AMD RDNA4 "GFX12" Linux Driver Support Matures To Being Enabled By Default

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AMD RDNA4 "GFX12" Linux Driver Support Matures To Being Enabled By Default

It looks like the AMD RDNA4 "GFX12" graphics driver support is in good shape: AMD is now enabling the driver support for the next-generation graphics "out of the box" with the latest pending patches...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMD-RDNA4-Linux-Driver-Ready

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

I really hope RDNA4 and whatever NVIDIA brings with RTX 50xx is less depressing for consumers than what we got with RDNA3 / RTX 40xx.

[skeevy420]

I really hope RDNA4 and whatever NVIDIA brings with RTX 50xx is less depressing for consumers than what we got with RDNA3 / RTX 40xx.

I'm hoping the $300/400 ones can pull of 1440p ray tracing at at least 60 to 90 fps or else they're not that interesting to me since my 6700 XT can already do 90-144hz without RT. I'd be willing to take a slight hit in performance for the increase in fidelity.

Ignoring better and faster and the performance gains we all hope for, the reality is that aside from the poor RT performance, everything else I'd like my GPU to do is all on the software side. Ways for the compositor and GUI to better communicate. Things that are taken for granted on Windows due to their only being the one compositor. Per game profile GUIs, setting AA and AF, super resolution, and the other Radeon technologies like privacy and anti-lag in addition to official ways to access overclocking and performance enhancing features so we don't have to deal with echoing /sys/class/drm for doing what should be basic controls like setting the power profile like how we can clickity click on Windows.

I know someone's gonna read that better and faster sentence and WTF!?!? me over that 9000 series thread.

[rob-tech]

I'm hoping the $300/400 ones can pull of 1440p ray tracing at at least 60 to 90 fps or else they're not that interesting to me since my 6700 XT can already do 90-144hz without RT. I'd be willing to take a slight hit in performance for the increase in fidelity.

Ignoring better and faster and the performance gains we all hope for, the reality is that aside from the poor RT performance, everything else I'd like my GPU to do is all on the software side. Ways for the compositor and GUI to better communicate. Things that are taken for granted on Windows due to their only being the one compositor. Per game profile GUIs, setting AA and AF, super resolution, and the other Radeon technologies like privacy and anti-lag in addition to official ways to access overclocking and performance enhancing features so we don't have to deal with echoing /sys/class/drm for doing what should be basic controls like setting the power profile like how we can clickity click on Windows.

I know someone's gonna read that better and faster sentence and WTF!?!? me over that 9000 series thread.

AMD really need to up their game as it's no longer acceptable that there is no driver configuration GUI such as the one on Windows in Linux, having good drivers is no longer enough. I'm currently running a 5700 XT for my simple 1080p gaming needs with a 5950x and I'm happy until my 14 year old NEC PA241w monitor dies (thing is a tank). A 7900 XTX performance for less money and actually usable ray tracing would get me to upgrade. I can no longer see myself spending stupid money for a GPU despite being well off, somehow the marketing wizards at Nvidia have normalized $2000+ for something that used to cost $600 for the most powerful version in just a span of several years.

[geerge]

Apparently (so I gather from whatever I've read the past months) rdna4 will top out in the midrange, even further behind the 5k series than rdna3 was behind the 4k series. This doesn't really surprise me, they have better uses for the silicon than trying to compete in an area they always kind of suck at with small margins.

[the-burrito-triangle]

While everyone shits on AMD for their dGPUs, they are powering most current gen consoles: PS4/PS5, XBOX S/X, Steam Deck, etc. And the new SoCs that are purported to have integrated RAM (stacked on die?) will be pretty damn amazing. Those chips will bringing console grade HW to laptops and NUCs. Nvidia might reign supreme in the datacenter and dGPU desktop, but for everything else in x86 land AMD is great. What makes me laugh is that I can game at 4k with my 7600 on older titles (e.g., Blizzard remakes WC3, SC3, D2-4), and all the PS5/PS4 games ported to PC work great on it at 4k as well (for example, DQ11 plays flawlessly). Who actually needs a 4090?

As an aside, I actually use my integrated Intel card for almost everything. PS1 games through Duckstation work fine at 4k on it. The AMD 7600 is headless and only uses 2W of idle power according to NVTOP and offloading to it for openCL and more demanding games has been seamless. I have never experienced such a smooth dual GPU setup on Windows.

[ayumu]

Apparently (so I gather from whatever I've read the past months) rdna4 will top out in the midrange, even further behind the 5k series than rdna3 was behind the 4k series. This doesn't really surprise me, they have better uses for the silicon than trying to compete in an area they always kind of suck at with small margins.

What matters is price.

If priced aggressively, it'll sell well, like polaris did.

[blackiwid]

If priced aggressively, it'll sell well, like polaris did.

Exactly nearly nobody needs more than a 4070 ti super, so if they get similar to that but cheap, most people are happy.

[geerge]

What matters is price.

If priced aggressively, it'll sell well, like polaris did.

It will not be priced aggressively unless intel really steps up competition. They're not going to make enough of these that they can make a play for any sort of market share, which is when they would really price aggressively. If radeon makes any big moves it'll be in AI not gaming, and now that cdna is split from rdna gamers won't even get the bad bins. Even ignoring ai, server cpu's have better margins. If they really wanted to make a market share play I'd suggest they would keep last years node pumping for the sub-$600 mark, but from what I understand they continue to wrap older generations up. Polaris was pumped at a time when AMD didn't have much else going on.

Gamers don't need 4090 performance correct, that's just nvidia inventing ever new highs. I'm gaming on a 780M.

AMD powers consoles because they needed guaranteed sales when they were weak, the margins will be low. I bet now that they're making bank elsewhere the console contracts are a bit of a burden (next gen consoles might be rather expensive and/or lean heavily into ai and upscaling marketing).

[DiamondAngle]

AMD powers consoles because they needed guaranteed sales when they were weak, the margins will be low. I bet now that they're making bank elsewhere the console contracts are a bit of a burden (next gen consoles might be rather expensive and/or lean heavily into ai and upscaling marketing).

AMDs market share in dgpus outside of the linux bubble is dangerously tiny. A hidden benefit of the console contracts is that game devs optimize alot for amd hardware so they have the optimized shaders etc on pc too something the probubly would not do nearly as mutch for the very small percentage of the market with high end amd dgpus.