AMDGPU Linux Driver Enabling FreeSync Video By Default, Improved Power Savings

[agd5f]

And what is the advantage of freesync video does it then reduce the hz to 24/48hz in fullscreen mode or what?

If a media app changes the display mode to 24 or 48 Hz to align with content playback, it can be done by using freesync so it's seamless.

[bearoso]

Lots of confusion here. Let me clarify.

The freesync_video option doesn't enable freesync, that's already done elsewhere. What this does is add to the video mode table a number of lower refresh rates by using the same method as freesync: increasing the number of vblank lines. Setting these modes actually disables variable freesync. This is bad because there's no indication which modes are real monitor modes and which are derived.

Suppose you have a natural refresh rate of 2560x1440 @ 144hz. This might add a bunch of modes like:
2560x1440 @ 120hz
2560x1440 @ 60hz
2560x1440 @ 30hz
2560x1440 @ 24hz

These would all use the high pixel clock used by the 144hz mode, but they basically just cap the frame rate using freesync. The side effect is that you lose the ability to swap buffers on demand, the variable part of variable refresh rate.

Worse yet, your mode list in most GUIs including monitor modes ends up looking like this:
2560x1440 @ 144hz
2560x1440 @ 120hz
2560x1440 @ 120hz
2560x1440 @ 60hz
2560x1440 @ 60hz
2560x1440 @ 30hz
2560x1440 @ 24hz

Which ones are which? Guess wrong and you lose freesync temporarily. KDE discards seemingly duplicate modes, so you get one or the other. On X11 you can use Xrandr to differentiate between them and set the correct one. On Wayland you're screwed--you have to load a custom EDID.

The reason this patch was reverted was because there were bugs like one that, if you accidentally switched to one of these modes, caused freesync to be disabled completely until a module reload or reboot.

It's a neat feature, but there's no user visible indication that you're using one of these modes unless you look at the detailed mode timings, and people could end up like me and wonder why variable freesync isn't working. Without that, this needs to be disabled by default. Unfortunately, since this is vendor-specific, there's never going to be such a user-visible setting.

[Paradigm Shifter]

Do any laptops support freesync on their native displays?

I've got an Asus "AMD Advantage" G15Y which does. 1440p, 165Hz VRR.

But I've given up trying to get Linux working on it at all, because Asus. If I do get it to play, Windows 11 then dumps all over the EFI partition, I fix that and then the RGB nonsense I turned off turns back on... I just gave up because I haven't had time for the last few months to fight with it. Maybe in the summer. I might just dump Windows entirely, see how Steam Play does for the few games I care about right now.

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

I've got an Asus "AMD Advantage" G15Y which does. 1440p, 165Hz VRR.

But I've given up trying to get Linux working on it at all, because Asus. If I do get it to play, Windows 11 then dumps all over the EFI partition, I fix that and then the RGB nonsense I turned off turns back on... I just gave up because I haven't had time for the last few months to fight with it. Maybe in the summer. I might just dump Windows entirely, see how Steam Play does for the few games I care about right now.

I'm typing this on a G513QY. Have you taken a look at https://asus-linux.org? There's even a nice little GUI utility to do stuff like change performance profiles, adjust fan curves, adjust LEDs, set charge limit, etc.








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[Paradigm Shifter]

I'm typing this on a G513QY. Have you taken a look at https://asus-linux.org? There's even a nice little GUI utility to do stuff like change performance profiles, adjust fan curves, adjust LEDs, set charge limit, etc..

Have in the past but not for months. As I said, haven't had time. Thanks for the reminder, though!

[pieman]

Can anyone tell me what the current state of FreeSync/HDR is on linux using AMD? I'm considering buying a new monitor soon.
Does FreeSync just work on any game? Does HDR work for games that support it?

i have two freesync displays. a hp omen 27i 2560x1440 nano ips 165hz and a lg 3440x1440 va 100hz ultrawide. on xorg, i can only use one monitor if i want freesync enabled as xorg only supports freesync on one monitor. if you have another one on, freesync won't work, even if it supports freesync. freesync itself works great though. i never had any issues at all. game loads fullscreen, freesync was on. no mouse lag or anything like that.

on wayland i can have both monitors enabled with freesync working. which is really nice. on kde wayland, freesync worked as well as on xorg for me. on gnome with the vrr patches to mutter since gnome doesn't natively support freesync on wayland, i had some crashing issues and factorio for some reason would have horrible mouse lag. but, on kde i didn't have any problem. another thing is on kde, you can enable freesync for window mode along with fullscreen mode. which is pretty nice. kde is really your only option for a traditional desktop environment if you want to use wayland and have freesync enabled until gnome finally gets around adding official freesync support......

