AMD Is Hiring Two More Open-Source Linux GPU Driver Developers

[przemoli]

I understand that you say but i speak for now not the future. AMD loses sales on open source camp because:

1) If i don't have D3D on Linux, i will buy the small GPU for casual gaming and not the big one, wile i do a compromise (i can't play on Linux).

2) No crossfire, i will not buy two GPUs, that includes laptops with AMD CPUs.

3) No fast support for new architecture like GNC1.2, i will not buy the new GPU and since i can't there is not a reason for a new one (well i will by a used one).

Those are the problems for spring and summer 2015.

1) O_O
LOL there is NO SINGLE DX9 game for Linux right now! Zip. Zero. Non. Null. Nill.
Nine works OK, but it need Wine and WINDOWS game.

2) Good point. Just market is small. Proof? Basic Crossfire can be done without any documentation from AMD. Nobody done it. Not many care as much as they care about other things...

3) That is single exception in recent years. Usually Catalyst is there to provide support...
(Come one AMD, where is this support!?! ;P )

[artivision]

Honestly, I really hope your vision never comes true.

Nine will never work with proprietary drivers. The DX10 state tracker is dead in the water. And AMD products aren't as bad as you make them out to be. And finally if you want crossfire support then all the hard work is mostly done, just finish it. Not that crossfire actually matters, you can already switch between GPU's.

Mesa state trackers can work with closed drivers even on Windowz. Linux is the top especially with the new unified approaches that are proposed like new ABI or like possible AMD own d3d9 library for Catalyst based on the free one. But most of as don't care for closed drivers anyway, thats why we use Linux instead of Windows.

As for a D3D10 state tracker, i wasn't speaking for the one that is dead, there others around that can be opened if Nine succeeds.

[artivision]

1) O_O
LOL there is NO SINGLE DX9 game for Linux right now! Zip. Zero. Non. Null. Nill.
Nine works OK, but it need Wine and WINDOWS game.

2) Good point. Just market is small. Proof? Basic Crossfire can be done without any documentation from AMD. Nobody done it. Not many care as much as they care about other things...

3) That is single exception in recent years. Usually Catalyst is there to provide support...
(Come one AMD, where is this support!?! ;P )

1) And your point is?
2) Laptops with dual AMD GPUs are many and will be more.
3) We are on Phoronix, we don't use this forum to speak about Catalyst or other closed source, we just refer to them for basic benchmarking. Sorry that i didn't know that there are people that use mainly Catalyst.

[justmy2cents]

I propose to AMD to be active developer of Galium Nine and do some deal with a known company to release "Ten". Also get done with some thinks like crossfire. Example question: One of my laptops has an A6-6310 and an R5-m230, can i use both GPUs in asymmetric crossfire with Gallium or even with Catalyst?

why waste resources? unless i got it wrong, CrossFire/SLI is pointless with new APIs and even nine is only supported on some OSS drivers. why write something that will only be legacy when there are enough legitimate tasks?

[justmy2cents]

I understand that you say but i speak for now not the future. AMD loses sales on open source camp because:

1) If i don't have D3D on Linux, i will buy the small GPU for casual gaming and not the big one, wile i do a compromise (i can't play on Linux).

2) No crossfire, i will not buy two GPUs, that includes laptops with AMD CPUs.

3) No fast support for new architecture like GNC1.2, i will not buy the new GPU and since i can't there is not a reason for a new one (well i will by a used one).

Those are the problems for spring and summer 2015.

1. play native games and actually support evolution of linux gaming. wine has exact opposite effect, since it seems like people are just happy with playing with wrapper. why bother porting native then?

2. dx12 and vulkan both handle multiple GPUs directly without imposing on driver which is far better then crossfire

3. wait for vulkan driver like the rest of us and there can't be vulkan yet, since spec is not yet finished. if you talked about mantle, it died in favour of vulkan. aka. died for a really good cause

[duby229]

Mesa state trackers can work with closed drivers even on Windowz. Linux is the top especially with the new unified approaches that are proposed like new ABI or like possible AMD own d3d9 library for Catalyst based on the free one. But most of as don't care for closed drivers anyway, thats why we use Linux instead of Windows.

As for a D3D10 state tracker, i wasn't speaking for the one that is dead, there others around that can be opened if Nine succeeds.

You've got gallium wrong. Gallium itself could potentially run on any OS. But you are still limited to using gallium drivers. To use a gallium state tracker you still need a gallium device driver with support for TGSI.

None of which matters anyways as the only use for Nine is with wine. which is exactly why wine devs need to pull their heads out of their asses.

[duby229]

1) And your point is?
2) Laptops with dual AMD GPUs are many and will be more.
3) We are on Phoronix, we don't use this forum to speak about Catalyst or other closed source, we just refer to them for basic benchmarking. Sorry that i didn't know that there are people that use mainly Catalyst.

Laptops with integrated graphics and discrete graphics already work. You can already switch between the 2 GPUs.

[dungeon]

Wishlist can be huge, but who are those new employees? We might conclude something if names are known .

Some older devs might want to go, one never knows

[smitty3268]

http://mesamatrix.net/

When you compare the nvc0 driver for Nvidia graphics card, it is in better shape than the AMD drivers, despite AMD having paid developers and releases documentation.
While the Nvidia open source driver is developed solely by the community without any support from Nvidia and without any documentation.

Heh heh. Spoken like someone who hasn't actually used both drivers to compare them.

Drivers are a lot more than a few checkboxes.

[artivision]

1. play native games and actually support evolution of linux gaming. wine has exact opposite effect, since it seems like people are just happy with playing with wrapper. why bother porting native then?

2. dx12 and vulkan both handle multiple GPUs directly without imposing on driver which is far better then crossfire

3. wait for vulkan driver like the rest of us and there can't be vulkan yet, since spec is not yet finished. if you talked about mantle, it died in favour of vulkan. aka. died for a really good cause

1) Last time i checked Wine and Nine where free software Linux resources and not MS technology. Wine works as a compatibility bridge using native Linux libraries and helps find bugs in them. Nine is an API front driver for Gallium and helps evolve Gallium and find bugs. Native Linux games usually use only closed GL drivers that are not free technology and they don't help the community anywhere. I hold small bottle for porting native, i have to see it first, MS has shares everywhere.

2) Now you can only switch GPUs on a laptop and not use them together like 320Gcn1.1-cores+128Gcn1.1-cores. Only god knows the future (and i don't believe in gods).

3) Once Vulkan is ready will take another 3 years to materialize for actual gaming.