How AMD's Proprietary Linux Driver Evolved In 2015

[phoronix]

Phoronix: How AMD's Proprietary Linux Driver Evolved In 2015

Last month I showed how AMD's open-source driver performance evolved in 2015 while today's article is looking at how the closed-source AMD / Radeon Technologies Group proprietary driver has evolved over the course of the year.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=22641

[Linuxhippy]

I am really glad the open-source "radeon" driver is in such a good shape for office-use and occasionall gaming.

I recently bought an AMD Mullins APU based netbook for a friend and everything worked really smooth using Fedora 23.
2D was fast thanks to GLAMOR, 3D is acceptable and already at OpenGL 4.1.
If I had to use Catalyst I most likely would have opted for an Intel chip, simply to avoid all the hassles this horrible piece of software brings.

[Kano]

A netbook is not really made for gaming, but if you own a dedicated AMD gfx card you usually want to play some games. OpenGL 4.1 oss support sounds nice but for many games you still need a binary driver. Funny can be really games that show an AMD logo at start and only run fast with Nvidia like Saints Row IV...

[nomadewolf]

i have years of experience with the radeon/FOSS driver and the Catalyst/FGLRX closed source driver and i can approve the message that something so fundamentally broken like the closed source driver can not *Evolve*.

It is because the concept of closed source do not make sense for drivers at all.
Even if the concept of closed source makes sense for some games as a kind of copy-protection but for drivers it males no sense.

And because of the broken concept it is hopeless to believe something can be *Evolve*
In software engineering basic concept is the most important part if you start from a known broken concept and you try to fix it later it will fail.

So my advice is: STOP THIS MADNESS

Madness?
THIS IS SPARTA!!!
I mean... Catalyst!

[sabun]

Madness?
THIS IS SPARTA!!!
I mean... Catalyst!

Hehe, gave me a good chuckle. One like for you my good sir.

Throughout 2015 the only changes I actually felt with the proprietary driver:
1. Kernel 4.2 support (albeit arrived terribly late and is still unconfirmed on AMD's notes)
2. CSGO profile
3. Dota 2 profile
4. Total War Attila profile

For RadeonSI, the only thing that felt like an improvement was the OpenGL 4.1 support finally being added in. Performance is still too frustrating to be considered usable for my card at 1080p (Dota 2, Bioshock Infinite, CSGO, GRID autosport won't even run), with the only exception being Dirt Showdown running really well strangely enough (from Mesa 10.5 upwards to 11.2). I still can't make use of Gallium Nine either, which is disappointing but understandable since it's experimental software.

The Crimson update was the most disappointing for me. I was so excited for it. It's only my fault for expecting anything though. 2016 with Vulkan gives a chance that my 390 card will be something more, or at least one can hope.

[theriddick]

Don't worry, I'm sure AMD will have a new slideshow out soon. They are good at making those at least