AMD Publishes AMDGPU UVD Firmware For Southern Islands

[anth]

That's nice to see! Unfortunately there still seems to be no audio via AMDGPU & HD7950 via HDMI. :/

I just checked an R9 270 (ie rebadged HD 7870) and HDMI audio works with both Radeon and AMDGPU. It only had stereo rather than 5.1 though I don't know if that is a GPU. software, or receiver issue.

[L_A_G]

You might want to actually look into your presumption, that hardware -is- still being sold new in the box, several generations of that hardware is still being sold new....

Again, we're talking old/leftover stock here, not something that has actually been produced for many years. If old stock counted then that "sold new" argument would apply to stuff like chrome tape C-cassettes, 5.25" floppies and long ago discontinued videogame consoles like the Dreamcast. However despite those things being sold new as old stock thanks to a niche markets for all of them.

We're talking about hardware that hasn't actually been produced in 4 years here.

Sane customers still take vendor commitment to prolonged hardware support and promises fulfillment into account during shopping for new hardware. Remember how to long it took for AMD to shake off reputation of vendor who frequently drop GPU support?

Considering how GCN1 and GCN2 are from before the switchover to AMDGPU and are still supported by the then current radeonSI-drivers I really don't think that your argument that suggests they've dropped support for these older parts holds much water. Feelings that they haven't supported these stem mostly from people like you who think they should support everything on the latest and greatest codebases and that continuing to support them on the same codebase they used at launch is tantamount of abandonment.

What you're doing is like expecting that when a car company releases a new version of a particular type of engine they should offer it as a free upgrade to everyone who has the previous version in their cars.

[Guest]

The radeon kernel driver doesn't have the interfaces required for Vulkan support. Huge deal breaker, no DXVK.... The same hardware on the amdgpu driver works just fine, except then it doesn't support hardware video decode, at least until now that is.... And the biggest problem about that is that AMD released GCN1 and GCN2 hardware for years on several generations of product lines and those products are still being sold as new even still.

Yep. My R9 390 is GCN 1.1 (or GCN 2, whichever) and I'm now happily playing Warhammer 2 on Vulkan with RADV ACO. I haven't used the Radeon drivers for years, they were more unstable and had worse performance than the AMDGPU ones (which by the way occasionally had really bad bugs that caused crashes and restarts, and weren't fixed for months at a time).

[Old Grouch]

One minor problem I have is that AMDGPU DC does not support VGA output on my laptop - I experience the same problem as documented in this bug:

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/amd/-/issues/341

It's an annoyance, and I have bought an HDMI to VGA converter that sits in my laptop bag, because there are still plenty of projectors out there with only VGA input.

[qarium]

One minor problem I have is that AMDGPU DC does not support VGA output on my laptop - I experience the same problem as documented in this bug:

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/amd/-/issues/341

It's an annoyance, and I have bought an HDMI to VGA converter that sits in my laptop bag, because there are still plenty of projectors out there with only VGA input.

yes but they really really really should make AMDGPU kernel part the default for GCN1.0 and 1.1
because vulkan support and ACO support is way more important than some people who need to buy HDMI to VGA converter.

and i think you happyly buy a "HDMI to VGA converter" if you can use the much better AMDGPU driver. the need of ""HDMI to VGA converter"" should not stop making it the default.

[qarium]

I realize full well that AMD doesn't consider end users to be their customers,

well i think they just speak different language than you. you speak technician they speak businessism.

for them everything what is after the time of the sale from the chips to the card maker is not the technical department office anymore for them it is PR and any support after this chip-sell-to-cards builder is no longer the sales department anymore.

instead it is only the PR department of the brand "AMD" and they now only do it because it is "really good PR" what means it is cheaper than Television Ads or Radio Ads.

i think Ubuntu and Fedora told AMD that they want for Ubuntu20.10 and fedora33 to switch to the AMDGPU kernel driver for GCN1.0/1.1 and this would had resultet in massive bad PR of angy people who get bad experience with AMD hardware because of stoping the bad PR the PR department spend money on developers to fix the video playback firmware and make it ready for AMDGPU.

and for future you just need to speak in their language

they have "technical department" they do future development of new hardware
they have sales department they sell current chips to the card makers
and they have PR department they are the only one who care about support and old hardware support...

if you speak to bridgman or others you always have to speak like this: it would be good PR for the AMD brand if AMD spends a little PR-Advertisement money on developers for outdated hardware...-

and answer will always be the same: if big media like phoronix.com or in germany PCGH or C't heise or other international IT tech press can make a big story out of it then yes the PR they earn is good and pay for the developers.

if they can not make big story out of it they maybe will not do it.

and if vulkan works on GCN1.0/1.1 in linux and a HD7970 run faster than a GTX1050 in Doom Eternal

then this results in good PR and some linux users with even older hardware will go on ebay and maybe buy any highend HD7970 or 280X or 390X i checked it they cost like 60€ and a GTX1050 is like 130€ means some people will be happy. maybe some young people without much money buy it on ebay and make good experience and then later if they earn more money they still buy AMD.

