8 ms·

AMD Open Source Driver for Vulkan

216 points by rys 9y ago

Athas 9y ago
Is there also a useful open-source OpenCL implementation for AMD GPUs? I would find that even more useful.
- michaellarabel 9y ago
  https://github.com/RadeonOpenCompute/ROCm https://github.com/RadeonOpenCompute/ROCm ROCm has open-source support for OpenCL 1.2 but doesn't yet work on all mainline components (i.e. Linux kernel and LLVM changes needed), but that should change in 2018, and also only works with relatively recent AMD GPUs.
  - Athas 9y ago
    That looks very interesting. I'm OK with it only supporting recent AMD GPUs, but I hope the other changes will be upstreamed soon.
- dmm 9y ago
  You can use the in-kernel open source amdgpu driver with the proprietary opencl userspace by grabbing the tar and installing just the opencl .debs. Check out https://math.dartmouth.edu/~sarunas/amdgpu.html https://math.dartmouth.edu/~sarunas/amdgpu.html If you're on Debian instead of Ubuntu you can manually install the debs.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
baldfat 9y ago
AMD has been working for years to make them the most Linux friendly GPU option. Sadly the legacy of the Linux community talks like AMD doesn't work in Linux and NVIDIA is the only real choice. Kind of like Windows users complaining about AMD drivers when they haven't been an issue for over five years. I had AMD on my Linux boxes for eight years and I have haven't had an issue for the past six years.
- katastic 9y ago
  >to make them the most Linux friendly GPU option. Intel works quite fine. I'm pretty sure it's just nVidia that's the problem.
  - iforgotpassword 9y ago
    Agreed; but they were probably referring to big beefy GPUs, so you only have team green and team red.
- Asooka 9y ago
  The problem is AMD (and Intel) require a lot of moving pieces to come together to make a fully stable system, while nVidia is more of a complete packaged solution. For me, I tried AMD (neé ATI) once in 2003 and the experience was so bad, I just completely swore them off. I have literally never had nVidia's drivers crash and kill my X session, or hard-lock the kernel, which were frequent problems with both ATI's closed-source drivers and Intel's open-source drivers. I don't see myself ever buying anything other than nVidia ever again.
  - sammoth 9y ago
    Why would you base that decision solely on your experience 14 years ago? The driver is completely different now.
  - jhasse 9y ago
    > 2003 You had a problem with ATI's closed-source driver 14 years ago. AMD's open-source driver now is a COMPLETELY different story.
    - distances 9y ago
      > You had a problem with ATI's closed-source driver 14 years ago. AMD's open-source driver now is a COMPLETELY different story. Indeed. In 2003 no-one would have based their expectations on what happened in 1989. 14 years is an eternity in this field.
wlesieutre 9y ago
Any chance of this leading to a 3rd party Vulkan driver on Mac?
bitL 9y ago
Tangentially related question - is there any good Vulkan tutorial/online class one can take that would allow learning how to build own 3D engine/VR/AR system from the scratch? I am in the mood... Thanks!
- Pombal 9y ago
  Have a look at this list, hope it helps! http://stephaniehurlburt.com/blog/2017/7/14/beginner-friendly-vulkan-tutorials http://stephaniehurlburt.com/blog/2017/7/14/beginner-friendl...
shmerl 9y ago
Great. May be now radv and amdvlk can fill the gaps from each other.

216 points by rys 9y ago

Athas 9y ago

Is there also a useful open-source OpenCL implementation for AMD GPUs? I would find that even more useful.

michaellarabel 9y ago
https://github.com/RadeonOpenCompute/ROCm https://github.com/RadeonOpenCompute/ROCm ROCm has open-source support for OpenCL 1.2 but doesn't yet work on all mainline components (i.e. Linux kernel and LLVM changes needed), but that should change in 2018, and also only works with relatively recent AMD GPUs.
- Athas 9y ago
  That looks very interesting. I'm OK with it only supporting recent AMD GPUs, but I hope the other changes will be upstreamed soon.
dmm 9y ago
You can use the in-kernel open source amdgpu driver with the proprietary opencl userspace by grabbing the tar and installing just the opencl .debs. Check out https://math.dartmouth.edu/~sarunas/amdgpu.html https://math.dartmouth.edu/~sarunas/amdgpu.html If you're on Debian instead of Ubuntu you can manually install the debs.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

baldfat 9y ago

AMD has been working for years to make them the most Linux friendly GPU option. Sadly the legacy of the Linux community talks like AMD doesn't work in Linux and NVIDIA is the only real choice. Kind of like Windows users complaining about AMD drivers when they haven't been an issue for over five years. I had AMD on my Linux boxes for eight years and I have haven't had an issue for the past six years.

katastic 9y ago
>to make them the most Linux friendly GPU option. Intel works quite fine. I'm pretty sure it's just nVidia that's the problem.
- iforgotpassword 9y ago
  Agreed; but they were probably referring to big beefy GPUs, so you only have team green and team red.
Asooka 9y ago
The problem is AMD (and Intel) require a lot of moving pieces to come together to make a fully stable system, while nVidia is more of a complete packaged solution. For me, I tried AMD (neé ATI) once in 2003 and the experience was so bad, I just completely swore them off. I have literally never had nVidia's drivers crash and kill my X session, or hard-lock the kernel, which were frequent problems with both ATI's closed-source drivers and Intel's open-source drivers. I don't see myself ever buying anything other than nVidia ever again.
- sammoth 9y ago
  Why would you base that decision solely on your experience 14 years ago? The driver is completely different now.
- jhasse 9y ago
  > 2003 You had a problem with ATI's closed-source driver 14 years ago. AMD's open-source driver now is a COMPLETELY different story.
  - distances 9y ago
    > You had a problem with ATI's closed-source driver 14 years ago. AMD's open-source driver now is a COMPLETELY different story. Indeed. In 2003 no-one would have based their expectations on what happened in 1989. 14 years is an eternity in this field.

wlesieutre 9y ago

Any chance of this leading to a 3rd party Vulkan driver on Mac?

bitL 9y ago

Tangentially related question - is there any good Vulkan tutorial/online class one can take that would allow learning how to build own 3D engine/VR/AR system from the scratch? I am in the mood... Thanks!

Pombal 9y ago
Have a look at this list, hope it helps! http://stephaniehurlburt.com/blog/2017/7/14/beginner-friendly-vulkan-tutorials http://stephaniehurlburt.com/blog/2017/7/14/beginner-friendl...

shmerl 9y ago

Great. May be now radv and amdvlk can fill the gaps from each other.