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AMD Open Source Driver for Vulkan

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Re: AMD Open Source Driver for Vulkan

#51

Post by sandov »

Symmetry wrote: post #48
tombert wrote: post #11

I can't speak for anyone else, but because AMD has been opening up their drivers, the laptop I purchased six months ago was AMD based. I haven't done any kind of elaborate benchmarks, but as someone who runs Linux full-time, I want to support companies that make my life a bit easier. That said, I have had some issue with my computer having some weird graphical glitches, and then crashing...I don't know if that's the…

The sad truth is that it takes a while for the open source drivers to solidify after any new release and going open source means not getting the newest hardware. Well, Intel actually seems to get their open source driver support in far enough ahead of time these days that you can just load the newest Ubuntu with them and it works, but that wasn't the case 5 years ago.

Most people don't care about having the newest hardware. The only cases that come to my mind are hardcore pc gamers, people who edit video, and people doing deep learning.

Re: AMD Open Source Driver for Vulkan

#52

Post by gcb0 »

Symmetry wrote: post #48
tombert wrote: post #11

I can't speak for anyone else, but because AMD has been opening up their drivers, the laptop I purchased six months ago was AMD based. I haven't done any kind of elaborate benchmarks, but as someone who runs Linux full-time, I want to support companies that make my life a bit easier. That said, I have had some issue with my computer having some weird graphical glitches, and then crashing...I don't know if that's the…

The sad truth is that it takes a while for the open source drivers to solidify after any new release and going open source means not getting the newest hardware. Well, Intel actually seems to get their open source driver support in far enough ahead of time these days that you can just load the newest Ubuntu with them and it works, but that wasn't the case 5 years ago.

true. and still, intel drivers are a landmine. even the latest ones shipped today generates FIFO warnings because of the bad code. Not to mention itel "graphic cards" are a glorified floating point co-coprocessor and the "drivers" just rename mesa-software with intelgfx or something :) man, everything about intel lately feels like a joke you remove the marketing lacquer... it's almost if they are the IBM of old.

anyway, but AMD have actual graphics cards, and the driver quality they open source is usually very good.

Re: AMD Open Source Driver for Vulkan

#53

Post by gcb0 »

zepearl wrote: post #35
marcosdumay wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are ok with a proprietary driver and all the headaches that come with it, NVidia drivers are better for some 3-4 years after you buy a high-end GPU or 1-2 years after you buy a low-end one. After this time, NVidia drops support and you are stuck with a free driver that is much worse than the AMD ones (not by fault of the free drivers developers, mind you, but because NVidia makes their life hard). Personally,…

I use an nVidia GeForce 8200 (published in ~2007) in my mediacenter and I don't have problems with drivers (v340.xxx legacy series: latest update is v340.107 https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/135161/en... ) on Arch Linux. Same thing with a GTX 760 (currently using v390.42) on Gentoo: I kept that server running multiple times for many weeks at a time and never had crashes/weird things happening while…

the post you reply to probably means support for gl regarding features and performance. a server and a media center will do fine even without proprietary drivers... well, until someone update the color stuff in v4l again.

Re: AMD Open Source Driver for Vulkan

#54

Post by zepearl »

woodrowbarlow wrote: post #44
zepearl wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's correct to say that the firmware used under Linux is the same one that is used as well under Windows (maybe as well MacOS)... or not? (I personally understand that the "firmware" does the low-level stuff, and the drivers of the OS provide the abstraction through their functions, but I might be terribly wrong)

yes, the firmware is the same regardless of your OS. think of it like using an open-source client for slack: it still hits the API of a closed blob (the slack servers).

Thx!

Then, if the performance is "worse" or "better" for a specific OS, it's just because the code of the open-source part (kernel and/or userland progs) and/or the app (game/application/whatever) is not written as well as on the other OSs, right?

Indirectly asking as well: even if the firmware is alway the same one, there is no "part" of the firmware that is dedicated to only a specific OS?

