AMD Will Be Working On Open-Source Fiji GPU Support In The AMDGPU Linux Driver

While the new AMDGPU kernel DRM driver is being added to the Linux 4.2 kernel as the next-gen driver for supporting Tonga, Carrizo, and all other new AMD graphics hardware, the 4.2 version will not support AMD's newly-announced Fiji GPUs.

Yesterday AMD announced the Fiji-based Fury GPU line-up along with the rest of the Radeon R7/R9 300 series. The Fury X will ship next week while the Fury will ship in July. As mentioned in yesterday's Phoronix article, there should be support within the AMD Catalyst Linux driver but there isn't yet R9 Fury support in the open-source AMD Linux graphics driver.

Phoronix Forums commenter John Bridgman of AMD shared yesterday about the situation, "We are adding Fiji support to the amdgpu kernel driver as well. Not sure of exact timing yet but sooner rather than later."

While it will be too late for Linux 4.2, until hearing more we can hope it will make it for Linux 4.3. Unless being backported, however, the open-source AMD Fiji support will likely be too late for making it into Ubuntu 15.10, Fedora 23, and other Q3 or early Q4'2015 non-rolling Linux distribution updates. Then again, if you're spending ~$600+ on a beefy graphics card, chances are you'll likely be using the AMD Catalyst driver for the near future until the open-source AMD driver catches up with OpenGL 4.x support, OpenCL, performance, etc. I'm leaning towards buying an AMD Fury X, as HBM and the other features of it are very exciting, so there may be Catalyst Linux tests as soon as it debuts next week (assuming there's a supported Linux Catalyst build in time).