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I've been thinking of building AMD based gaming Linux workstation as well. What has been a bit daunting is to understand which combination of drivers should I u
by rixrax 5y ago
I've been thinking of building AMD based gaming Linux workstation as well. What has been a bit daunting is to understand which combination of drivers should I use? And what they do / how they perform? E.g. should I use AMD proprietary driver[0] or it's free(?) alternative from AMD? Or stick with the linux default driver? What about MESA? Which version should I use? Latest available[1][2], or what ever comes with the distro?
Also, it's not obvious (to me anyways) how to properly measure performance should I want to measure the impact of different kernels/drivers/etc. combinations for the GFX performance.
And then there is VRR / FreeSync. I believe it will work under X and Wayland (only using Sway?). What about under 'raw' KMS/DRM?
Nonetheless soon probably boldly going to where little guides / instructions exists...
[0] https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-amdgpu-unified-linux-20-45 https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-amdgpu-un...
[1] https://launchpad.net/~kisak/+archive/ubuntu/kisak-mesa https://launchpad.net/~kisak/+archive/ubuntu/kisak-mesa
[2] https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/ubuntu/graphics-drivers https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/ubuntu/graphics-driver...
- podiki 5y agoI can't answer all your questions, but a few at least. You should use the latest kernel (and firmware) and Mesa you can. That will give you amdgpu (kernel driver) and radv (user Vulkan driver) from Mesa and the best compatibility and performance. AMD's proprietary driver, amdgpu pro, sometimes performs better, but the consensus these days is to just stick to Mesa and open source.
- scns 5y agoYou don't need the proprietary AMD drivers, those included in the kernel are on par mostly. If you want to <edit>see benchmarks</edit> check out Phoronix [0]. Freesync works with in kernel drivers for sure, it was a little work, but worth it. Used it before i sold my undervolted <edit>(made it cooler, quieter and increased performance!)</edit> RX570, can't say how the situation is with newer cards. Arch Wiki [1],[2] is an invaluable resource as always, applies to other distros as well. If your base is Ubuntu you will need newer Mesa packages, which you can get here [3] (more recent/bleeding edge but used by default by some distributions, the one tested by Phoronix) or there [4] (addition) Had this [5] in bookmarks, looks solid. (edit) formatting [0] https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=radeon-rx6000-vulkan&num=1 https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=radeon-r... [1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AMDGPU#Overclocking https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AMDGPU#Overclocking [2] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Variable_refresh_rate https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Variable_refresh_rate [3] https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/ubuntu/graphics-drivers https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/ubuntu/graphics-driver... [4] https://launchpad.net/~ernstp/+archive/ubuntu/mesarc?field.series_filter=focal https://launchpad.net/~ernstp/+archive/ubuntu/mesarc?field.s... [5] https://reddit.artemislena.eu/r/linux_gaming/comments/agwrc1/how_to_overclock_your_amd_gpu_on_linux/ https://reddit.artemislena.eu/r/linux_gaming/comments/agwrc1...