Re: AMD Open Source Driver for Vulkan

#55

Post by joshuarubin »

Nvidia refuses to support GBM for Wayland and instead came out with a completely different buffer API, EGLStreams. This is pretty arrogant. As I use sway, and it doesn't support Nvidia, I chose an AMD Vega 64, which works great.

https://drewdevault.com/2017/10/26/Fuck-you-nvidia.html

Re: AMD Open Source Driver for Vulkan

#56

Post by gcb0 »

Athas wrote: post #17
mrweasel wrote: post #9

Sadly I constantly hear people say that you should get an Nvidia card for both Linux and FreeBSD, because the drivers are better. While I'm sure that Nvidias driver a good, it's kinda sad that the attitude is that AMD is a better friend of the open source community, but yeah, we're going with Nvidia. I get why, you have stuff to do and Nvidia performs better, but still it a little annoying. OpenBSD seems to be the on…

I strongly recommend AMD. After a long time of using NVIDIA due to their superior Linux drivers, I got myself a Vega 64 when I built a new desktop computer last year. After so many years of driver woes, it was almost unreal having accelerated 3D graphics work out-of-the-box after installing Fedora. For my personal machines, I don't see myself going back to NVIDIA anytime soon.

I am on the same boat. but instead of a vega you can get the last generation best of the best for under $170! 60+% of performance for under 1/3 of the price.

Re: AMD Open Source Driver for Vulkan

#57

Post by Thaxll »

AsyncAwait wrote: post #42
tatref wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I supported AMD several years because of this... Then I got tired of the low quality of both the open source, and the closed driver. Crashes, glitches in movies, flickering... Some time ago, I bought an Nvidia. It works like charm with the closed driver on Linux and windows. I do mainly games on Linux/windows, some gpgpu (machine learning with tensor flow), and the usual stuff. I couldn't be happier... Except if it w…

I purchased an AMD laptop precisely because I got tired of having to deal with NVidia, ether their glitchy proprietary driver breaking GNOME every so often, or Optimus being a pain via Bumblebee. Since switching to the AMD laptop, my experience has been smooth. My only worry is the upgrade path, there aren't that many high-performance AMD laptops out there and my next purchase is definitely AMD.

Well Nvidia is better with closed source drivers than AMD with open source, having open source driver means nothing in term of driver quality, what matters is how many people are working on it and for Nvidia there are much much more people working on it because Nvidia is very popular outside of gaming on Linux.

Re: AMD Open Source Driver for Vulkan

#58

Post by Hackbraten »

rhn_mk1 wrote: post #13
monocasa wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of the firmware has been reverse engineered, with community supplied patches, but that's not supported at all by AMD. https://github.com/fail0verflow/radeon-tools/tree/master/f32 What's interesting is there's not a clear reason for the firmware to not be opened other than it's probably a huge amount of work to document. It looks like an unexpected house design so there shouldn't be IP issues, and it's pretty mun…

That has actually been discussed by an AMD employee [0]. Commentary [1]. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/950g8r/will_we_be_able... [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/95romz/ubridgmanamd_...

I always knew bibliographies started at 0!

Re: AMD Open Source Driver for Vulkan

#59

Post by wstuartcl »

chrisper wrote: post #43
tombert wrote: post #11

I can't speak for anyone else, but because AMD has been opening up their drivers, the laptop I purchased six months ago was AMD based. I haven't done any kind of elaborate benchmarks, but as someone who runs Linux full-time, I want to support companies that make my life a bit easier. That said, I have had some issue with my computer having some weird graphical glitches, and then crashing...I don't know if that's the…

Yet I can still not read CPU core temperatures of my ryzen 2600 on Linux (5.0-rc2). I am not sure what is going on but I think next time I'll go with Intel again. I read this may be related to some NDA by AMD but not sure.

just when AMD looks like they will be the safe bet on CPU for the next few years you bolt? =)

Re: AMD Open Source Driver for Vulkan

#60

Post by gamblor956 »

jpk wrote: post #29
llukas wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you smoking? Tesla and Fermi architectures had ~8 years of support. https://www.anandtech.com/show/12624/nvidia-moves-fermi-to-l...

Leading with an accusation of substance abuse isn't civil or productive. Your comment may well be factually correct, but your tone here is inappropriate. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

It's not an accusation of drug use.

"What are you smoking" is a US colloquialism that means that one's statement is so nonsensical that the most logical explanation is that the speaker was smoking marijuana at the time the statement was made (because the implied alternative is that the speaker is crazy or quite daft).

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