AMD Publishes AMDGPU UVD Firmware For Southern Islands

[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.

[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.

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).

[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.

[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.

[Francex]

Did it work with radeon kernel driver ? AFAIK that's what we recommend for R7 240.

No, it doesn't work.
With AMDGPU: hdmi audio is not selectable.
With Radeon: sound is choppy and distorted.
With Windows 10 (AMD Catalyst): works perfectly.

I should try with Kernel >5.7...

[bridgman]

I realize full well that AMD doesn't consider end users to be their customers, but it's exactly end users who are using their products. In my humble opinion it doesn't matter at all that it wasn't AMD that directly sold that product to them. You released GCN1 and GCN2 to OEM's and retail channels for years, knowing full well they would end up in end user hands.

With respect, you realize something that is not correct. We fully understand that our products go through a multi-level supply chain and that end users are the customers from a *support* perspective, but in terms of getting into the supply chain in the first place the decision-makers are OEMs and AIB partners, even if their desires do not match those of the end user.

I was responding to comments like "AMD is still selling..." which were not correct.

It doesn't take a genius to figure that they would become as pervasive as they are. Those products were released all the way up to 2016, so I don't see how you guys could ever possibly say you couldn't predict that OEMs and retailers would still be selling stock in 2020, the last of those products weren't released 10 years ago, but in fact less than 5. They were released for years and generation after generation. You can still walk into -BestBuy- and still buy Evergreen class 5550 r600s for crying out loud and those are -older- than 10 years....

There's a sense of outrage in your post that I don't quite understand. What exactly are you upset about ? I think you are saying the same as me.

[RussianNeuroMancer]

using limited engineering resources on something that doesn't generate any tangible revenue

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?

So getting GCN1 support into good shape in open source driver is good PR and good advertisement for both of new customers who move from Nvidia to AMD and for current customers who run previous generations of AMD hardware. Both groups will see this as good move and buy/recommend new hardware by AMD with much higher probability.

[anth]

Looks like the most recent GCN 1 release was Radeon 520 in April 2017, and the most recent GCN 2 release was Radeon RX 455 in June 2016. Both were OEM only.

I found a review from May 2019 for a Dell laptop with the first of these, including a comment that the outdated GPU was a "head scratcher". A review from April 2018 of an HP laptop with the second of these noted that the dedicated GPU didn't provide a performance gain over the integrated Intel 620 which was also included.

[duby229]

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.

In the past the prices would go down periodically to reflect their declining value, but in the last couple of years I have seen surprisingly high pricing on old stock, presumably generated by scarcity-based pricing algorithms. It's not for me to tell retailers how to do their jobs, but it's probably fair to say that very few people would pay a premium for a 10 year old graphics card no matter how scarce it was at the retail level

I realize full well that AMD doesn't consider end users to be their customers, but it's exactly end users who are using their products. In my humble opinion it doesn't matter at all that it wasn't AMD that directly sold that product to them. You released GCN1 and GCN2 to OEM's and retail channels for years, knowing full well they would end up in end user hands. It doesn't take a genius to figure that they would become as pervasive as they are. Those products were released all the way up to 2016, so I don't see how you guys could ever possibly say you couldn't predict that OEMs and retailers would still be selling stock in 2020, the last of those products weren't released 10 years ago, but in fact less than 5. They were released for years and generation after generation. You can still walk into -BestBuy- and still buy Evergreen class 5550 r600s for crying out loud and those are -older- than 10 years....