AMDVLK vs. Mesa RADV Radeon Vulkan Driver Performance On Linux

[microcode]

I wonder what the bug is that kills those XT runs...

[smitty3268]

stupid question, I cannot understand the advantage in investing in two different drivers. Why not merging amdvlk and radv and focusing on a single, well optimized, driver?

The issue is that nobody is investing in 2 different drivers.

AMD is investing in their amdvlk driver, because it's a super cheap way for them to support linux (it's based on the windows driver).

Valve is investing in their radv driver, because they think amdvlk is crap and not good enough for Steam Deck or linux gaming in general.

Combining the two isn't really possible, and neither side is going to be satisfied with dropping their driver and switching to the other, because of the reasons above. Valve can't reasonably make big changes to amdvlk to get linux running better, because that would break the entire point of having amdvlk be based off the windows driver, making it no longer cheap to maintain. And AMD can't really invest much into radv without spending more than they do on amdvlk, even if they drop their current driver. I'm assuming they have 1 part time guy on that now, so virtually anything is going to be more expensive.