[xcom]

Also for Vega on HDMI, or just for RDNA2 on Display port?

[LinAGKar]

I still don't see what the point of this is, as opposed to just letting video players use regular FreeSync (as they do with G-Sync on the Nvidia side).

Doesn't this require all video players to trigger modesetting (unless the user does it manually).

[Kjell]

Does FreeSync work well with amd + other (Optimus/Hybrid) setups (i.e. if Nvidia presence limits the range) or is that another/non-amd issue?

From actual experience:

Floating WMs

• KDE has a fairly decent VRR
• Gnome is still a work in progress

(Check related section here: https://github.com/hyprwm/Hyprland/i...ent-1556270866)

Tiling WMs

• Sway and Hyprland are half baked at best. It's not a positve experience

More info: https://github.com/hyprwm/Hyprland/i...ent-1534980040

Currently I use Hyprland for work and Gamescope for gaming. I can't really recommend this setup.
(Check workaround section here: https://github.com/hyprwm/Hyprland/i...1556270866)


VRR

• New GSYNC monitors can even be used with Freesync if you have a AMD GPU, see: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/gamescope/issues/721

HDR

• The current implementation is worse than Windows but it's slowly coming together. I know CachyOS has the correct tweaks if you don't want to do this manually (https://www.phoronix.com/forums/foru...40#post1390040). Also, Hyprland supports HDR if you want to use it on your desktop

GPU

• If you have a NVIDIA GPU, don't bother with Wayland. Hardware acceleration feels like a alpha stage product. Lots of issues with flickering, pixel glitches and being limited to software rendering for years now. Check https://github.com/NVIDIA/open-gpu-k...ent-1480910485 . Sure there's tricks to make it work decent at best on Wayland, see: https://wiki.hyprland.org/Nvidia/ & https://github.com/Alex313031/Thoriu...fra/PATCHES.md

I ditched NVIDIA for AMD and haven't looked back. Just make sure to buy a RX 6xxx or newer for a good experience.

[ripper81]

Can anyone tell me what the current state of FreeSync/HDR is on linux using AMD? I'm considering buying a new monitor soon.
Does FreeSync just work on any game? Does HDR work for games that support it?

This is the state of HDR and VRR on linux as far as i know about it.

HDR is unsupported on linux and will most likely never be supported at all on X11/X.org. There is ongoing work to bring HDR support to Wayland (Gamescope, KDE Plasma, GNOME) at some point in the future at least for AMD GPU´s.

VRR technologies (Nvidia G-Sync; AMD Freesync) have been supported for quiet some time now. But support is limited compared to windows and is also depending on the "displayserver" in use.

X11/X.org:

Nvidia G-Sync and AMD Freesync are supported regardless of the desktop environment in use.

G-Sync will be enabled by default as long as a G-Sync compatible display is used and the proprietary
Nvidia driver is installed. It can also be forced on AMD Freesync displays manually wit the Nvidia X Settings tool.
AMD Freesync will be disabled by default in all cases. This needs to be enabled by the user by editing the
X.org config files.

VRR has strong limitations on X11/x.org. Both technologies are only working as long as one single G-sync/Freesync display is connected. For multidisplay setups VRR will be disabled. Both technologies are only working with applications running in exclusive fullscreenmode.

Wayland:

In Wayland VRR needs to be impelmentet within the waylandcompositor there is no general support from the Waylandprotocol itself. Nvidia G-Sync is not supported for Wayland right now. AMD Freesync is supported by KDE Plasma Wayland and the waylandcompositor Sway. There is also an experimental Version of the GNOME Compositor Mutter that enables AMD Freesync in GNOME. However this might not be available to install for all distributions right now.

On Wayland VRR can work without the limitations present in X11/X.org

VRR on Notebooks with Hybrid GPU systems (Nvidia Optimus) is often very problematic on linux. It depends on how the hybridtechnolgy is implementet on the hardwareside. There are some stores (like tuxedocomputers) that are offering linuxcompatible Notebooks with Nvidia Optimus with G-Sync compatible displays.