AMDVLK 2021.Q2.1 Finally Adds Navi 12 Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AMDVLK 2021.Q2.1 Finally Adds Navi 12 Support

The official open-source AMD Radeon Vulkan driver, AMDVLK, is out today with its first update of the new quarter...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMDVLK-2021.Q2.1

[spykes]

We are several months after launch and still no support for ray tracing in official drivers ?
Seriously AMD what are you doing ?!

[mdedetrich]

We are several months after launch and still no support for ray tracing in official drivers ?
Seriously AMD what are you doing ?!

I think the bigger problem honestly is that support for graphics cards is being tied with Kernel releases which is kinda dumb if you think about it from a usability PoV. Unless you are on a distro running the latest kernel as a rolling release model (which not all do), it exasperates the problem of buying a new AMD/Nvidia Card and you not being able to use it properly or fully because

• The support isn't in Kernel tree and/or
• Your distro isn't using the latest kernel and is rather using an older stable one

Particularly when it comes to graphics cards and how complex the drivers (and underlying hardware) are, the strategy of having all driver support in the mainline tree is an attitude that is starting to show a lot of holes because of how anti modular it is. There is a big difference between a keyboard (which typically but not always) use a standard interface (including newer keyboards) and a graphics card driver.

I think Ray Tracing is the last of your concerns, but honestly I am not surprised that the AAA game market (which uses new GFX features as soon as the hardware is released) doesn't target linux, its not practical for game to enforce someone to run the latest kernel especially if it just came out because of some new feature (and thats assuming the kernel is even released with the support yet).

[d3coder]

We are several months after launch and still no support for ray tracing in official drivers ?
Seriously AMD what are you doing ?!

Implement it yourself, driver is open source, why do you blame amd? They did all they can so their driver supports basic things like rendering desktop. If you want more, implement it yourself.

[L_A_G]

We are several months after launch and still no support for ray tracing in official drivers ?
Seriously AMD what are you doing ?!

The chip in question is only currently available in the 16" Macbook Pro (i.e a device with very limited Linux support) and a display-less server GPU. Hence this is totally on-time as they're about to launch the lower end of the Navi 2.0 range (where this chip will be used) in a few months.

[spykes]

The chip in question is only currently available in the 16" Macbook Pro (i.e a device with very limited Linux support) and a display-less server GPU. Hence this is totally on-time as they're about to launch the lower end of the Navi 2.0 range (where this chip will be used) in a few months.

This is not an issue with Navi 12 only, all their RDNA2 cards are missing Vulkan ray tracing support on Linux.
At this point, it will probably be available in Mesa before AMD cares to add it in its own driver.

[L_A_G]

This is not an issue with Navi 12 only, all their RDNA2 cards are missing Vulkan ray tracing support on Linux.
At this point, it will probably be available in Mesa before AMD cares to add it in its own driver.

It's a pretty damn big feature where the spec was only finalized in late Novemeber. Besides, the only games that actually use it on Linux are Quake II RTX and Wolfenstein: Youngblood on Stadia. Maybe Metro: Exodus will use it when the native Linux port launches next week, but we're not talking about something with any significant software support.

[skeevy420]

I think the bigger problem honestly is that support for graphics cards is being tied with Kernel releases which is kinda dumb if you think about it from a usability PoV. Unless you are on a distro running the latest kernel as a rolling release model (which not all do), it exasperates the problem of buying a new AMD/Nvidia Card and you not being able to use it properly or fully because

• The support isn't in Kernel tree and/or
• Your distro isn't using the latest kernel and is rather using an older stable one

Particularly when it comes to graphics cards and how complex the drivers (and underlying hardware) are, the strategy of having all driver support in the mainline tree is an attitude that is starting to show a lot of holes because of how anti modular it is. There is a big difference between a keyboard (which typically but not always) use a standard interface (including newer keyboards) and a graphics card driver.

I think Ray Tracing is the last of your concerns, but honestly I am not surprised that the AAA game market (which uses new GFX features as soon as the hardware is released) doesn't target linux, its not practical for game to enforce someone to run the latest kernel especially if it just came out because of some new feature (and thats assuming the kernel is even released with the support yet).

That's more of an AMD and Intel problem. When you push your drivers and/or fixes to upstream, users have to be rolling along with upstream to get those fixes. You have to be on Ubuntu with HWE, an AMDGPU-Pro supported distribution, or a rolling release distribution. Stray from that and you'll likely have a bad time with new hardware from anyone but Nvidia.

With Nvidia it's the other way around. You're libel to roll right on by what Nvidia supports if you're not paying attention. With them there are times where you'll have to wait on them to update their driver before you can start updating things again.

[smitty3268]

It's a pretty damn big feature where the spec was only finalized in late Novemeber.

They had day 1 support on windows.

[spykes]

It's a pretty damn big feature where the spec was only finalized in late Novemeber. Besides, the only games that actually use it on Linux are Quake II RTX and Wolfenstein: Youngblood on Stadia. Maybe Metro: Exodus will use it when the native Linux port launches next week, but we're not talking about something with any significant software support.

VKD3D could implement the support for windows games through Proton, it's not just for native games.
While the specs was finalized in november last year, AMD was able to implement the feature in their Windows driver on day one... So they really have no excuse here.