AMD Delivers Many Fixes For Polaris GPUs On Linux - Finally Enables ZeroRPM Fan Mode

[M@GOid]

I'm guessing that probably won't work well on my card. I still have an RX 480 that must have some problem. On its default fan settings, games have horrible stuttering unless I manually crank the fan up to 100% so it sounds like a leaf blower. Initially I thought the stuttering was some Linux gaming bug until I realized the problem was in Windows also, and then I discovered the fan issue. It's probably time for me to upgrade the card. But given that there aren't really any new games that interest me these days, I just haven't wanted to.

ZeroRPM sounds like a great idea though. Any graphics chip that requires a spinning fan for just regular desktop apps and video playing is clearly designed poorly.

Sounds like you got a dirty heat-sink. Try to clean it, perhaps even substitute the thermal paste, on a RX480 it must be old by now. Your temps and fan noise must decrease significantly.

[skeevy420]

A bit of reality shock for some people:

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-...zgbs/pc/284822

Polaris still sold strongly. Number two most sold card om Amazon right now. The goddamned Nvidia Gt710 is number one in sales, LOL.

That's because they don't know any better. It's a $54 cheapo card from a well-known brand and I imagine a lot of parents and grandparents buy it thinking they're doing their family member a favor...they ain't. $30 more on a RX 550 would be a much better purchase.

[Michael]

phoronix
do you know on which Kernel the patches are based upon?
I would like to build a Kernel myself with it, so I can test it with my RX480.
I tested with 5.8.x, but most of the patches did not work.

More than likely drm-next / amd-staging-drm-next.

[torsionbar28]

polaris will be around for years to come. someone getting a cheap machine together could quite easily get a polaris GPU and have a fantastic experience under Linux!

Polaris still actively used on the workstation side, in the entry level Radeon Pro cards. I have a wx7100 and a wx3200 card here and they work great. The wx3200 is the very newest entry workstation card from AMD, released in 2019, and yes it's Polaris.

[skeevy420]

I'm guessing that probably won't work well on my card. I still have an RX 480 that must have some problem. On its default fan settings, games have horrible stuttering unless I manually crank the fan up to 100% so it sounds like a leaf blower. Initially I thought the stuttering was some Linux gaming bug until I realized the problem was in Windows also, and then I discovered the fan issue. It's probably time for me to upgrade the card. But given that there aren't really any new games that interest me these days, I just haven't wanted to.

ZeroRPM sounds like a great idea though. Any graphics chip that requires a spinning fan for just regular desktop apps and video playing is clearly designed poorly.

My RX 580 has stupid high stock voltages that are overkill for 1080p gaming which causes my GPU to run hot, thermal throttle, and make games suck. If all you're doing is 1080p gaming try undervolting your GPU. That's what I do.

[boxie]

Polaris still actively used on the workstation side, in the entry level Radeon Pro cards. I have a wx7100 and a wx3200 card here and they work great. The wx3200 is the very newest entry workstation card from AMD, released in 2019, and yes it's Polaris.

so it is going to be in use even longer than a long time - awesome!

[torsionbar28]

Those hundreds of kilowatts, wasted over the years by Polaris GPUs...

Power consumption is the first thing in your mind here? We're talking a difference of single digit watts at idle for multi-monitor setups and fan speed control. I.e. practically negligible. Where do you get "hundreds of kilowatts" from? Your response make you sound really uninformed.

Never mind those intel 14 nm++++ CPU's that only respect TDP at base clocks. They advertise 95w TDP but then pull 280+ watts under boost. If you want to talk electric waste, that's where you ought to start. Just look at this chart showing a Ryzen 3600 build pulling 150w under load, and an identical intel i5-10400 rig pulling 350w under the same load. Holy e-Waste Batman! https://youtu.be/3Sx6i58W5nI?t=439

[schmidtbag]

A bit of reality shock for some people:

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-...zgbs/pc/284822

Polaris still sold strongly. Number two most sold card om Amazon right now. The goddamned Nvidia Gt710 is number one in sales, LOL.

Not that I'm disagreeing with the points you made in this thread, but, the 580 was super popular among crypto miners. So the reality is a bit skewed.
Seems to me the GTX 1060 and 1660 (and their Ti/Super variants) were otherwise the most popular among gamers. Regardless, the 1060 isn't exactly new either.

As long as people are still on 1080p@60Hz (which most people are) then there's not much of an incentive to ever upgrade. Even though the RTX 3000 series seems to be the first step toward making 4K affordable, it's still prohibitively expensive for many.

I myself am still using an R9 290, though, depending how the 6000 series performs and costs, that might be when I finally upgrade.

[torsionbar28]

My RX 580 has stupid high stock voltages that are overkill for 1080p gaming which causes my GPU to run hot, thermal throttle, and make games suck. If all you're doing is 1080p gaming try undervolting your GPU. That's what I do.

Agree, after undervolting my Vega 56, it runs significantly cooler with no apparent loss in frame rates and no other downsides. Power under load is down by ~80w. For 1080p gaming, undervolting is definitely the way to go. I would go so far as to suggest AMD make a tweak to their drivers, reducing voltage automatically when screen resolution is detected as 1080p.

[torsionbar28]

A bit of reality shock for some people:

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-...zgbs/pc/284822

Polaris still sold strongly. Number two most sold card om Amazon right now. The goddamned Nvidia Gt710 is number one in sales, LOL.

I wasn't familiar with that "best sellers" page before, thanks for sharing. Pretty telling on the CPU side. I knew Ryzen was selling really well, but to own the top 8 positions on the CPU sales chart, with intel's best seller way down at #9 is pretty amazing. It's a massacre really.

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Computers-Accessories-Computer-CPU-Processors/zgbs/pc/229189/ref=zg_bs_nav_pc_4_284822