AMD Releases Updated Catalyst Pro / FirePro Unified Driver For Linux

Written by Michael Larabel in AMD on 31 July 2016 at 08:36 AM EDT. 16 Comments
AMD
It looks like that AMD is going to continue maintaining their Catalyst-based Linux driver until the new AMDGPU-PRO driver architecture is up to scratch. That is, support for FirePro workstation users at least caring about stable support on Enterprise Linux distribution. A new Catalyst Pro / FirePro Unified driver for Linux was released this week.

I wasn't aware that AMD was still maintaining this non-AMDGPU-PRO based alternative for FirePro users, but it makes sense given these heavy workstation users are AMD's main cash cow on the Linux side and that there would be support continued for this older driver stack until AMDGPU-PRO becomes a suitable, stable replacement for mission critical work.

This new driver update under the AMD FirePro Software Suite (also called the "Catalyst Pro" driver on the page) is marked 15.302.2301 and was released this past week.


All of my FirePro hardware is many years old (pre-GCN) with not getting any workstation review samples since, so unfortunately I will not be able to do any driver comparisons of this driver vs. AMDGPU-PRO, etc.


The release notes mention that there's a fix for a OpenCL-OpenGL texture sharing deadlock has been resolved, a performance fix dealing with slow performance after sleeping, a Xinerama fix, and some Maya bugs have also been resolved.

FirePro Linux users wanting to try out this latest driver stack can do so via AMD.com.
Related News
About The Author
Michael Larabel

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

Popular News This Week