AMD Posts Open-Source Linux Driver Support For "NAVI 14" GPU

While the Radeon RX 5700 "Navi 10" series is launching on 7 July and there was the recently presented open-source Linux patches (so far for the AMDGPU kernel driver and RadeonSI OpenGL; Vulkan support still pending), today was the surprise move of posting the kernel patches for an unannounced "Navi 14" graphics processor.

We've seen "Navi 14" mentions before in Linux driver patches but this is the first time we're seeing the support actually enabled for this unannounced Navi graphics processor. On top of the new Navi 10 patches, the Navi 14 enablement comes down to just under 1,400 lines of new kernel code. As of writing, only the AMDGPU kernel bits have been posted while the Mesa patches are still pending.

Navi 14 follows most of the same code paths as Navi 10 but with tweaked golden settings, support for a "virtual display" feature as a software-based KMS interface for virtualization/emulation, and other small changes.

By getting out the Navi 14 patches out now, AMD presumably will be trying to squeeze these patches into the upcoming Linux 5.3 kernel cycle rather than having to wait until Linux 5.4. It's already rather late and beyond when new feature material is generally accepted into DRM-Next for the next kernel cycle, but considering it's new hardware support and building upon Navi 10 only being introduced in this next kernel cycle, hopefully Navi 14 will get added to Linux 5.3 too.