AMD Publishes New 'AMDGPU' Linux Graphics Driver

An anonymous reader writes: AMD has made available its new AMDGPU Linux graphics driver comprised of a brand new DRM/KMS kernel driver, a new xf86-video-amdgpu X11 driver, and modifications to libdrm and Gallium3D. This new AMDGPU driver is designed for supporting AMD's next-generation hardware with no support differences for currently supported Radeon GPUs. While yet to be released, this new AMDGPU driver is the critical piece to the new unified driver strategy with Catalyst where their high performance proprietary driver will now become limited to being a user-space binary component that uses this open-source kernel driver.

Comments

VDPAU and VAAPI

[DrYak]

Still, there are opensource implementation of VDPAU using VAAPI as a back-end.
and there are VAAPI implementation using VDPAU as a backend (useful also for opensource drivers which tend to implement VDPAU).

Re:Bwaaaaa closed source binary blob

[Anonymous Coward]

Except that the new driver is open source. See the official announcement for more info.

Simplifying drivers

[DrYak]

(do I need now binary blobs for AMD graphics or not?)

The whole point of AMDGPU is to simplify the situation.
Now the only difference between catalyst and radeon drivers is the 3d acceleration - either run a proprietary binary opengl, or run mesa Gallium3D.
All the rest of the stack downward from this point is opensource: same kernel module, same library, etc.

Switching between prorietary and opensource driver will be just choosing which opengl implementation to run.

I decided (I don't need gaming performance) that Intel with its integrated graphics seems the best bet at the moment.

If you don't need performance, radeon works pretty well too.
Radeon have an opensource driver. It works best for a little bit older cards. Usually the latest gen cards lag a bit (driver is released after a delay, performance isn't as good as binary) (though AMD is working to reduce the delay).

Like Intel, the opensource driver is also supported by AMD (they have opensource developpers on their payroll for that), although compared to Intel, AMD's opensource driver team is a bit understaffed.
AMD's official policy is also to only support the latest few cards generation in their proprietary drivers. For older cards, the opensource *are* the official drivers.
(Usually by the time support is dropped out of catalyst, the opensource driver has caught up enough with performance to be a really good alternative).

The direction toward which AMD is moving with AMDGPU is even more reinforcing this approach:
- the stack is completely opensource at the bottom
- for older cards, stick with Gallium3D/mesa
- for newer cards, you can swap out the top opengl part with catalyst, and keep the rest of the stack the same.
- for cards in between it's up to you to make your choice between opensource or high performance.

If you look overall, the general tendency is toward more opensource at AMD.
- stack has moved toward having more opensource components, even if you choose catalyst.
- behind the scene AMD is doing efforts to make future cards more opensource friendly and be able to release faster the necessary code and documentation.

AMD: you can stuff your "high performance proprietary driver" up any cavity of your choosing. I'll buy things from you again when you have a clear pro-free software strategy again -- if you're around by then at all.

I don't know what you don't find clear, in their strategy.

They've always officially support opensource: they release documentation, code, and have a few developpers on their pay roll.
Open-source has always been the official solution for older cards.
Catalyst has always been the solution for latest cards which don't have opensource drivers yet, or if you want to max out performance or latest opengl 4.x

And if anything, they're moving more toward opensource: merging the to to rely more on opensource base component, to avoid duplication of development efforts,
and finding ways to be faster with opensource on newer generations.

For me that's good enough, that why I usually go with radeon when I have the choice (desktop PC that I build myself) , and I'm happy with the results.

Re:Simplifying drivers

[drinkypoo]

(Usually by the time support is dropped out of catalyst, the opensource driver has caught up enough with performance to be a really good alternative).

Nonsense. First, AMD's driver performance lags behind nvidia in general. Second, AMD's linux driver peformance lags well behind their windows driver. Third, AMD frequently drops hardware from the proprietary driver before it is well-supported, and some hardware is never supported properly at all, like the R690M chipset's GPU. Just get graphic trash if I try to use it. But the windows driver is also shit and causes problems with power management.

ATI is just incompetent, and no amount of handwaving can change that. Becoming part of AMD has, if anything, made things worse. Now their parts are competitive, but the drivers are still garbage.

Re:I gave in and bought Intel

[Anonymous Coward]

Wtf you're trolling??

Open driver ALREADY works like a fucking charm. Much better than Intel driver.

For some things it lacks behind Catalyst, for most part its completely usable. I even use it for gaming.

Re:AMD more FLOSS friendly than most

[dabadab]

Unfortunately it all boils down to this: if you want decent 3D performance under Linux, choose NVidia, because it actually works.
If you do not need it, choose Intel, because they have decent open source drivers.