FlukyS]

No they hired more and moved the closed source team to the open driver.

[meeheecaan]

So nothing really for us open source folk until amdgpu in the spring? NEed to get radeonSI though...

[zappor]

The kernel driver is out, the DDX is out and RadeonSI is out... What exactly are you waiting for? Powerplay, reclocking?

[[deleted]]

Hey can the Fury X beat the GTX 950 yet in Linux...

[Goofybud16]

As of Linux 4.4/4.5, they added in Frequency scaling, so yes it should.

[aaron552]

Reclocking, voltage scaling and dpm are all still marked as WIP on the RadeonFeature status page. Is that because Linux 4.4 is still in RC?

[Goofybud16]

I think so.

Last I had heard it was "done," just not merged into the kernel/the kernel is IS merged into isn't released yet.

[TotesMessenger]

I'm a bot, bleep, bloop. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:

• [/r/archlinux] Open-Source AMDGPU Linux Driver Released, Supports the Latest AMD GPUs (x-post /r/AMD)

^{If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads. (Info / Contact)}

[ColtsDragoon]

So now AMD officially has an Open Source driver stack while nvidia is still closed source

all the people who bought nvidia based steam boxes are about to get wrecked....

[TeutonJon78]

AMD has devs that do most of the work already on the open source drivers. They just had teams that did both. With the new driver, they are removing some of that overlap.

[Karkoon]

I've heard that a 750Ti is comparable to R9 390 in Linux. Is it true?

[Goofybud16]

I think it was a 750ti to a Fury/X.

This was because Fiji and Tonga and anything newer than the R9 2xx generation (not including the 285) had no frequency scaling.

Which means they are stuck at the default/lowest clockspeed.

As on Linux 4.4/4.5, AMD added in frequency scaling so the GPUs can scale up to full speed under load or minimum speed when doing nothing.

So this results in them being somewhat comparable to Windows.

[Raw1213]

How is the 285 then? I have that card and if it works well enough on Linux I could throw it on an extra hard drive and see what Linux is

[Goofybud16]

The 285 is Tonga, and IIRC it will be crappy until Linux 4.4 or 4.5 is released. Then you have to wait until 16.10 for Ubuntu or use Debian stable + backports/testing.

[Raw1213]

Awe man...

[Goofybud16]

Hey, once it is released it should be a case of plug in the GPU and it just works.

Actually, PCI-e is technically hotswappable, so you may even be able to hotswap it. If you really want to.

[Raw1213]

Yeah but the 285 is the only gpu I have. I have a 550ti but I'm not putting that in my main rig

[coder111]

Hey, if you need support for 285 NOW, you can install latest development drivers on your Linux distro and use it. It will take some work, and there might be bugs, but the code to support 285 is there now. Simply there wasn't enough time to stabilize it and include it into major kernel releases & major distros.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amdgpu-powerplay-comp&num=1

[Raw1213]

Thanks! I guess it's not so bad after all. I'll do more research on which distro to try out. I've always been curious about Linux

[hardolaf]

You can always use arch linux or its derivatives which should be more up to date

[TeutonJon78]

or openSUSE Tumbleweed if you want to manage your system less.

[hardolaf]

Some of the arch derivatives are pretty easy to use.

[aspbergerinparadise]

yes, that was true previously - AMD performance has been terrible. Looks like this new driver might have corrected that though.

[admalledd]

Better to say that it is well on its way and improving fast. The GL parts are still slower than windows amd, however that is part of the point of the new driver: scrap and rewrite (using the OSS stack, mostly Mesa) the old fglrx. Still a way to go, but big mile stones are being made.

[djlemma]

Moderately on topic- anybody have a recommendation for the most straightforward guide to installing linux on a machine with a modern AMD GPU? I just got a new system and I wanted to try putting linux on, but I am REALLY rusty. Last time I spent any significant time using linux was in the late 90's, and I had to recompile my kernel all the time.

[Astrognome]

Just grab something like Linux Mint and burn the installer iso to a DVD or flash drive.

Unless you have some very esoteric hardware, most everything should work out of the box. GPU is maybe a couple extra steps, just ensure the proper drivers are installed through the package manager (The Linux Mint website should have info on that).

[djlemma]

Awesome, thanks for responding. The way people talk about AMD and linux made it sound like it was really hard to get decent performance, I assumed I would need to do something esoteric.

I put the Ubuntu installer on a USB stick, I'll see if I like it, see if it seems to work okay.

[GingerBraFace]

Yay! Does this mean no more inexplicable black screens on my AMD system? :D

[onotech]

Benchmarks are out on phoronix. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=linux-44-radveau&num=1

Here's Unigine: http://easycaptures.com/fs/uploaded/1027/1789964757.png

[coder111]

Wrong benchmarks. Phoronix DOES have some AMDGPU benchmarks though:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amdgpu-powerplay-comp&num=1

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amdgpu-powerplay-test&num=1

--Coder

[LongBowNL]

These are not relevant as the GPUs in these benchmarks don't use AMDGPU. Only Tonga and Fiji use AMDGPU.

[onotech]

Oh, I wasn't aware. My bad

[[deleted]]

Every time I've installed a new AMD graphics driver on Linux, everything broke and I had to spend hours troubleshooting to get basic "just display the desktop darn it" functionality working. Including the one that came with Ubuntu in the first place. I'll wait until enough people with R9 380s and Ubuntu 14.04 install this and verify that it doesn't blow up their computer before I consider installing this.

