AMD GPU driver issues. (?)

[realdreams]

AMDGPU is an open source driver produced by AMD, where the Radeon driver is an open source driver produced by the Linux community. AMDGPU-PRO is a proprietary "add on" to AMDGPU.

Much of the misinformation about AMD drivers is a carry over from before AMD bought ATI. ATI didn't really care at all about the Linux community and their drivers were terrible. AMD got that all going in the right direction.

But the Linux community demanded a good open source driver from AMD. This became a "be careful what you wish for" situation. AMD went all out and produced one. But it only works with hardware after a certain point that could use the driver. AMD is in the process of porting that back to some earlier models, but it will only go as far back as the first generation of GCN (Graphics Core Next) GPUs. That means that most of the HD series will not be supported.

But AMD is a business. As such, it has to make a profit. The only way they could get AMDGPU out was to drop any further development of fglrx. Unfortunately, that driver will not work any more because the Linux world has moved on.

As new models, such as yours, come on line, there is a delay between its appearance on the market and the appearance of support for it both from AMD and from the kernel developers.

The straight up fact is that when the road construction is done, AMD will have positioned itself to provide support far and away better for Linux than anyone else. Even now, given a supported card, the support is superior. Nvidia will no doubt answer and its support will get much better. That will be great for Linux.

If you are using an Nvidia card and it suits your needs, keep using it! Nvidia produces a great product and its drivers are very good. I'm not an AMD evangelist. I just like to have the facts straight.

That sounds quite optimistic about AMD.
On 16.04 Nvidia binary/Intel driver works out of box most of the time (was a hit and miss on 14.04). From what I have read AMDGPU/AMDGPU-PRO is at best hit and miss currently, if the user can get it to work at all. I am talking about a workstation setup (multi monitor, HDMI/DP audio, some occasional youtube playback), not even gaming.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...ll-Format-Woes

[QIII]

Your article mostly addresses a particular series of APUs, not the broader class of GPUs in general. The broader issue is related to newer audio formats. It is not terribly unusual for the "newest" stuff to lack immediate driver support in the Linux world.

This particular user has had no problems at all with AMDGPU-PRO running a GPU supported by it. It is not difficult to "get it to work at all."