RADV Radeon Vulkan Driver Is Still A Better Bet Than AMDVLK In February 2018

[ElectricPrism]

AMD targeted a codebase than is as multiplatform as possible.

The long term costs are reduced from such intelligent planning.

I see no reason to discontinue such a central piece of their strategy from their POV.

Imagine nvidia opening up and nouveau people complaining there is competition, nearly everything should be open source even if there is limited community contributions.

[mphuZ]

I think AMD should stop developing AMDVLK (on Linux that is) and instead contribute to RADV.

Absurd. Bad idea.

I mean they already had the resources to develop a Linux specific OpenGL driver.

And if AMD and Valve have already agreed to port Mesa OpenGL to Windows in the future and then make a similar cross-platform driver (AMDVLK) separate from Mesa (AMDOGL) and work only with it? No?

In my opinion, there are better synergies between vendors on Linux then between OSes for a single vendor and it will result in a driver better suited to Linux in the long term.

AMDVLK can be "the best" in that form. What do you care how many operating systems does it support?
And most importantly: AMD is not limited to just one Linux. Linux is just the smallest part.

RADV also has the benefit of a more open development.

No.

Valve doesn't seem to want to invest in it as far as I can tell.

I think the reason RADV is still alive, is very simple - it needed Valve. They began to work with him, releasing patches for VR. AFAIK Keith Packard is working with him currently.
They don`t need drastic cnahge to another driver. Because it's Valve. They're never in a hurry.

When all their work on VR is over, then they will discuss which driver will be the main one.

[duby229]

AMD targeted a codebase than is as multiplatform as possible.

The long term costs are reduced from such intelligent planning.

I see no reason to discontinue such a central piece of their strategy from their POV.

Imagine nvidia opening up and nouveau people complaining there is competition, nearly everything should be open source even if there is limited community contributions.

That's exactly what's gonna happen. Unfortunate as it is. The implication being that amdvlk won't get much if any community contributions. It's not released in a way that a community could be made for it. So yeah..

[andre30correia]

AMD closed source driver team is really bad

[aufkrawall]

Except that the Vulkan Windows driver is absolutely fine?

[mphuZ]

The implication being that amdvlk won't get much if any community contributions. It's not released in a way that a community could be made for it.

LOL
Can bridgman confirm that?
I think that if there are any difficulties in working with the community, then AMD will fix it.
When they started to work on the amdgpu and radeonsi, it was the same.

[mannerov]

I wonder if amdvlk performs differently on windows and linux.
Because if directx11 < vulkan amdvlk < vulkan radv, that be quite good.

[airlied]

I wonder if amdvlk performs differently on windows and linux.
Because if directx11 &lt; vulkan amdvlk &lt; vulkan radv, that be quite good.

They don't use llvm on windows or in pro, so amdvlk on Linux is not indicator of anything except amdvlk on Linux, pro is most likely faster. However it means most improvements to be made are in llvm, which means they'll help radv, and any improvements we make to llvm with help them.

Dave.

[artivision]

They don't use llvm on windows or in pro, so amdvlk on Linux is not indicator of anything except amdvlk on Linux, pro is most likely faster. However it means most improvements to be made are in llvm, which means they'll help radv, and any improvements we make to llvm with help them.

Dave.

I suspect that both vendors use LLVM to a small extend, for example MS said that SM6 will target LLVM and not vendor IL. As for AmdVlk the problem is the Cpu usage not the different compiler and shader strength. Amd closed driver will never be better than the open infrastructure.

[smitty3268]

Wow. That's a beat down almost across the board. To be fair, I bet it's no coincidence radv started performing so well right after the source for amdvlk was released.

Wonder if the comparison to radeonsi looks any better now, or if it's still trailing there.