Linux

48372 readers

1665 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
No misinformation
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Do I need to install any drivers for AMD GPU (lemm.ee)

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hi all, I've been using an RX 580 for about a year now. It's been ok, but I needed an upgrade for a little more FPS. Found this RX 6600~~XT~~ used and snagged it for $100. Are there any packages I'll need to install to make sure I get the best out of it? I know AMD support is baked into the kernel, but I remember having to install some Vulkan driver for my old GPU when I had some gaming issues. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Distro is Endeavour OS with the latest KDE plasma on Wayland.
Thank you

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I personally chose RADV after looking into this myself and the only drawback from my understanding is that they are proprietary drivers.

RADV is the open-source community developed Vulkan driver. It has the widest hardware support of the three Vulkan drivers and is generally the best for gaming.

AMD provides two more Vulkan drivers - AMDVLK is the open-source one available in AMDGPU, then there's the unnamed proprietary Vulkan driver in AMDGPU-PRO. The biggest advantage of the proprietary one is that it is certified - doesn't matter most of the time, but when it does, a missing certification is a deal breaker.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

As far as I was aware AMDGPU is used by default on most if not all distros so I still think its a bit confusing to decide which to use for your needs at first unless you check the video I linked. I noticed a performance increase after forcing RADV on NixOS so not really sure.

Sidenote why cant AMDGPU and RADV combine their efforts to simplify and rename AMDGPU-PRO to AMDGPU-unfree because that itself is confusing since most people will be drawn to use the PRO version without realising the worse performance.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

As far as I was aware AMDGPU is used by default on most if not all distros

I really don't think that's the case, assuming you're talking about AMDVLK (amdgpu is the kernel module used by all three Vulkan drivers - RADV, AMDVLK and the Vulkan driver from AMDGPU-PRO). Ubuntu and Fedora definitely default to RADV, and Arch Wiki recommends RADV unless you need something from the other drivers.

I noticed a performance increase after forcing RADV on NixOS so not really sure.

NixOS seems to default to RADV according to their Wiki. If this was a few years ago then maybe you might be confusing it with the ACO shader compiler for RADV? That brought a significant performance increase and eventually became the default in RADV. I remember using custom Mesa (the project that develops open source graphics drivers, like RADV and radeonsi) builds to massively reduce stuttering in DirectX games.