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For what it's worth and graphics on Linux are working great with amdgpu. Their efforts to develop and support open source mainline graphics has really finally p

For what it's worth and graphics on Linux are working great with amdgpu. Their efforts to develop and support open source mainline graphics has really finally paid off. Support is usually mainlined before hardware release now. I don't think "just works" integrated graphics are an issue for either company (Intel/AMD) in general on the Linux front. That said the amdgpu driver is still relatively new and major changes and improvements are still ongoing but overall it's definitely production stable and for dedicated gpus performance is generally very good. Not trying to sound like a fanboy it's just nice to see someone else push as hard for open source mainlined graphics as Intel has for all these years.

pjmlp 8y ago
Except for those that happen to own an older card that used to work perfectly fine on the former AMD driver. Case in point, the ATI Radeon HD 6310 that came on EEE PC models, the video hardware acceleration no longer works as it used to be. Sure, I can probably hack the older driver into newer Ubuntu releases or track down someone that has already done it, but that is exactly what I don't want to spend my time doing outside work.
- deno 8y ago
  FWIW, it’s a completely different architecture. GCN has support all the way down to 1.0. The graphics card in your EEE PC is upgradable, if you’re feeling adventurous[1]. [1] https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Asus+Eee+PC+1008ha+Graphics+Card+Replacement/14603 https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Asus+Eee+PC+1008ha+Graphics+Car...
  - pjmlp 8y ago
    I know, and this kind of attitude regarding drivers is what as graphics oriented person, eventually pushed me back into the Windows/OS X world. The graphics card was working perfectly fine before they decided to reboot driver support. Now with the legacy driver I have to force enable acceleration and even then I sometimes get the feeling it isn't really working, given how the fan behaves when watching movies on the go.
    - deno 8y ago
      > Now with the legacy driver I have to force enable acceleration and even then I sometimes get the feeling it isn't really working, given how the fan behaves when watching movies on the go. If you want zero-copy video playback for optimizing battery life use mpv with --hwdec=vaapi. Or vdpau or whatever API is supported with that driver. You can also try switching -vo to vdpau/vaapi from OpenGL. > I know, and this kind of attitude regarding drivers is what as graphics oriented person, eventually pushed me back into the Windows/OS X world. On Windows you get legacy drivers for older architectures as well. Also the case with NVIDIA. It’s legacy hardware, after all… AMD’s new driver is completely open source, but it targets GCN, which is a completely different type of hardware.
      - pjmlp 8y ago
        Thanks for the hints, already tried them. The issue is that AMD's legacy driver is not the same code as the driver it replaced. https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/03/ubuntu-drops-amd-catalyst-fglrx-driver-16-04 https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/03/ubuntu-drops-amd-catalys... On Windows and OS X, the legacy drivers keep working.
    - michaelmrose 8y ago
      Nvidia has historically supported new drivers/Xorg for old hardware for aprox 10 years whereas amd/ati cards still available at retail have been unsupported in as little as 3 years time leaving you with open source drivers as your only other option if you want to install a new version of your distro with your older hardware. The fact that they are open source is of course a good thing whats not is that they were at one time less than half the performance. The new drivers from AMD gpus are both open source AND performant. Basically the proper strategy 2003-2017 was to buy nvidia and install the binary drivers. At present you can go with either so long as you aren't buying hardware too old to be supported by the new amd drivers. I'm still using nvidia on all my hardware but maybe I will give amd a try again next time around. It sucks that its complicated but its not as complicated as it seems.
      - pjmlp 8y ago

pjmlp 8y ago

Except for those that happen to own an older card that used to work perfectly fine on the former AMD driver. Case in point, the ATI Radeon HD 6310 that came on EEE PC models, the video hardware acceleration no longer works as it used to be. Sure, I can probably hack the older driver into newer Ubuntu releases or track down someone that has already done it, but that is exactly what I don't want to spend my time doing outside work.

deno 8y ago
FWIW, it’s a completely different architecture. GCN has support all the way down to 1.0. The graphics card in your EEE PC is upgradable, if you’re feeling adventurous[1]. [1] https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Asus+Eee+PC+1008ha+Graphics+Card+Replacement/14603 https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Asus+Eee+PC+1008ha+Graphics+Car...
- pjmlp 8y ago
  I know, and this kind of attitude regarding drivers is what as graphics oriented person, eventually pushed me back into the Windows/OS X world. The graphics card was working perfectly fine before they decided to reboot driver support. Now with the legacy driver I have to force enable acceleration and even then I sometimes get the feeling it isn't really working, given how the fan behaves when watching movies on the go.
  - deno 8y ago
    > Now with the legacy driver I have to force enable acceleration and even then I sometimes get the feeling it isn't really working, given how the fan behaves when watching movies on the go. If you want zero-copy video playback for optimizing battery life use mpv with --hwdec=vaapi. Or vdpau or whatever API is supported with that driver. You can also try switching -vo to vdpau/vaapi from OpenGL. > I know, and this kind of attitude regarding drivers is what as graphics oriented person, eventually pushed me back into the Windows/OS X world. On Windows you get legacy drivers for older architectures as well. Also the case with NVIDIA. It’s legacy hardware, after all… AMD’s new driver is completely open source, but it targets GCN, which is a completely different type of hardware.
    - pjmlp 8y ago
      Thanks for the hints, already tried them. The issue is that AMD's legacy driver is not the same code as the driver it replaced. https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/03/ubuntu-drops-amd-catalyst-fglrx-driver-16-04 https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/03/ubuntu-drops-amd-catalys... On Windows and OS X, the legacy drivers keep working.
  - michaelmrose 8y ago
    Nvidia has historically supported new drivers/Xorg for old hardware for aprox 10 years whereas amd/ati cards still available at retail have been unsupported in as little as 3 years time leaving you with open source drivers as your only other option if you want to install a new version of your distro with your older hardware. The fact that they are open source is of course a good thing whats not is that they were at one time less than half the performance. The new drivers from AMD gpus are both open source AND performant. Basically the proper strategy 2003-2017 was to buy nvidia and install the binary drivers. At present you can go with either so long as you aren't buying hardware too old to be supported by the new amd drivers. I'm still using nvidia on all my hardware but maybe I will give amd a try again next time around. It sucks that its complicated but its not as complicated as it seems.
    - pjmlp 8y ago