AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX + RX 7900 XT Linux Support & Performance

Aside from running into the strange slow performance issue with the Ryzen 9 7950X / Zen 4 testing with the RX 7900 series hardware, which is still being explored at AMD but will hopefully be figured out and addressed in the days ahead, the initial Linux experience with the Radeon RX 7900 series cards were refreshingly pleasant. Running Linux 6.0+ and Mesa 22.2+ while having the necessary AMDGPU linux-firmware.git yielded a "it works" experience so smooth. This was great to see considering with the IP block versioning and new enablement strategy it wasn't clear which kernel version would align and in this case Linux 6.0 has been out as stable for two months. For some past major Radeon GPU launches at times it meant running a Linux Git kernel build and jumping through other hoops... Or Phoronix readers who have been here for years will also recall the days that it took until post-launch before seeing the open-source driver support come together.

For those with a Zen 4 system and concerned about the performance issue I ran into, hopefully that will be sorted out this week and will provide an update on the matter (Update: Hopefully is the SoC power issue noted on the second page when in EXPO mode. More confirmation tests being carried out now.). At least it seems to be of limited scope and according to AMD their Zen 4 Linux QA testing hadn't hit the issue but are now working to reproduce it. Stay tuned for updates, in any event there weren't these issues on Zen 3 or Intel systems.

Without a doubt the Radeon RX 7900 series launch is the most successful open-source driver debut at launch for them. There still are the few game issues, more RADV ray-tracing optimizations to happen in general, etc, but was much better than prior launches and also seeing even RADV working rather well given that it's a "external" driver developed outside of AMD. As shown by the initial tests in this article the Linux 6.0 performance is in good shape and similar to Linux 6.1 with only DRM-Next/Linux 6.2 having performance gains in some areas. On the Mesa side there are performance optimizations that make Mesa 22.3 stable or Mesa Git worthwhile to pursue. I have little doubt that in the coming days Mesa 230-devel Git will have even more RDNA3/GFX11 optimizations. So if you are comfortable using third-party package repositories / PPAs and using Mesa Git, it would definitely be recommended as is usually the case with all new GPUs relying on Mesa drivers.

It's also great to see for this launch that the RDNA3 ROCm/HIP support should be in good shape, but I'll have my tests there in a follow-up article in the coming days. Similarly I'll have out results from using the packaged driver on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS for those not wanting to use Mesa Git or a Linux 6.0+ kernel but just want the easy experience when running an AMD supported enterprise Linux distribution.

Unfortunately with NVIDIA not providing any GeForce RTX 40 hardware yet for Linux testing I don't have any comparison metrics to share today on that front or what Linux driver issues there may be for those new GPUs that they have held back on Linux reviews. Hopefully that will change soon, but already from the power efficiency results of the Radeon RX 7900 series shown in this article, things are looking good on that side for AMD's new GPUs. The Radeon RX 7900 XT / RX 7900 XTX on Linux were generally consuming less power than even the GeForce RTX 3080 series cards. Meanwhile with the GeForce RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 cards are additional power / thermal / size considerations that make it less of an easy upgrade path.

The thermals with the Radeon RX 7900 XT / RX 7900 XTX reference cards were in great shape.

Assuming there are no glaring RTX 40 series Linux driver issues, it's likely the Radeon RX 7900 XTX on Linux will be able to outperform or at least match the GeForce RTX 4080 while costing less -- the RTX 4080 at $1199 USD versus $999 for the RX 7900 XTX. One area though where the GeForce RTX 40 series cards will remain stronger at least in the near-term is for the Vulkan ray-tracing performance. RADV is making good strides there on enhancing the ray-tracing performance while NVIDIA's Linux driver has had a several year head start, but we'll see over time how the ray-tracing performance for RADV matures.

If you are running still a Radeon RX 5000 series (RDNA1) or Vega GPU or older with the open-source Linux drivers, as these results show there can be dramatic benefit to moving to the Radeon RX 7900 series and still enjoy the open-source driver stack that many Linux enthusiasts and gamers have become to love over the years.

Thanks to AMD for providing the review samples for this launch-day Radeon RX 7900 series testing and stay tuned to Phoronix for many follow-up tests to come over the days and weeks on Phoronix.