AMD Announces Radeon RX 7900 XTX / RX 7900 XT Graphics Cards - Linux Driver Support Expectations

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AMD Announces Radeon RX 7900 XTX / RX 7900 XT Graphics Cards - Linux Driver Support Expectations

As was expected, AMD's Lisa Su just announced the Radeon RX 7000 series "RDNA3" graphics cards. AMD continues to back their graphics processors by fully open-source Linux driver support and Linux benchmarks will come on Phoronix for launch. Here are the initial details on the announced Radeon RX 7900 XT and Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards.

https://www.phoronix.com/review/amd-rx7000-rdna3

[luno]

- 2.1 displayport
- AV1
- lower power
- good price

didn't know that was possible

[shmerl]

Really good to see they didn't increase board power for RDNA 3! Would be cool to see benchmarks for Linux once cards come out in December.

[tildearrow]

Chilpets

5nm graphics chilpets, 6nm for the cache MCD die.

[albatorsk]

I'm a long time Geforce user and I'm seriously considering getting a new RX 7900, as I especially like AMD's stance on open source, but I am utterly confused about the driver situation. I'm using Ubuntu and I'm used only have one driver to install (nvidia-driver-###) and then I'm all set. What's messing with my mind is the bit below:

it's likely the minimum version requirement for RDNA3 Linux driver support will be Linux 6.0~6.1 and Mesa 22.2+. For the RADV Vulkan driver it will almost surely be Mesa 22.3+ as it appears the RADV developers don't yet have physical RDNA3 access or if they do it has only been very recently. but for Mesa 22.2 it looks like it may be in shape for RadeonSI Gallium3D. On the kernel side we'll see if Linux 6.0 stable is good enough or if Linux 6.1 Git -- which will be out as stable in December -- is a requirement.

To an outsider like it it seems like there are several different drivers, or combination of drivers. Will I (most likely) need to upgrade to a newer kernel than what's included in Ubuntu 22.10 by default? What is "the RADV Vulkan driver". How does it relate to "RadeonSI Gallium3D", if at all? How do I figure out what I should use? Can both be installed at the same time? Do they provide the same functionality? Is RADV required for Vulkan? Does that driver also support OpenGL for all non-Vulkan titles? There's also something called AMDGPU and AMDGPU-PRO. How do they fit in with all this?

Or am I just overthinking all this, and all I have to do is plop in an AMD graphics card and it'll just work?

[V1tol]

- AV1 is supported with RDNA3.

AV1 encoding is supported. AV1 decoding was already available on previous gen. Vainfo on my RX6800XT reports its available for decoding (and it actually works).

[ALRBP]

I'm a long time Geforce user and I'm seriously considering getting a new RX 7900, as I especially like AMD's stance on open source, but I am utterly confused about the driver situation. I'm using Ubuntu and I'm used only have one driver to install (nvidia-driver-###) and then I'm all set. What's messing with my mind is the bit below:



To an outsider like it it seems like there are several different drivers, or combination of drivers. Will I (most likely) need to upgrade to a newer kernel than what's included in Ubuntu 22.10 by default? What is "the RADV Vulkan driver". How does it relate to "RadeonSI Gallium3D", if at all? How do I figure out what I should use? Can both be installed at the same time? Do they provide the same functionality? Is RADV required for Vulkan? Does that driver also support OpenGL for all non-Vulkan titles? There's also something called AMDGPU and AMDGPU-PRO. How do they fit in with all this?

Or am I just overthinking all this, and all I have to do is plop in an AMD graphics card and it'll just work?

Yes, it just works ! Do not care about these drivers, your Linux will have all that working for you ! (well, except if you want to experiment)

That said, you still need a recent kernel. 6.0 minimum for these cards, better with 6.1, which should be out around the same time as these cards. Recent Mesa, the user space part of the driver, will also be needed. 22.2 is already there, but 22.3 would be better.

So, yes, for a very recent card on an old distro, drivers may be an issue, and you will need to update both, your kernel and Mesa.

The alternative is to install AMDGPU-PRO from AMD. That may be the best choice for the first few months on Ubuntu, but default FOSS drivers are better in general.

Well, ok, it "just works", only if your card is not too recent. Otherwise, just upgrade or install AMDGPU-PRO.

[WannaBeOCer]

As expected AMD made a similar architecture to Ampere(GA102) with 2XFP32 and finally added tensor accelerators(AI accelerators) to their consumer cards.

[parityboy]

Or am I just overthinking all this, and all I have to do is plop in an AMD graphics card and it'll just work?

Pretty much. For the 7K series, you'll need at least kernel 6.0. For the latest Mesa, activate the Oibaf PPA for Mesa builds with the latest AMD & Intel GPU support, do an update, reboot and you're set.

[CommunityMember]

Chilpets

Maybe they are cool, and cute, perhaps AMD's version of Chiapets?