AMDGPU Driver Looking To Re-Enable Performance-Boosting "Bulk Moves" Functionality

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AMDGPU Driver Looking To Re-Enable Performance-Boosting "Bulk Moves" Functionality

AMD developers are looking at finally re-enabling the LRU bulk moves functionality in their AMDGPU Linux kernel graphics driver that has the ability to help with performance...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...ble-Bulk-Moves

[shmerl]

Finally! If it was fixed for a while, why not backport it to 5.3? I'm going to build 5.3-rc8 with that enabled.

[perpetually high]

Sah-weeet. I'm with shmerl, compiling this sucker as we speak.

Lots of good patches out right now to compile with the kernel (5.3-rc8 in particular):

1. Valve's fsync patches
2. amdgpu multi-monitor patches (this one was big for me - can overclock my RX 480 finally)
3. amdgpu freesync low framerate compensation (LFC) patch
4. amdgpu bulk moves patch

Let me know if I missed any good ones. As always, thanks for the heads up on these, Michael.

[aufkrawall]

Let me know if I missed any good ones.

I've recently mentioned some here: https://github.com/Tk-Glitch/PKGBUILDS/issues/298

[shmerl]

1. Valve's fsync patches

How are those fsync patches going? Was there any follow up after initial discussion in the kernel mail list?

[shmerl]

Lots of good patches out right now to compile with the kernel (5.3-rc8 in particular):

I'd also add k10temp patches for Zen 2 to the above. They missed 5.3 but work nicely for Ryzen 3000 series with it.

[perpetually high]

How are those fsync patches going? Was there any follow up after initial discussion in the kernel mail list?

I actually noticed today there was a one-line update on their GitLab. Changed a value from 13 to 31. I just compiled it an hour ago or so and haven't had a chance to test.

But I gotta tell you, all of these things lately have had a synergistic effect. I'm talking Valve's ACO + Mesa 19.2 + fsync patches + Proton 4.11/DXVK + FreeSync/FreeSync LFC patches + 5.3 kernel, and now this bulk move patch. All my games are running great. Linux gaming is peaking right now, specifically on AMD cards.

[skeevy420]

And here I was waiting on Mesa 19.3 to finish before I stared compiling 5.2.14 and I find this thread so you know what patch I just added to it

perpetually high

I've taken kilobyte's work on Zstd compressing the kernel image and patched it up and, since I've posted that, I've tested them with whatever the releases of 4.19, 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3 were out last Sunday if you want to add another patch to your list.

[perpetually high]

I've recently mentioned some here: https://github.com/Tk-Glitch/PKGBUILDS/issues/298

Thanks a lot for sharing those, I was able to apply the two amd patches =)

I've taken kilobyte's work on Zstd compressing the kernel image and patched it up and, since I've posted that, I've tested them with whatever the releases of 4.19, 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3 were out last Sunday if you want to add another patch to your list.

Nice! Thanks for doing that. I'm up and running.

-rw------- 1 root root 17353600 Sep 12 15:04 vmlinuz-5.3.0-050300rc8+custom-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 11545472 Sep 12 15:39 vmlinuz-5.3.0-050300rc8+zstd-generic

Shaved off almost 6 MB from my previous kernel that used LZ4! Startup speed was identical to LZ4 as well, great call.

(fyi my kernel is a little large because I build in amdgpu which adds about 3.5 MB but kernel picks it up faster)

module:
$ dmesg|grep amdgpu
[ 2.671170] [drm] amdgpu kernel modesetting enabled.

built-in:
$ dmesg|grep amdgpu
[ 0.424964] [drm] amdgpu kernel modesetting enabled.

I don't know for _certain_ if it's any better as opposed to a module, but figured why not. If anyone knows for sure, feel free to chime in.

[shmerl]

Just for the reference, I don't see any change for example in The Witcher 3 in Wine+dxvk when bulk moves are enabled.