Originally posted by gutigen
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AMD's New Open-Source "AMDGPU" Linux Driver Supports The R9 285 Tonga
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@Slartifartblast
I appreciate how much nvidia has given linux, and unlike a lot of people here I don't really give a crap if the drivers are open source or not. However, nvidia has had pretty decent drivers for at least 10 years now, while AMD has just started picking up the pieces roughly 2 years ago. However, not only are they picking up these pieces but they're trying to comply with open source standards, which will help create a much more integrated and solid experience. I'm highly impressed and happy with their progress so far. I think helping fund AMD is the only way to make sure this progress continues.
@whitecat
Yes, I remember hearing how there's nothing magical about crossfire (I believe it was Alex who said it) but I think it's really only as simple as that in principle, otherwise, multi-GPU would've been implemented several years ago. Maybe not for AMD, but just in general. There are a few small things here and there that can add to complication, such as:
* Utilizing the hardware bridges existed to help stabilize performance
* The 2nd GPU's resources (including it's display ports) would be inaccessible, assuming it works anything like catalyst
* Knowing when to use different crossfire modes such as 1x1 or AFR, or knowing when to disable it entirely
When it comes to using single GPUs, the performance of the open source drivers is fantastic and in some cases better than Catalyst on windows. But for me personally I have about 4 games that I could play at full detail or near full if I had my 2nd GPU working.
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Originally posted by bridgman View PostI can't help thinking it would be cheaper for us to send schmidtbag a faster card, take his 5750s away, and forget about Crossfire
So bridgman, to be more direct and put an end to my persistence - will it happen for pre-amdgpu drivers and if so, is there a rough estimate when it will be in development?
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Originally posted by schmidtbag View PostSo bridgman, to be more direct and put an end to my persistence - will it happen for pre-amdgpu drivers and if so, is there a rough estimate when it will be in development?
We would need to help with the HW bits behind the crossfire cables (that would need to go in the kernel drivers AFAIK) but that is really a last-stage optimization and not gating in any way.Last edited by bridgman; 14 October 2014, 11:05 AM.Test signature
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Originally posted by bridgman View PostThe hard work for multi-GPU 3D rendering is almost completely HW-independent so I think we were kinda hoping someone else would do it as a mostly-cross-vendor solution.
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Originally posted by bridgman View PostThe hard work for multi-GPU 3D rendering is almost completely HW-independent so I think we were kinda hoping someone else would do it as a mostly-cross-vendor solution. It's also almost entirely userspace work so independent of the radeon/amdgpu transition. I think your question is more r600/radeonsi rather than radeon/amdgpu.
I'm guessing this means you and your team won't be working on CF unless you've basically run out of other major things to do, which I know is several years away.
We would need to help with the HW bits behind the crossfire cables (that would need to go in the kernel drivers AFAIK) but that is really a last-stage optimization and not gating in any way.
Anyway, thanks for the answer. I'll see if I can just use my 2nd GPU for openCL related tasks, or maybe to use as a player2 for games that don't support split-screen. I'll stop pestering about it now haha.
@dungeon
I agree, that would be a great idea.
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Originally posted by schmidtbag View PostI'm guessing this means you and your team won't be working on CF unless you've basically run out of other major things to do, which I know is several years away.Test signature
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Originally posted by bridgman View Post... or someone gets bored with working on "must have" stuff, which is how many of the interesting improvements actually happen
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Originally posted by geearf View PostIn the past radeon was the only kernel-driver.
Wouldn't it make more sense to merge radeon and amdgpu for easy maintainability ?
Or would the refactor not be worth the various changes you'd have to twice in the future with the separate codebase?
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