Ray-Tracing Support For AMDGPU LLVM Back-End Lands For RDNA 2

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Ray-Tracing Support For AMDGPU LLVM Back-End Lands For RDNA 2

AMD previously confirmed it would be supporting real-time ray-tracing with their next-generation GPUs while now one month out from the Radeon RX 6000 series debut are the first signs of the open-source driver work around GPU ray-tracing...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMD-RDNA-2-GFX103-RT

[M@GOid]

Michael
OFf-Topic: looks like Firefox 81 is out. I was using 81 beta and it changed to the stable channel.

[ix900]

Michael
OFf-Topic: looks like Firefox 81 is out. I was using 81 beta and it changed to the stable channel.

Does it include AMD Ray Tracing? lol

[smitty3268]

Somewhat related - https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/..._requests/6479

I'm guessing that will be the basis for the initial radv ray tracing support when it's added.

[White Wolf]

This sounds good. Hope the proper support will be just after the release of RDNA2 GPU's not like with my 5700XT. When I had to wait few months a proper support. This was a joke.

[Jabberwocky]

I think the demand for alternative to DLSS would be higher than ray tracing, but it's still awesome thing to have in dedicated hardware. Do we know what AMD's plans are for high speed matrix operations?

This sounds good. Hope the proper support will be just after the release of RDNA2 GPU's not like with my 5700XT. When I had to wait few months a proper support. This was a joke.

This is quite normal for a new architectures. If you want a good experience don't be an early adopter.

I bought Zen the day it became available. It was particularly bad it took 3 months to get my system semi-stable and over a year to get it fully stable in Linux. My Zen+ system just worked out of the box. I was also an early adopter of Nvidia Optimus ~2012. My system wasn't working properly for over 2 years and was fixed by community patches and standalone software. Intel hasn't released something new since 2008 so I don't really remember what the experience was like.

[Guest]

This is quite normal for a new architectures. If you want a good experience don't be an early adopter.

Sorry no, this is bullshit. Intel and NVIDIA do their work well ahead of time and have day 1 support. If all of the tech reviewers got sample cards but no working drivers until 6 months later, do you think they would be saying positive things about it? No. If Windows users (gamers or not) had a non-working GPU until a few months after release, do you think sales would be good? Hell no.

Why should we Linux users settle for less when other companies can get their support ready in time?

Don't give me any shitty excuses, the wya business works is that you invest first and then get a return on it. AMD doesn't tell Windows gamers and users to buy their GPUs with no proper support for months, because they'd make no sales and would pretty much go extinct.

So cut the bullshit and AMD fan worship. They are rightly criticized for their horrible Linux support.

[Girolamo_Cavazzoni]

As far as I know they offer Linux packages (deb and rpm) from the start. Upstreaming things and releasing takes time, I don't see any problem here.

[Grinness]

So cut the bullshit and AMD fan worship. They are rightly criticized for their horrible Linux support.

Not to start a chicken-egg debate, but support (in general terms) is fantastic (AMD) -- everything works out of the box, no need to extra downloads or configuration -- and performance go up at almost every release cycle of drivers (kernel, Mesa).
Yes, day 1 stability is questionable, but you also need to consider release cycles (Mesa, Kernel, distro)

In fact:
* AMD (and intel), going open source, is concentrating over mid-long term support (3+, 5+ years)
* Nvidia is mostly short term support. Their business model (for consumer GPUs) is 2 to 3 years. Then they expect and encourage customers to buy a new product (from them, isn't that true Jensen? The more you buy the more you save?!)

Last time I owned an Nvidia GPU (10 years ago or so) I got stuck with their legacy drivers very quickly (to the speed I change hardware - more than 4 years) and the consequent inability of updating Xorg, Kernel or other components (unless Nvidia gracefully provided an update to their proprietary blob - it is not a driver it is a blob as you do not know what it contains)

IF you are an 'early adopter' (of AMD or intel), please use a rolling distro or use the appropriate channels (e.g.: ppa) to keep your opensource drivers updated -- you will enjoy a very strong support


-- proudly owner of an rx480 Nitro+ 8G since 2016 and no plan to upgrade (to another AMD GPU) for another year at least (refresh of RDNA2 ....)

[andre30correia]

Not to start a chicken-egg debate, but support (in general terms) is fantastic (AMD) -- everything works out of the box, no need to extra downloads or configuration -- and performance go up at almost every release cycle of drivers (kernel, Mesa).
Yes, day 1 stability is questionable, but you also need to consider release cycles (Mesa, Kernel, distro)

In fact:
* AMD (and intel), going open source, is concentrating over mid-long term support (3+, 5+ years)
* Nvidia is mostly short term support. Their business model (for consumer GPUs) is 2 to 3 years. Then they expect and encourage customers to buy a new product (from them, isn't that true Jensen? The more you buy the more you save?!)

Last time I owned an Nvidia GPU (10 years ago or so) I got stuck with their legacy drivers very quickly (to the speed I change hardware - more than 4 years) and the consequent inability of updating Xorg, Kernel or other components (unless Nvidia gracefully provided an update to their proprietary blob - it is not a driver it is a blob as you do not know what it contains)

IF you are an 'early adopter' (of AMD or intel), please use a rolling distro or use the appropriate channels (e.g.: ppa) to keep your opensource drivers updated -- you will enjoy a very strong support


-- proudly owner of an rx480 Nitro+ 8G since 2016 and no plan to upgrade (to another AMD GPU) for another year at least (refresh of RDNA2 ....)

are you kidding right? Amd and intel stop supporting their produts in less than 2 years, they only work because some folks in community continue the job, I have some old nvidia cards and they continue to put out new x and kernel compatible upgrades, the amd support is best than years ago, but it continues laking a lot of things, and in the first year with a new card is always a nightmare, hangs, bugs, lack of features on so on