AMDVLK 2019.Q2.3 Has Improvements For Some Games, LLPC Optimization

[aufkrawall]

skeevy420 The driver shader cache is unique for each driver (although it doesn't get reset when switching between e.g. radv and amdvlk and back) but the DXVK pipeline cache is universally valid (feeds driver shader cache).

[skeevy420]

skeevy420 You may have fed DXVK's pipeline cache in the first run with radv which would also benefit amdvlk in subsequent runs.

In my experiences with Hitman 2, it'll build cache anytime the Vulkan implementation is switched and the cache doesn't exist. Luckily it only has to do it once -- If I play a level with RADV and let it build up cache, switching to AMDVLK will trigger another cache build, AMDVLK-Pro another, and switching back to RADV or AMDVLK will work just fine w/o triggering a cache build. Oh, and AMDVLK-Pro is just horrible with this game.

The only annoyance is it builds its cache on a per-level basis so the first 5 minutes of every level just sucks

It takes two complete runs of the Miami benchmark for it to quit generating cache to allow my HDD light to quit blinking which is why I go with four runs. Two to build up cache, a third as a just in case run, and a fourth to get the real results.

I'm not saying it won't or doesn't share cache, but it does build it for each one.

Out of curiosity, has anyone here had any luck getting Hitman 2 to even launch in DX12 mode? No matter what I try I get some unsupported GPU error.

[aufkrawall]

skeevy420 You may have fed DXVK's pipeline cache in the first run with radv which would also benefit amdvlk in subsequent runs.

[skeevy420]

Built amdvlk-git+proton based on 4.8 staging+DXVK master & AGS 5.0 and it gets within 1.5 FPS of RADV on the Miama benchmark of Hitman 2. AMDVLK gets 35.75 and RADV gets 37.1 after running each 4 times to build up shader cache.

Here's what's interesting -- AMDVLK didn't lag or skip anywhere near as much during the intensive pull-out scenes. While I'd need to actually play to tell y'all more, AMDVLK appeared smoother even though the FPS was lower. I also noticed that Wine detects my GPU as "Radeon RX 580 series" when using AMDVLK or AMDVLK-Pro and with RADV it's "AMD RADV Polaris10 (LLV...", it cuts of after the LLV. If you're RX card keeps coming up as the wrong GPU, try running it with AMDVLK and it might report properly.

All compiled using Ofast, march=native, and mtune=native & I tweaked proton-tkg.sh to include native and fast for the winegcc/g++ parts.

Update: Played a little bit last night and, in game, I didn't really notice any difference between AMDVLK 2019.Q2.3 or RADV from Mesa 19.0.3. Both have the same odd graphical bug if you look at a light source through multiple translucent surfaces. A good test and way to trigger that bug is in the free level Hawke's Bay -- on the 2nd floor next to the bedroom, turn and look towards the light in the pool room through the balcony and the pool room glass wall. The current/latest Ubuntu AMDVLK-Pro is unusable with Hitman 2...it works and renders stuff, but it's very choppy.

[aufkrawall]

Hm, it's now faster in Heroes of the Storm with prerenderlimit 1 (radv 170fps, amdvlk 176fps, Windows DX11 188fps). In some scenes like the closing screen (has some kind of particle effect which causes extreme power consumption) the difference also seems bigger.

[humbug]

humbug There's an apt repository at http://repo.radeon.com/amdvlk/apt/debian/

wget -qO - http://repo.radeon.com/amdvlk/apt/debian/amdvlk.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
echo 'deb [arch=amd64] http://repo.radeon.com/amdvlk/apt/debian/ bionic main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/amdvlk.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install amdvlk

Thank you!!

[Brisse]

humbug There's an apt repository at http://repo.radeon.com/amdvlk/apt/debian/

wget -qO - http://repo.radeon.com/amdvlk/apt/debian/amdvlk.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -  
echo 'deb [arch=amd64] http://repo.radeon.com/amdvlk/apt/debian/ bionic main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/amdvlk.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install amdvlk

[humbug]

Source links and a pre-built Ubuntu x86_64 Vulkan driver package are available via GitHub.

For users of Ubuntu and derivatives rather than this method I wonder whether AMD would consider setting up a PPA.
It would be a very good move to increase the userbase of this driver and keep it updated, which is much needed at this point. Right now it's just simpler for everyone to stick with RadV.

[artivision]

People, automated benchmarks and benchmark modes should be in the past. Nvidia's non lossless graphics give fake results. Better search Youtube for real gameplay benchmarks and if you can make one your self: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbvQVgesZ_s

[aufkrawall]

Michael Could you set dxgi.maxFrameLatency = 1 in dxvk.conf? There are cases where amdvlk has a higher input latency, thus I think using this setting would be fair. I also saw amdvlk losing more fps with it than radv (hardly any loss with the latter).