Features Still Being Sought By Open-Source AMD Users

[bridgman]

My only wish: an option to permanently disable the freakishly annoying HDMI overscan-compensation. This should be easily doable by setting a bit in the vBIOS. That's all. Thanks.

??

I didn't think the open source graphics driver implemented HDMI overscan compensation.

[chrno]

??

I didn't think the open source graphics driver implemented HDMI overscan compensation.

It's ON by default, i.e., on power up. The driver lets one disable this behaviour but BIOS setup/UEFI setup/GRUB etc remain broken.

[bridgman]

It's ON by default, i.e., on power up. The driver lets one disable this behaviour but BIOS setup/UEFI setup/GRUB etc remain broken.

I'll check with agd5f, but I thought this was in the Catalyst driver not the open source driver.

[xeekei]

I'll check with agd5f, but I thought this was in the Catalyst driver not the open source driver.

I've had annoyances with HDMI with the closed Catalyst driver, so either we are mistaking what he's trying to say, or he's mixing the drivers up.

[chrno]

I'll check with agd5f, but I thought this was in the Catalyst driver not the open source driver.

The Catalyst and the open source drivers are identical in this respect. They both allow you to disable the overscan-compensation when the OS boots. This doesn't fix BIOS setup/UEFI setup/GRUB etc, though.

Come on, this should be an easy kill and it's causing trouble for a lot of people. Do a search for something like "radeon hdmi black border" or "radeon hdmi underscan" and you'll see...

[chrno]

I've had annoyances with HDMI with the closed Catalyst driver, so either we are mistaking what he's trying to say, or he's mixing the drivers up.

I don't know how I can make this any clearer. The trouble is not with the drivers. The trouble is with the vBIOS which does overscan-compensation by default with no way to permanently disable it. The drivers let you work around this broken vBIOS behaviour temporarily, until the next reboot.

[Figueiredo]

The Catalyst and the open source drivers are identical in this respect. They both allow you to disable the overscan-compensation when the OS boots. This doesn't fix BIOS setup/UEFI setup/GRUB etc, though.

Come on, this should be an easy kill and it's causing trouble for a lot of people. Do a search for something like "radeon hdmi black border" or "radeon hdmi underscan" and you'll see...

On the bright side, if they fix this, the linux open source driver will be ahead of the windows driver in at least one aspect, since this also affects windows.

[MWisBest]

There appears to be a lot of confusion over the whole APU + GPU thing in this thread, so I'll try to clarify it somewhat.


There are a few different combinations:
1. Intel (CPU) + Nvidia (GPU): This platform allows switching between "Power-Saving GPU" (Intel CPU) and "High-Performance GPU" (Nvidia GPU), known as "Optimus" (I think).
2. Intel (CPU) + AMD (GPU): This platform allows switching between "Power-Saving GPU" (Intel CPU) and "High-Performance GPU" (AMD GPU), known as "Switchable Graphics".
3. AMD (APU) + AMD (GPU): This platform allows switching between "Power-Saving GPU" (AMD APU) and "High-Performance GPU" (AMD GPU), known as "Switchable Graphics", AND also in most situations allows for "Dual Graphics" for the APU and GPU to work together, similar to (or really exactly like, just a different name...) CrossFireX.

Platforms 1 and 2 I have only seen supported like that in laptops, and they've all had their fair share of quirks with drivers and stuff and in my opinion really weren't that great of ideas.

However, Platform 3 is something seen in both laptops and desktops, but I don't believe desktops support the Switchable Graphics thing, just Dual Graphics.

Dual Graphics is only supported between similar GPUs, just like CrossFireX. A huge powerful AMD Radeon HD 7970M (in laptop systems) or AMD Radeon HD 7970 (in desktop systems) isn't going to support Dual Graphics with an APU. I believe the highest desktops can go up to (however I think this is unofficially) is an AMD Radeon HD 7750, and officially only a AMD Radeon HD 6670, with not all APUs even supporting those two, just the more higher-end ones.

While the Intel+AMD combination doesn't support any type of Dual Graphics in Windows, I could maybe see it being possible in Linux with both Intel and AMD having decent open-source support. The way CrossFireX and similar things work is usually just AFR (Alternate Frame Rendering), so it'll have one GPU render a frame and then have the other GPU render the next and so on, which I don't think would really be terribly difficult to get going in open-source stuff. However I think a bigger priority should just be improving single GPU performance first, as it stands I'm not sure if it's really on a level to just go working on CrossFireX now.

[Cyborg16]

Working screen rotation support would be nice.

[agd5f]

Working screen rotation support would be nice.

screen rotation has been working for years. please file a bug if it's not working.