It's Been Two Months Since The Last Catalyst Linux Update

[phoronix]

Phoronix: It's Been Two Months Since The Last Catalyst Linux Update

While there were Catalyst 15.7.1 and 15.8 Beta releases for Windows, AMD hasn't updated the Catalyst Linux driver with a new public release in two months, but a new one may be near...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Catalyst-Two-Months-Sep-15

[Kemosabe]

Their OpenGL implementation is lost. I want to see Vulkan support as soon as possible. Vulkan must be a viable option for Linux gaming from the first second to make Linux to a real GPU vender independend gaming alternative.

[sabun]

I'd really like to see the driver just be installable on Ubuntu to be honest. I haven't been able to get Catalyst 15.7 working on Ubuntu 15.04 nor even 15.10 daily build.

With an R9 390, the Mesa 11.1 driver does work but there's no OpenGL 4 support until LLVM 3.7 lands. It's performance is also less than the Windows Catalyst 15.7 driver within my short testing. This leaves me with a card that can't play the majority of the awesome titles in my library that I want to play! (COH2, Shadow Of Mordor, Dirt Showdown)

I know I should be wishing for better performance, but miracles will have to wait. We need basic functionality right now. I understand older cards work fine to some context.

Come on AMD, there's a race going on and you're not running! You've got supporters, love us like we love you.

[schmidtbag]

I figure by the time mesa 12 is released, the interest in catalyst (for gaming purposes) will be pretty much moot. Until the open source drivers compete with catalyst's openCL support, catalyst could probably effectively be ditched entirely. As a radeonSI user, once I get to mesa 11 I personally will have no interest in catalyst at all anymore.

[Klassic Six]

Fix a bug around the GDM will be nice.

[TheOne]

Their OpenGL implementation is lost. I want to see Vulkan support as soon as possible. Vulkan must be a viable option for Linux gaming from the first second to make Linux to a real GPU vender independend gaming alternative.

And what will happen with all the stuff out there that runs on opengl?

[duby229]

And what will happen with all the stuff out there that runs on opengl?

The OSS devs are doing a pretty good job at implementing OpenGL specs. I don't think it'll be much problem really. Vulkan will outperform OpenGL, but apps and games that use it will work just fine.

[bluewormx]

And what will happen with all the stuff out there that runs on opengl?

Good point, and how long before there are linux games using vulcan.
Years!

Look at catalyst on windows: on Direct 3D it is really giving nvidia a run for its money; on openGL it has been a disaster for nearly a decade.
Why should they bother? What was the last openGL exclusive game? Probably Doom3 based games(idTech4).

[Passso]

I'd really like to see the driver just be installable on Ubuntu to be honest. I haven't been able to get Catalyst 15.7 working on Ubuntu 15.04 nor even 15.10 daily build.

With an R9 390, the Mesa 11.1 driver does work but there's no OpenGL 4 support until LLVM 3.7 lands. It's performance is also less than the Windows Catalyst 15.7 driver within my short testing. This leaves me with a card that can't play the majority of the awesome titles in my library that I want to play! (COH2, Shadow Of Mordor, Dirt Showdown)

I know I should be wishing for better performance, but miracles will have to wait. We need basic functionality right now. I understand older cards work fine to some context.

Come on AMD, there's a race going on and you're not running! You've got supporters, love us like we love you.

That's exactly what happened to me a few years ago. I sent my card back to reseller and got an NVidia, despite I was an AMD supporter for years.

For my last buy I choosed NVidia again : less power consumption and instant working drivers.

[chithanh]

Major 3D engines are now gaining Vulkan support, and I read somewhere that 2016 will be the year when we see first Vulkan games. Older games will probably not be updated, but the importance of having best performance on those will decrease with time.

At some point in the future I expect that radeonsi's OpenGL 4.x support will be fine for those games. Maybe not all games will run as fast as on Catalyst, but the difference will be close enough to not matter for old games.