AMDGPU-PRO 17.50 Now Bundles Open-Source Components, Lets You Mix & Match Drivers

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AMDGPU-PRO 17.50 Now Bundles Open-Source Components, Lets You Mix & Match Drivers

There's more Radeon Linux excitement today beyond AMD finally open-sourcing their Vulkan driver. Coming out today is the AMDGPU-PRO 17.50 driver that bundles in the open-source RADV and RadeonSI drivers too, in letting you "mix and match" the driver components you want for your system.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=25640

[davidbepo]

today is the AMDay

[ernstp]

Is this with non-pro-amdgpu kernel module in DKMS?
Does ROCm work without -pro?

[Michael]

Is this with non-pro-amdgpu kernel module in DKMS?
Does ROCm work without -pro?

If my memory serves me, they are using the same DKMS kernel module but no option of using the non-pro-patched DKMS module.

[geearf]

Is it now feasible to install the pro OpenGL driver alongside mesa and use one or the other like with Vulkan?

[gnarlin]

This is getting so complicated! I think I need a fucking flowchart to understand all the options.

[zoomblab]

When it comes to using the open-source driver stack as found in AMDGPU-PRO 17.50, they are basing it on Mesa 17.2.4. This is better than what is found out-of-the-box on older Ubuntu/RHEL releases, but a bit unfortunate it's not using the brand new Mesa 17.3.0 release or some Git snapshot.

Sometimes I wonder what goes into certain people minds which otherwise look normal. Git snapshot. In an official supported driver. To customers.

Overall this is an interesting approach for AMDGPU-PRO moving forward. As a reminder though, AMDGPU-PRO officially remains limited to the enterprise/LTS distributions so if for example you are on Ubuntu 17.10, for now you do not have any AMDGPU-PRO driver support

Since there is no stable ABI, that is the realistically next best approach for a company that wants to play nice with the open source madness and stay responsible and sane.

[Danniello]

This is getting so complicated! I think I need a fucking flowchart to understand all the options.

Very true. I'm glad that their is "some" progress in AMD open-source development, but this driver situation is one big unacceptable mess (from gamer perspective). Some games will work with AMD open-source drivers only. Some games will work on AMD proprietary drivers only. Some games will work on both, but on one or another - there will be some bugs/artefacts or performance issues.

So what user need to do? Test EVERY single game with both drivers and choose driver per app. If I understand correctly there is still no easy way to switch AMD drivers "online" (i.e. without logoff and/or reboot), so... User every time when want to play game1 (compatible with open-source driver only) need to install driver1 (open-source) and reboot computer. When user wants to play game2 (works better with proprietary) - install driver2 (proprietary) and reboot computer... Insane.

So, unfortunately, AMD is still quite weak alternative for nVidia. At least for Linux gamers that are not open-source fanatics and want games to "just work" without reboots. Not to mention that AMD performance is also worse - no matter open or proprietary driver.

[sa666666]

Personally, I'm just going to use whatever comes with the distro, already set up. Probably that means RadeonSI for OpenGL and RADV for Vulkan. I like playing games now and then, but I'm not really a hardcore 'gamer'. So if a game doesn't work well with these drivers, I'll simply not play it until (a) it is better optimized, or (b) RadeonSI/RADV are improved.

Unless one driver happens to be tremendously better than the other, I will stick with the Mesa-based stuff.

[DarkFoss]

On my older system the difference between Ubuntu's stock mesa 17.2.4+llvm5 vs oibaf's+llvm 5 is only a few fps. Padoka with llvm 6 is about 6 fps faster on average.