SteamVR For Linux Gets Improved Radeon Performance

[phoronix]

Phoronix: SteamVR For Linux Gets Improved Radeon Performance

Valve has released an updated SteamVR beta for Linux VR gamers ahead of the weekend...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=SteamVR-Updated-Linux-Beta

[chimpy]

It'd be great if someone from AMD (*cough cough* Bridgman ) could comment on RADV. Aside from Dave and Bas, Valve and Feral have also put in some work into the driver; will AMD use the driver or not?

[pal666]

It'd be great if someone from AMD (*cough cough* Bridgman ) could comment on RADV. Aside from Dave and Bas, Valve and Feral have also put in some work into the driver; will AMD use the driver or not?

amd put much more work into their driver which they will use. and they will continue to put much more work into it because radv will not work on windows where 99% of amd customers are. it is not a rocket science really

[chimpy]

amd put much more work into their driver which they will use. and they will continue to put much more work into it because radv will not work on windows where 99% of amd customers are. it is not a rocket science really

If that was the case then we'd all be using Catalyst because it shares code with the Windows driver, but we're not; AMDGPU is the default desktop/gaming driver for Linux.

[bridgman]

If that was the case then we'd all be using Catalyst because it shares code with the Windows driver, but we're not; AMDGPU is the default desktop/gaming driver for Linux.

That's not quite the same situation - that was more of a deliberate decision than something that "just happened".

The open stack has always been our main focus for general desktop users, and we have been able to make a lot of gaming-related improvements in the last couple of years as well - first GL 4.5 support and a more recent focus on performance. Part of that work involved replacing Linux Catalyst with the AMDGPU-PRO hybrid driver, allowing us to share code (and hence developers) between the consumer and workstation driver stacks.

BTW both open and hybrid stacks use the amdgpu kernel driver, so probably better to say "radeonsi is the default desktop/gaming driver for Linux" rather than "amdgpu is the default...". If you capitalize AMDGPU that's also going to make people think about the AMDGPU-PRO hybrid driver stack, which we usually capitalize, while the amdgpu kernel driver tends to appear in lower case.

[r1348]

That's not quite the same situation - that was more of a deliberate decision than something that "just happened".

The open stack has always been our main focus for general desktop users, and we have been able to make a lot of gaming-related improvements in the last couple of years as well - first GL 4.5 support and a more recent focus on performance. Part of that work involved replacing Linux Catalyst with the AMDGPU-PRO hybrid driver, allowing us to share code (and hence developers) between the consumer and workstation driver stacks.

BTW both open and hybrid stacks use the amdgpu kernel driver, so probably better to say "radeonsi is the default desktop/gaming driver for Linux" rather than "amdgpu is the default...". If you capitalize AMDGPU that's also going to make people think about the AMDGPU-PRO hybrid driver stack, which we usually capitalize, while the amdgpu kernel driver tends to appear in lower case.

Alright alright, but still no mention of RADV

[Vistaus]

amd put much more work into their driver which they will use. and they will continue to put much more work into it because radv will not work on windows where 99% of amd customers are. it is not a rocket science really

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that 99% of AMD customers aren't Windows customers. A lot of Macs also ship with Radeon cards so part of their customer base is at macOS.

[starshipeleven]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that 99% of AMD customers aren't Windows customers. A lot of Macs also ship with Radeon cards so part of their customer base is at macOS.

"a lot of Macs" (actually higher-end ones, which aren't that common at all, most people want a mac because swag usually, so they will take entry level ones with Intel graphics) is still less than 2% marketshare in very optimistic estimates.

[darkbasic]

That's not quite the same situation - that was more of a deliberate decision than something that "just happened".

The open stack has always been our main focus for general desktop users, and we have been able to make a lot of gaming-related improvements in the last couple of years as well - first GL 4.5 support and a more recent focus on performance. Part of that work involved replacing Linux Catalyst with the AMDGPU-PRO hybrid driver, allowing us to share code (and hence developers) between the consumer and workstation driver stacks.

BTW both open and hybrid stacks use the amdgpu kernel driver, so probably better to say "radeonsi is the default desktop/gaming driver for Linux" rather than "amdgpu is the default...". If you capitalize AMDGPU that's also going to make people think about the AMDGPU-PRO hybrid driver stack, which we usually capitalize, while the amdgpu kernel driver tends to appear in lower case.

Still no mention of RADV. Also I would like to ask a question regarding Mac and Vulkan: we all know that Mac doesn't support Vulkan, but is there something preventing AMD to develop a driver for MacOS X despite Apple not being interested?

[cusa123]

Anyone know if the hmd Acer, Lenovo, dell, hp will be compatible with linux steam?. I haven't seen either steamvr GPU requirements. It is the same as in windows? Gtx 970 or amd r9 290?