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

[schmidtbag]

@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.

[Creak]

I can run ANY game with my old 7770 and latest Mesa/llvm/kernel without issues. Performance is obviously lower than under Windows, but not that much lower anymore. For example TF2 runs at almost same speed, 70+ in 32 player scenarios and toping at almost 300 if there are no players on the server. On the other hand Witcher 2 with same settings runs at around 30fps under Linux and 60+ (stable 60 with vsync) under Windows, but that's developers fault actually.

To be fair I have some slow frame rates with Civ 5...

[gutigen]

For me a nootebook/laptop user i need catalyst to play games radeon doesn't work even with games that people say works with radeon.
With catalyst most of my games work but with radeon almost no games work.
If you ask me i rather say name a game that works with radeon.

I can run ANY game with my old 7770 and latest Mesa/llvm/kernel without issues. Performance is obviously lower than under Windows, but not that much lower anymore. For example TF2 runs at almost same speed, 70+ in 32 player scenarios and toping at almost 300 if there are no players on the server. On the other hand Witcher 2 with same settings runs at around 30fps under Linux and 60+ (stable 60 with vsync) under Windows, but that's developers fault actually.

[Nille_kungen]

For me a nootebook/laptop user i need catalyst to play games radeon doesn't work even with games that people say works with radeon.
With catalyst most of my games work but with radeon almost no games work.
If you ask me i rather say name a game that works with radeon.

[Kano]

Your performance statement is too simplified. You lose much performance for many games in case you use Linux vor you get a simpler renderer. Especially low/mid performance cards which could be used with or without CF on Win to play games often run much slower. Maybe your statement is fine for HD 4850 or better but not for slower ones. Even my HD 5670s feel too slow with fglrx or OSS radeon. CF does not help at all. Some games allow to compare OpenGL with Direct3D on Win. In case you have got Serious Sam 3 feel free to compare. OpenGL with binary driver is about 20% slower independent of OS. Metro Last Light has only OpenGL 3 support but DX 11 (Tesselation) on Win. Source Engine games offen have got mouse lags if you are under 100 FPS with Fglrx. AA costs much more speed. Are you sure you can play Witcher 2 with your card with good speed?

[whitecat]

I don't think AMD will work on this soon, there is more important things on the TODO list before that.
Moreover, if I remeber a comment from David Airlie or maybe Alex Deucher, there is nothing really magical in Crossfire/SLI. This is about balancing in some manner the rendering a different GPU.
Such things needs modification in the kernel (?), DRM (?), Mesa (?) that can be done by someone outside of AMD (Red Hat, community, etc.). There is maybe some "magic" number/register to set up but I'm pretty sure AMD will give some help if someone intend to work on this Crossfire support.


There is exactly 4 years between the former HD4000 series release and the last Catalyst version to support them.
AMD, Enterprise vendor and the "community" still provides updates to r300 and r600g, and even r200 which so implies hardware from mid-2001.
And the kernel and xorg packages still includes drivers from even older hardware.

Please give me a game that HD4000/r600g can't handle correctly with decent performance.

[Slartifartblast]

I don't like pestering about crossfire, but every time a major shift in something (like this amdgpu driver) comes up, it makes me wonder what will happen to the older hardware. AMD dropped support for the HD4000 series in catalyst when it was only I think 2 years old, so it wouldn't surprise me if they tell the open source team to shift their focus elsewhere, indefinitely.

That is exactly why I buy Nvidia - decent support length.

[przemoli]

Good news about AMD/Intel floss strategies is that there is abundance of 3rd party or independent devs hacking.

So if Crossfire become reality for any of AMD floss drivers there should be enough pressure to backport that work to others still in use.

[Kivada]

Are you the one with 2x HD 5750 ?

Any idea on if/when crossfire will be hammered out? It seems to be a sticking point for allot of gamers looking to start switching.

[schmidtbag]

Are you the one with 2x HD 5750 ?

Haha yeah, I am. Though whenever it comes for me to do an upgrade, I intend to do multi-GPU again. For the sake of linux, mesa, and the good work that you and your team have provided, I prefer to avoid nvidia if I can.

I don't like pestering about crossfire, but every time a major shift in something (like this amdgpu driver) comes up, it makes me wonder what will happen to the older hardware. AMD dropped support for the HD4000 series in catalyst when it was only I think 2 years old, so it wouldn't surprise me if they tell the open source team to shift their focus elsewhere, indefinitely.