AMD's New Open-Source "AMDGPU" Linux Driver Supports The R9 285 Tonga

[agd5f]

When R9 285 support arrives in amdgpu driver code, why don't we back port it to the radeon driver code?
(because I don't think amdgpu will get out of the kernel stage branch right when it will be pushed into the kernel code base)

Can't really do that. Multiple drivers for the same hardware are not really allowed in the kernel. If we supported those asics with radeon, we'd have to support those asics with radeon forever. Moreover, the drivers are structured differently enough that it would be a fair amount of work to restructure to new code to apply to radeon.

[Creak]

Can't really do that. Multiple drivers for the same hardware are not really allowed in the kernel. If we supported those asics with radeon, we'd have to support those asics with radeon forever. Moreover, the drivers are structured differently enough that it would be a fair amount of work to restructure to new code to apply to radeon.

Fair enough, we'll just need to be patient then

I'd like to precise while you're here (and to prove there is not just haters in the open source community ). I'm really thrilled of where AMD is going with this open source driver, and I'm glad I bought an AMD card a few years ago. You can count on me to buy another one when amdgpu gets mainlined!

I also hope we'll see some FreeSync soon too! I haven't heard a lot about it recently.

[Nille_kungen]

Where will the breaking-point be for integrated graphics?
Many notebook/laptop has dual graphics so how will they work with the new drivers if there from different generations?
Will only one be supported or will hybrid work?
Like my current laptop has an AMD APU and an GPU (AMD Radeon HD 8650G/8670M Dual GPU).

[xeekei]

Fair enough, we'll just need to be patient then

I'd like to precise while you're here (and to prove there is not just haters in the open source community ). I'm really thrilled of where AMD is going with this open source driver, and I'm glad I bought an AMD card a few years ago. You can count on me to buy another one when amdgpu gets mainlined!

I also hope we'll see some FreeSync soon too! I haven't heard a lot about it recently.

I second this. I'm looking forward to have maximum performance and OpenGL 4.x on Arch Linux with a Radeon card in the future. And no issues upgrading my kernel.

[agd5f]

Where will the breaking-point be for integrated graphics?
Many notebook/laptop has dual graphics so how will they work with the new drivers if there from different generations?
Will only one be supported or will hybrid work?
Like my current laptop has an AMD APU and an GPU (AMD Radeon HD 8650G/8670M Dual GPU).

Hybrid graphics will work just like it does today. There are already hybrid graphics that use different drivers for each chip (E.g., Intel+AMD laptops).

[gigaplex]

Hybrid graphics will work just like it does today. There are already hybrid graphics that use different drivers for each chip (E.g., Intel+AMD laptops).

I was under the impression that AMDs hybrid graphics was a form of Crossfire, which works differently to offloading (eg Nvidias Optimus/AMDs Enduro).

[bridgman]

There are two different options depending on the relative performance of the iGPU and dGPU. Hybrid Crossfire is like Crossfire but needs a dGPU with comparable performance to the iGPU, Hybrid Graphics is (for example) display on iGPU, render on dGPU and is used where dGPU is more powerful (and power hungry) than iGPU. Not sure if Hybrid Crossfire is supported on Linux Catalyst, might be Win7+ only.

[gutigen]

Could anyone clarify how this new drive will affect current gen cards? Let's say I got a card bought last year, is it going to get all the goodies like OpenGL 4.x and performance optimizations which new cards will get with new drive or are we gonna be left behind? Some of the cards bought yesterday and today are powerful enough to last for next few years, so I'm wondering how is AMD going to deal with them if new driver is only for new cards.

[Creak]

Could anyone clarify how this new drive will affect current gen cards? Let's say I got a card bought last year, is it going to get all the goodies like OpenGL 4.x and performance optimizations which new cards will get with new drive or are we gonna be left behind? Some of the cards bought yesterday and today are powerful enough to last for next few years, so I'm wondering how is AMD going to deal with them if new driver is only for new cards.

From what I understood, all the drivers (amdgpu, r600g, radeonsi) will share the same common base. So it's not impossible that improvements in one will benefit the others.

But specific code will still need to be done for the cards handled by r600g and radeonsi. I suppose that OpenGL 4.5 is still a goal for each of these drivers, since all the cards does support it.

[schmidtbag]

There are two different options depending on the relative performance of the iGPU and dGPU. Hybrid Crossfire is like Crossfire but needs a dGPU with comparable performance to the iGPU, Hybrid Graphics is (for example) display on iGPU, render on dGPU and is used where dGPU is more powerful (and power hungry) than iGPU. Not sure if Hybrid Crossfire is supported on Linux Catalyst, might be Win7+ only.

Crossfire support is available for linux Catalyst but it either causes worse performance or is limited by only a very small handful of applications with no way to force enable it (there used to be but it doesn't work anymore).

On the note of crossfire - I'm assuming at some point the amdgpu driver will support crossfire and do a better implementation than today's catalyst, but I'm still a little worried about the progression of the radeon and radeonsi drivers - is it known if those drivers will ever support crossfire? Last I heard (a little less than 2 years ago) crossfire support was a low priority but still on the todo list. I'm just a little concerned if it will ever happen at this point, and if it will, a rough idea of when it will be worked on. I would gladly beta test it. Crossfire is the ONLY thing that prevents me from playing certain games. For me personally, I'd rather see crossfire support before openGL 4.0, but, I understand how and why crossfire is a low priority.