When'll AMD Opensource Drivers be feature-complete for Evergreen chips

[crazycheese]

When you're sitting at a computer all day, you get used to seeing progress bars. Maybe instead of WIP, we can add those circular loading animations that never end.

We could use [===]
[=--] - WIP, work started
[==-] - WIP, code present, untested
[===] - WIP, code present, beta

If you want more detailed progress bars..

[renkin]

Quite the opposite, in fact -- WIP usually means Work *is* In Progress

When you're sitting at a computer all day, you get used to seeing progress bars. Maybe instead of WIP, we can add those circular loading animations that never end.

[Shnatsel]

One feature I've never seen mentioned anywhere is support for 3D displays. Nothern Islands cards are supposed to support them on Windows over HDMI, but I've never seen any report of that working or not working on Linux, neither with fglrx nor with r600g. Am I missing something?

[archibald]

HD video performance is known - the open source drivers do not have GPU-based video decoding, so this is being done on the CPU, which likely isn't up to the task.

[manmath]

Can you be a bit more specific about the "so poor and messy" issues you're seeing with the radeon driver?

Thanks Bridgman if you can suggest me some workarounds. Here are the poor and messy part of radeon oss on my e-350 apu (hp dm1z, kubuntu 12.10).

Poor: HD video playing sucks on oss radeon/linux - on win7/catalyst it's multifold better. I can say the performance is comparable to the Intel IGPs before Sandy Bridge - somewhat like g45 and g41 chips.
Messy: Occasionally I can't connect it with my HDMI. Even when I change/share screens from "1366x768" (my laptop res.) it's not seamless, whereas win7/catalyst manages quite well, adapts as per the display in question.

Is it just me? Or others are having such problems?

[bridgman]

I'm so happy when hd 6310 (its still a cheap e-350 gpu) runs on win7 in my 2nd boot, but the same is so poor and messy on prime linux boot (both catalyst and oss radeon).

Can you be a bit more specific about the "so poor and messy" issues you're seeing with the radeon driver ? Other than immature power management (which IIRC on your hardware will result in low GPU clocks) what other problems are you having ?

[manmath]

Ok. There's no denying that:

#1 AMD is contributing towards OSS and specially Mesa
#2 AMD developers are putting their best efforts towards making its graphics chips the best candidates on Linux platform
#3 There has been much progress in OSS Radeon drivers

Having said that, I'd add that this much is not enough. AMD still loses in every possible ground (here it may be out of context).

#1 Intel releases garbage graphics chips, but they work better on Linux. Many times a low class intel GPU works better than a high class radeon GPU.
#2 Well, we'll hang on for some time and use proprietary catalyst. But then the catalyst implementation is not good or hasslefree (nVidia has at least great implementation of its proprietary graphics, it might be out of context here).

I've high regard for AMD graphics chips and the devs. I'm so happy when hd 6310 (its still a cheap e-350 gpu) runs on win7 in my 2nd boot, but the same is so poor and messy on prime linux boot (both catalyst and oss radeon). The crux of the matter at present is - AMD is not a compelling proposition on Linux despite its honest (though meager) contribution towards opensource radeon.

Of course, I'll wait for the day when it really matures.

[Jarrod558]

Thanks Bridgman for such nice explanation.

[duby229]

I aways thought that would be the case, and still do, but everyday, the state of radeonsi convinces me a little bit more otherwise. Don't get me wrong, I thank mesa/gallium devs (the people) everyday for their work, but the lack of commitment from everyone (the companies) except for intel to the oss infrastructure is astounding. Sadly intel is not yet a GPU behemont, so their work goes somewhat unoticed.

Again I can't help but disagree with you. Intels one and only goal with their graphics drivers are to provide somewhat useable support. I mean they still arent going to gallium and have no plans to do so. Using their drivers requires a different configuration than everything else. They are moving more and more out of sync with the rest of the community everyday. They have done very little to improve the state of the graphics stack .

The bottom line is that Intel doesnt care about linux. As long as their hardware is somewhat functional. They have gone out of their way to do as little as possible.

[crazycheese]

@Figueiredo:
I have noticed vector of your criticism even in previous post and I agree with you completely.
However, Mr. Bridgeman claimed they spent $ 1.5 mio already in response to my post, so these are the results for this money... :/
Also, they refused to support opensource officially. By that I mean everything from box art to primary site integration.

They play the marketshare-"hide'n'seek" game, just like Mozilla does with WebP, clearly understanding that reaping big crops begins with plentiful seeding, not vice versa.
They even denied to gather statistic or do public poll, meaning they are not interested in Linux - at most only in "supportive role", "as it needs". This is non-comparable to, say, Google... Say, maybe it would be awesome if Google buys AMD... at least the chances for getting quality drivers will be flattened for every OS they support
Still... the job that is done in opensource, meaning it will not disappear or die in corporate cases.

This is why I still support them and every developer who contributes.

Intel - in my opinion, damaged its position significantly, by designing UEFI and supporting Secure Boot - both in a way that could damage/without clear path for non-microsoft OSes.
Before that happened, I was choiceless behind Intel. For systems I buy they are still an option, but.. that option has lost its "monopoly".

Also, Intel CEO(?) somewhere claimed they will never step into GPU performance market...