Linux 4.17 To Enable AMDGPU DC By Default For All Supported GPUs

[pete910]

It was a bit crappy on Windows at release as well. I was an early adopter and remember those days well. It caused flickering brightness in some applications, and there was no support for borderless fullscreen or LFC. These things were fixed or added later and it works pretty well now.

I think if you had used it a lot on Windows and gotten used to it then you would notice it's not working on Linux. I sure did when I moved away from Windows but I had already used Freesync for quite a while then. Someone who hasn't experienced it much wouldn't notice though.

It's easy for me to see if it's working or not because the refresh rate reported in the monitor OSD constantly changes when Freesync is working. Sadly, not a lot of monitors have this feature which makes it hard to verify. Like I said, I can get xrandr and all that to say "Freesync enabled" too, but the refresh rate when I'm on Linux stays at a constant 120hz no matter what and if I look closely I will see potential stuttering with v-sync or tearing without, so despite Freesync saying it's enabled, it really is not.

Edit: With all that said, it is not worth running Windows just for proper Freesync support, but I sure am looking forward to the day it works properly on Linux.

You may be right, I went from a 60Hz straight to this 144 Hz fs2 monitor so like you say maybe the jump in refresh rate I am noticing more than Freesync !

Is there anything like the windmill demo for use linux users ? bridgman

[pete910]

If you do not know how to compile your own kernel for newer drivers, you are too stupid to use Linux.

Go back to Windows where the driver support and compatibility is way superior to what is available on Linux.

Idiots like you is what gives the Linux community a bad rep

[Aleksei]

Using the DisplayCode (DC)? That I would find most fascinating.

No, DC was mainlined only in 4.15 (I don't mess with non-mainlined kernels) at the end of Jan, then there was (still is in 4.15) a bug which prevented the use of DC+DVI+144HZ output combo, which I sidestepped by using DisplayPort cable instead of DVI-D

So, full-on DC - only for about a week. Then again, you didn't mention DC in your post either.

[dwagner]

My 2 cents: RX560, 4 months of using it daily for 6-8 hours, not a single spontaneous crash.

Using the DisplayCode (DC)? That I would find most fascinating.

[Aleksei]

But for any use case where uptimes longer than a few days are of importance: No way I could recommend amdgpu, yet. There are just way too frequent spontaneous crashes, even when doing completely mundane stuff (like typing text into a web form :-( ).

My 2 cents: RX560, 4 months of using it daily for 6-8 hours, not a single spontaneous crash.

[Sonadow]

If you do not know how to compile your own kernel for newer drivers, you are too stupid to use Linux.

Go back to Windows where the driver support and compatibility is way superior to what is available on Linux.

[brrrrttttt]

The efforts are laudable and for gaming or HTPC use, amdgpu is certainly useable by now.

But for any use case where uptimes longer than a few days are of importance: No way I could recommend amdgpu, yet. There are just way too frequent spontaneous crashes, even when doing completely mundane stuff (like typing text into a web form :-( ).

For the hardware I use for work, Intel's integrated GPUs are currently the only stable option I know.

Interesting. What sorts of workloads are we talking, what GPU, and what kernel are you using? I've been running my workstation with RX580 since 4.15.1 on Arch's main kernel package without any crashes, rebooting every few days to upgrade kernel though.

[bridgman]

So, unless the GCN 1.0 series will never have DC support, will radeonsi eventually be totally obsoleted? In the event amdgpu becomes totally feature complete with all radeonsi GPUs, I don't really understand the point of radeonsi anymore.

I don't understand the connection - radeonsi is a userspace Gallium3D driver, while amdgpu is a kernel driver. Did you mean "SI support in the radeon driver" ?

Also, is GCN 1.1 no longer experimental in the 4.17 kernel?

The "experimental" term is a bit misleading, but AFAIK it's what we had to call pre-VI support in amdgpu if the code was not enabled by default.

I don't *think* there is any plan to make amdgpu (rather than radeon) the default for CI in 4.17 kernel since DC is just being enabled for the first time there. If DC-by-default works out OK and there are not any other missing features in amdgpu relative to radeon then I imagine the defaults might get switched for CI in 4.18, but that is just speculation at the moment.

[duby229]

So, unless the GCN 1.0 series will never have DC support, will radeonsi eventually be totally obsoleted? In the event amdgpu becomes totally feature complete with all radeonsi GPUs, I don't really understand the point of radeonsi anymore.
Also, is GCN 1.1 no longer experimental in the 4.17 kernel?


As someone who also owns a 290, radeonsi's performance definitely wasn't always great; it was good since its first day, but not great. My old HD5750 would sometimes outperform the 290 in some games. This was over a year after the 290 was released, so this wasn't necessarily an early adoption issue. However, a few months later, radeonsi got very well optimized and it's been great ever since.

Today, I find AMD to be the best all-around company for Linux graphics. Intel tends to be better for media purposes, while Nvidia has some performance advantages, but as a whole, AMD is a better choice for most people.

As I said in the part you didn't quote, you could just as easily chose a 280 or a 7870 and had great performance even then.

EDIT: Also amdgu is a kernel driver and radeonsi is a mesa driver, so one cannot make the other obsolete. Now the radeon kernel driver still won't go anywhere because of r600 and r300. I think it is possible and preferable for Southern Islands and newer to be on amdgpu rather than radeon simply for the matter of vulkan support.

[schmidtbag]

So, unless the GCN 1.0 series will never have DC support, will radeonsi eventually be totally obsoleted? In the event amdgpu becomes totally feature complete with all radeonsi GPUs, I don't really understand the point of radeonsi anymore.
Also, is GCN 1.1 no longer experimental in the 4.17 kernel?

The fact is that radeonsi performed incredible from it's first day. The winsys and state trackers were derived from R600g and performed nearly flawless from the first day, GLAMOR already existed and performed decent-ish, and the new radeon LLVM compiler was performing basically as good as the hardware was cabable of. You just jumped on new hardware too soon.

As someone who also owns a 290, radeonsi's performance definitely wasn't always great; it was good since its first day, but not great. My old HD5750 would sometimes outperform the 290 in some games. This was over a year after the 290 was released, so this wasn't necessarily an early adoption issue. However, a few months later, radeonsi got very well optimized and it's been great ever since.

Today, I find AMD to be the best all-around company for Linux graphics. Intel tends to be better for media purposes, while Nvidia has some performance advantages, but as a whole, AMD is a better choice for most people.