[Old Grouch]

yes but they really really really should make AMDGPU kernel part the default for GCN1.0 and 1.1
because vulkan support and ACO support is way more important than some people who need to buy HDMI to VGA converter.

and i think you happyly buy a "HDMI to VGA converter" if you can use the much better AMDGPU driver. the need of ""HDMI to VGA converter"" should not stop making it the default.

Assessing relative importance is a mug's game. For some people, what you say (underlined) is true, for others it my not be: I would suggest that not forcing people to choose one or the other would be a better option, if possible. If I use the Radeon driver, VGA output works. If I use the AMDGPU DC driver, it doesn't. So VGA can be made to work. It is then somewhat irritating that 'improvement' in the driver means deterioration in the functionality I obtain. For people who need Vulkan and ACO the new code is great, which is wonderful for them, but it would be nice not to have to spend money and carry around a hardware dongle to solve a software induced problem. Or I just use the Radeon driver. Shrug.
I appreciate that when one has limited resources, one has to choose how they are used, so the development team probably can't cater for all the odd old use cases, but it is still a shame. I am still grateful for all the good stuff I get 'for free'.

[qarium]

Assessing relative importance is a mug's game. For some people, what you say (underlined) is true, for others it my not be: I would suggest that not forcing people to choose one or the other would be a better option, if possible. If I use the Radeon driver, VGA output works. If I use the AMDGPU DC driver, it doesn't. So VGA can be made to work. It is then somewhat irritating that 'improvement' in the driver means deterioration in the functionality I obtain. For people who need Vulkan and ACO the new code is great, which is wonderful for them, but it would be nice not to have to spend money and carry around a hardware dongle to solve a software induced problem. Or I just use the Radeon driver. Shrug.
I appreciate that when one has limited resources, one has to choose how they are used, so the development team probably can't cater for all the odd old use cases, but it is still a shame. I am still grateful for all the good stuff I get 'for free'.

well... talking about what should be default does not delete the old radeon kernel part... for now yet..
so what is your point? the vulkan people have to manually change driver but the VGA output people do not need to manually do it.
you can not fix the vulkan problem by hardware dingle...

only the VGA output have 2 different ways to solve this: buy hardware dongle from HDMI->vga OR manually set the radeon driver.

this really sounds for me that go with AMDGPU and the Vulkan driver is much better option.

if you have problem with VGA output? just buy HDMI->VGA this really sounds for as the best solution even better than setting the defaults manually.

also another viewpoint VGA is in fact obsolete and any new monitor you buy will have HDMI

but Vulkan is not obsolet instead vulkan IS THE FUTURE....

this means drop VGA and go with vulkan AMDGPU is the very best way.

any person can just buy a new HDMI monitor.

[chithanh]

You may be looking at the question from different perspectives. As far as I know AMD has not sold any hardware older than Polaris for quite a while now, but products from any vendor can stay in the supply chain and be sold as new for a decade or more.

If AMD doesn't sell that anymore, then why do they keep creating new marketing names for these products? E.g. Radeon 610 which is a 28 nm Southern Islands (GFX6 / first generation GCN) part, launched in Q3 2019.

[Old Grouch]

any person can just buy a new HDMI monitor.

Any person can, but

1) Perhaps I don't want to send perfectly good working (VGA) equipment to the landfill pile.

2) When I travel around doing presentations, I don't get to choose what projectors people have available. There are plenty of places that have projectors that don't have HDMI input. So if my laptop is sleeping or hibernating, I need to do a reboot and enable the Radeon driver, or carry an HDMI to VGA dongle. (Host provided convertors tend to go missing from conference rooms)

So yes, I tend to carry around a hardware dongle now when I didn't have to in the past. So once again, a software improvement has meant a deterioration in the usability for me. It is a minor point, but someone upthread asked if there were anything else that the AMDGPU DC lacked, and I made the point. It is not the end of the world. It is not a priority for AMD, which is understandable, but it is a niggle.

It probably helps that I don't play video games, and I don't have all the fancy desktop effects turned on, so fancy graphics do not float my boat, but I am aware they are important for others. When I started out, fancy graphics for me were what I could produce on an ICL PERQ 2, a VAXstation, and a DEC VT125. Producing animated 3D wireframe models was 'interesting'.