AMD Will Release New Catalyst Linux Driver Update This Month
Back in early December was the big Catalyst 14.12 driver update for Linux and Windows users. However, since then, there's been no new Linux graphics driver updates whether it be in beta or stable shape. This three months without an updated Catalyst Linux graphics driver hasn't stopped new Linux kernel and X.Org Server releases that go unsupported by Catalyst. There's also been numerous new Linux games released over the past quarter that have outstanding bugs against the Catalyst Linux driver.
This three months without a Catalyst Linux driver update is also during the period we're waiting for AMD's new Linux driver architecture. AMD is still working on their new driver design of a common, open-source new AMD DRM Linux kernel driver that's used by the Mesa/Gallium3D user-space as well as their binary-only Catalyst user-space. AMD has yet to release this new "AMDGPU" kernel driver (not to be confused with the AMDGPU LLVM driver of the same name) though the initial code has been expected for release this winter.
Several Phoronix readers have been commenting in the forums that they've been hearing that there will be a new Catalyst Linux driver update in March and I've too now been able to confirm this information. There is a new AMD Catalyst Linux driver update nearby, but what's not known yet is whether it will incorporate any of the new Linux driver design or just be a bug-fix release over Catalyst 14.12. Given that the new AMD GPU DRM kernel driver has yet to be published on any of the developer lists for undergoing a technical review by other upstream developers, I'd say it'd be too early to see a Catalyst driver shipping the new kernel driver out-of-tree in DKMS form. Thus right now I'm more inclined to guess it will be another bug-fix/minor-feature release over Catalyst 14.12, but we'll see soon enough.
Share your hopes or suspicions about the next Catalyst Linux driver update in our forums by commenting on this article.
214 Comments