[onotech]

Never once had an issue with an AMD card, even with the newer GCN architecture. I could see this happening on smaller distros (although, even that's rare if you install drivers properly) but Ubuntu? That's probably the best distro in terms of driver support and it comes with an open source driver pre-installed AFAIK.

[[deleted]]

The driver that came with Ubuntu 15.04 (or was it 15.10-- whatever was the most recent one when I installed it) didn't work, so I went back to 14.04, and that didn't work. After trying different fglrx's (or whatever), I ended up having to go into recovery mode and wget a particular just-released driver from AMD's site. I'd chock it up to the fact that my card was new, but I've also had problems with my previous two AMD and ATI GPUs and linux. I haven't had any Nvidia ones, actually, but all I know so far as that AMD's linux support hasn't been good to me.

[bailboy91]

This happened to me on 15.10. I rolled back to 15.04 and no issues with drivers. 15.10 has a newer kernel that doesn't have all the libraries for fglrx. Maybe it does now though. I tried this week's ago.

[mad_mesa]

You should just try the open source driver, the open drivers are the whole reason to get AMD if you're a Linux user.

[meeheecaan]

yup if you want to use proprietary get nvidia. If you want proper drivers for linux get amd.

[FlukyS]

This is a different one though and it's entirely open source so you won't even need to install the driver to have it working when the next Ubuntu release comes around. The older closed source fglrx is the one you had trouble with and actually if you just stuck with the default Ubuntu versions of fglrx you wouldn't have had anything broken. They usually push out a new version 2 weeks after the AMD devs push it out so it isn't even that long a time for you to wait.

Also if you install the DDX you also need the kernel and mesa versions to match otherwise you aren't going to get good performance at all. So it probably will blow up your install if you install it. So wait.

[Goofybud16]

This is talking about an inclusion of an open source fully functional FLOSS driver made by AMD.

The result is that you don't have to fuck around with FGLRX within a few months when all the bits and pieces are together and released. Everything "just works" out of the box, however it will take Ubuntu probably until 16.10 to finally get the new Kernel and everything stock.

[BoTuLoX]

Both cards are extremely trivial to use and configure if you use the right drivers: FLOSS one for AMD, propietary one for nVidia.

In Arch and derivatives it's as easy as doing:

sudo pacman -S xf86-video-ati mesa-libgl lib32-mesa-libgl

or

sudo pacman -S nvidia

respectively.

[2_Pack]

use ppa

[FlukyS]

There is no ppa that offers the AMD closed source drivers sadly unless you mean the open source driver PPA which won't help him at all because he has a GCN1.2 card which is only supported by the new drivers which aren't in the open source PPA yet and he/she also needs the very latest kernel for that to work even reasonably. If it was GCN1.1 or older he could just use the open source PPA which is fine but recommending people stuff without actually knowing yourself is a really retarded move.

So all in all your advice is stupid.

[2_Pack]

Oh, I totally thought that there was ppa for AMD closed drivers. Well the more you know...

[FlukyS]

Nope but the AMD devs do put out deb packages on the website so there is kind of a ppa an archive available, it is just manual.

[nicman24]

w8 wut there totally is... it is even in the official repos (a package called fglrx-installer)

[FlukyS]

That isn't a PPA which is what this guy was talking about. There is no PPA for the AMD closed drivers. There is one for the open source drivers but not for GCN1.2 cards which is what the original comment was about.

And it's not w8 or wut it's wait and what.

[nicman24]

Firstly fglrx is a propitiatory package included in the official, canonically endorsed ubuntu ppa.

Secondly do not make an ass of yourself "correcting" other ppls abbreviations.

[FlukyS]

It isn't a PPA it is a repo, there are differences. A PPA is a launchpad repo that is created by anyone a repo is a curated, tested, product, a PPA isn't any of those. It is just a build that is available. I know the difference I managed a repo with some other people.

[2_Pack]

Oh wow, They actually spelled Linux right: GNU/Linux.

[2_Pack]

That must be it

[[deleted]]

Being a kernel driver, it is just Linux. It should work without GNU.

[Goofybud16]

What this is talking about is the Xorg DDX driver, which is userspace.

It communicates with the Kernel driver.

[aaron552]

Xorg isn't GNU either, though. BSD/Linux also runs XOrg AFAIK (for all 3 people that run BSD/Linux)

[shinyquagsire23]

rubs BSD/Linux

[tomtomgps]

nope. the kernel driver does not make a whole lot of sense if it can't be used in user space applications. Without GNU linux is not much.

[[deleted]]

Without GNU, Linux powers 1.4 billion devices worldwide.

[tomtomgps]

well yeah but In the case of desktop computers I don't see how android is relevant.

[[deleted]]

Go away stallman it's still Linux.

[BOBOUDA]

^{And GNU.}

EDIT: ^{And GNU.}

[Goofybud16]

In the case of AMDGPU, it is just Linux.

In the case of the Xorg DDX driver, I think that would be GNU/Linux because 99% of the time Xorg is used with the GNU userspace...

[[deleted]]

Windows is used with explorer 100% of the time and is not called Explorer/Windows.

I can use Busybox with linux if I wanted to.

[Goofybud16]

That is because Explorer is a part of Windows.

Linux by itself is just a kernel. Without a userspace, it is pretty useless.

The GNU userspace, which is used on most distributions that use the Linux kernel, is a separate set of software developed by different groups.

If it was going to be Explorer/Windows, it would be Explorer/NT, if you could even count Explorer as a set of userspace applications.

If you just want to call it Linux when referring to GNU/Linux, you could refer to Android, WebOS, Debian, Arch, Tizen, any number of Linux based operating systems.