AMD's Open-Source Strategy Is Now Ten Years Old

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AMD's Open-Source Strategy Is Now Ten Years Old

What an incredible ride it's been over the past ten years of AMD pursuing an open-source Linux graphics driver strategy.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=25438

[Leopard]

You've pointed out well , a GUI like Amd Relive or Catalyst is needed ASAP.

Amd drivers matured very well alas giving a complete experience to customer out of box is still lacking.

FreeSync, Hdmi Audio , OpenGL compat profiles are most notable ones.

[nanonyme]

You've pointed out well , a GUI like Amd Relive or Catalyst is needed ASAP.

Amd drivers matured very well alas giving a complete experience to customer out of box is still lacking.

FreeSync, Hdmi Audio , OpenGL compat profiles are most notable ones.

I thought GL compat profiles are essentially missing by design in all Mesa drivers. Freesync is coming soon, HDMI audio is either done or coming soon depending on hardware gens. Is there real demand on GUI's or is it just nice to have?

[bug77]

It has certainly been an incredible ride if you were one of the engineers involved in the effort. But from a user's point of view, I think this has been an incredibly long wait (that's still not over completely, for the reasons listed by Leopard ).

I mean, just try to imagine user's reaction if the initial announcement was "ten years from now you will al have a usable open source driver. owners of current ATI/AMD video cards, do not hold your breath".

But in the end, no endeavour is perfect, especially one undertaken by a cash strapped company and in the end it's the result that counts. Let's see DC upstreamed, give it one or two more years to mature and then I think AMD will be in a very strong position when it comes to Linux.

[Brophen]

It's been very exciting, I honestly thought the community was going to nitpick AMD so much that they would give up and we would never get here. (To be honest, that thought wasn't without warrant o.O ). As it stands, I see ourselves getting to a point where AMD outperforms Nvidia by nature of Linux community backing, and Nvidia takes notice. I am ecstatic to see where an AMD/community partnership takes us in the next 10 years

[boxie]

It has certainly been an incredible ride if you were one of the engineers involved in the effort. But from a user's point of view, I think this has been an incredibly long wait (that's still not over completely, for the reasons listed by Leopard ).

I mean, just try to imagine user's reaction if the initial announcement was "ten years from now you will al have a usable open source driver. owner of current ATI/AMD video cards, do not hold your breath".

But in the end, no endeavour is perfect, especially one undertaken by a cash strapped company and in the end it's the result that counts. Let's see DC upstreamed, give it one or two more years to mature and then I think AMD will be in a very strong position when it comes to Linux.

I have had quite a decent experience on open source drivers over the last 2 years. been playing all my games without too much hassle!

My biggest thing would be to make sure that distros have regularly updated graphics drivers (as they are updated so often) without having to rely on unofficial PPAs (or the likes).

[Guest]

I have had quite a decent experience on open source drivers over the last 2 years. been playing all my games without too much hassle!

My biggest thing would be to make sure that distros have regularly updated graphics drivers (as they are updated so often) without having to rely on unofficial PPAs (or the likes).

You don't have to rely on unofficial ppa, if you're using rolling release distribution.

Distributions with normal releases
focus on providing stable experience during. It has different benefits for user experience, which are great for non gaming users.

[bug77]

I have had quite a decent experience on open source drivers over the last 2 years. been playing all my games without too much hassle!

My biggest thing would be to make sure that distros have regularly updated graphics drivers (as they are updated so often) without having to rely on unofficial PPAs (or the likes).

If your experience has been decent for two years already, surely you don't need each and every update, do you?

[cl333r]

I remember vividly people rushing to buy AMD cards and then blaming phoronix when they realized shit ain't working even a few years later, the software stack isn't mature to this day.

[cRaZy-bisCuiT]

I remember vividly people rushing to buy AMD cards and then blaming phoronix when they realized shit ain't working even a few years later, the software stack isn't mature to this day.

Seriously, what are you talking about? I bought an RX 480 more than one year again and it was very usable from the very first second I booted my machine. The performance got better from every AMDGPU, Kernel and Mesa Update which feels nice. On Windows the performance may be better, but is usually not being optimised after 1 or 2 years. So having a moving target here feels good. The graphics card can handle every single Linux game maxed out on Linux with 1080p and most likely will do this another 1-2 years.