Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

AMD's Crimson Radeon Driver For Linux Barely Changes Anything (phoronix.com)

Posted by timothy on from the surface-treatment dept.

An anonymous reader writes: AMD Windows customers were greeted this week to the new "Crimson" Radeon Software that brought many bug fixes, performance improvements, and brand new control panel. While AMD also released this Crimson driver for Linux, it really doesn't change much. The control panel is unchanged except for replacing "Catalyst" strings with "Radeon" and there's been no performance changes but just some isolated slowdowns. The Crimson Linux release notes only mention two changes: a fix for glxgears stuttering and mouse cursor corruption.

8 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. So... by CaptainJeff · · Score: 2

    So...the news here is that there is no news for Linux folks?

    1. Re:So... by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Funny

      My god man .. they changed the strings from "Catalyst" to "Radeon".

      What more do you want?

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:So... by SomeoneFromBelgium · · Score: 2

      I didn't follow this closely but is second rate support for Linux by AMD anything new??

    3. Re:So... by jedidiah · · Score: 2

      Desktop Linux is fine. You just have to buy a different brand of graphics card.

      "AMD drops the ball again"

      Not really news.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    4. Re:So... by MyAlternateID · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I didn't follow this closely but is second rate support for Linux by AMD anything new??

      Since the late 90s I've always used nVidia for Linux systems* and I've never regretted that choice. I would prefer having nVidia open-source their own driver (nouveau has made progress but just isn't there yet) but this is not a big deal to me. I run a source-based distro (Gentoo) so I compile my own kernels anyway; it's no big deal to add "&& emerge --oneshot nvidia-drivers" at the end of that command line. That's the most I've ever had to do. Unfortunately some binary distros are more "purist" out of either ideology or fear of legal action so they make users jump through a few hoops to get proprietary drivers and codecs.

      The more I heard about first ATI and now AMD driver quality on Linux, the more convinced I am that I made the right choice. I hope AMD gets their shit together in this area because competition is a good thing.

      * That's on my desktop system which has a discrete card. My netbook with Intel graphics runs Linux Mint which "just works" (I believe that driver *is* open source, MIT licensed IIRC).

    5. Re:So... by MyAlternateID · · Score: 2

      > I've always used nVidia for Linux systems

      So you have nothing to compare to. I see.

      Ah, another pseudointellectual trying to live the dream of all such small-minded people: the drive-by one-liner that presumes its own cleverness.

      The point, my dear AC, is: there is a good reason I don't personally have an AMD card for comparison. Maybe I would be interested in one, but not until such time as AMD acts like they want the business of Linux users.

      What I *can* compare my experience to is the Linux users who did choose AMD and all the problems they have, both in terms of malfunctions/bugs and lower performance. It's all right there in the summary and article if you aren't familiar with it or don't believe me. These are problems I don't have with my nVidia cards. That is a meaningful comparison when I'm shopping for video hardware and making a decision about which brand to purchase. That is, in fact, much more meaningful than any idiotic bickering you seem to have been expecting.

    6. Re:So... by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      Since Linux users make up 1% of the market share (I'm not sure the % for gamers, but could be lower), I'll doubt they'll lose sleep over it.

      The question is, if they get really rock-solid drivers for Linux desktops, would the effort carry over towards entering the market for graphics chips in other things that run Linux like Android tablets and phones?

      There is no market for graphics chips in those things, only SoCs which converge graphics with the CPU core. nVidia has an ARM SoC product like that, but AMD doesn't. AMD is sampling ARM server chips but has not even announced a mobile part. Meanwhile, nVidia is on what, their third or fourth Tegra? ATI actually used to make graphics chips for cellphones back when they did use separate GPUs; I used to find their cute little chips inside of Motorola phones, like V-series and RAZR. But now they don't, because they have nothing to offer.

      I've been a proponent of AMD for many years, but what we're seeing now is the middle of the end. (The beginning was when they revealed their new architecture and it was... meh.)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. Re:Report back in several releases ... by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    AMD is prioritizing Windows with respect to these changes. That should not be surprising since the market is dominated by Windows. Now if these changes aren't reflected in their Linux drivers down the road, then yes there will be reason for concern.

    Your argument only holds water if you're a Windows user. If you're a Linux user, this is cause for concern, because the Linux drivers are shit. They offer dramatically less performance than the Windows drivers. This is just further proof that AMD doesn't give a Fuck about Linux users. Frankly, they are very poor compared to intel about Linux support in general; hell, there's Still no good PM support in Linux for Mobile Athlon 64 Cool'n'Quiet, and the R690 chipset has never been properly supported. They don't contribute meaningful support for their hardware to the kernel, and they don't release the information fast enough for it to have timely support from the community. And that's why, although I've been using AMD processors since the K6, I don't use ATI video and why my next PC will probably have an Intel CPU. I'm tired of AMD's Linux lip service.

    ]

    TL;DR: AMD has always phoned in Linux support while making empty promises, and this is just more of the same.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"