AMD RX400 & 500 series on linux

[SCHISCHKA]

IF you have a new AMD 400 or 500 series card and use linux; how are the new AMD cards on linux? Are there any major issues?

Nvidia drivers break suspend and there doesnt appear to be a fix.

[SCHISCHKA]

17 minutes ago, Name Taken said:

I've experienced running more than 4 RX 470s on a B250 motherboard causes Ubuntu 16.04 and 17.04 to kernel panic on boot.

shit

[noahdvs]

11 minutes ago, SCHISCHKA said:

shit

Keep in mind

29 minutes ago, Name Taken said:

I've experienced running more than 4 RX 470s on a B250 motherboard causes Ubuntu 16.04 and 17.04 to kernel panic on boot.

That doesn't seem practical.

[SCHISCHKA]

1 minute ago, noahdvs said:

That doesn't seem practical.

i assume they are more than 4 computers

[noahdvs]

4 minutes ago, SCHISCHKA said:

i assume they are more than 4 computers

The wording makes it sound like he's trying to use 4+ GPUs at once.

[noahdvs]

Just now, Name Taken said:

 

Using 4 RX 470s right now but I'm planning on trying Windows next to get 6 GPUs to boot.

 

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That's pretty hardcore. What do you need so many GPUs for?

[SCHISCHKA]

7 minutes ago, Name Taken said:

 

Running 4 RX 470s right now but I'm planning on trying Windows next to get 6 GPUs to boot.

 

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ok im not really planning on that. how does it work with just one GPU?

[noahdvs]

If you want to read about the performance of things on Linux, look at http://www.phoronix.com/

Comparison of performance on the latest version of Ubuntu with the previous version:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu-zesty-radeon&num=1

Comparison of the proprietary AMDGPU-Pro driver with the latest open source Mesa drivers + Linux kernel.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amdgpu-pro-1710&num=1

[SCHISCHKA]

46 minutes ago, noahdvs said:

If you want to read about the performance of things on Linux, look at http://www.phoronix.com/

Comparison of performance on the latest version of Ubuntu with the previous version:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu-zesty-radeon&num=1

Comparison of the proprietary AMDGPU-Pro driver with the latest open source Mesa drivers + Linux kernel.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amdgpu-pro-1710&num=1

yes i have read those, they are about benchmarks. I want to know if it has any serious usability bugs like Nvidia breaking suspend on debian & ubuntu. You wont get that info from a benchmark site.

[noahdvs]

28 minutes ago, SCHISCHKA said:

yes i have read those, they are about benchmarks. I want to know if it has any serious usability bugs like Nvidia breaking suspend on debian & ubuntu. You wont get that info from a benchmark site.

Something to keep in mind is that your mileage may vary. My laptop's 960m and Intel HD Graphics 520 work fine, but I use the open source Mesa drivers (I'm on KDE neon, based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS). From what I've seen and heard, the open source drivers are better for general usage on Linux. For instance, the open source driver for Nvidia cards (called Nouveau, part of Mesa) supports Wayland, but the proprietary Nvidia driver does not (yet). However, the open source drivers don't always support the latest hardware as well as proprietary drivers do and don't always match the performance of proprietary drivers. For what it's worth, I've heard that the RadeonSI open source driver (part of Mesa) is better than the Nouveau open source driver, but the Nvidia proprietary driver is better than the AMDGPU-PRO driver. You should probably stick to previous generation hardware when using Linux unless you don't mind being a pioneer.

[Wild Penquin]

I think having an open source driver is a major pro for using an AMD GPU currently. This is exactly the reason I'm considering the switch, now that AMD GPUs are a viable alternative if you want to play any other games besides Tetris or Nethack or somesuch on a Linux installation . So, I'm also very interested in the OPs question. (Sorry, I have no experiences, yet!)

 

At least if you notice any real bugs, there is a clear place to report the bugs and they can be tracked (by users, too). Not so with a closed-source driver - and, if the bug is something like Suspend breaking, with closed drivers it is up to the proprietor if they think it is serious enough it will hurt their revenue (not saying that Open Source driver don't have priorities, but usually the priorities cause more user friendly end-results).

 

I've though about buying an older, used AMG GPU for my own testing first and see how it works, and if it works well, buy a newer more effective AMG GPU (perhaps even Vega when it comes out!).

 

Also, I've found that generally, if a device family uses the same drivers, newer devices work the same, as older ones. If they don't, at least the base work has already been done and they will follow suit soon or hopefully sooner =)

[Wild Penquin]

12 hours ago, noahdvs said:

Something to keep in mind is that your mileage may vary. My laptop's 960m and Intel HD Graphics 520 work fine, but I use the open source Mesa drivers (I'm on KDE neon, based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS). From what I've seen and heard, the open source drivers are better for general usage on Linux. For instance, the open source driver for Nvidia cards (called Nouveau, part of Mesa) supports Wayland, but the proprietary Nvidia driver does not (yet). However, the open source drivers don't always support the latest hardware as well as proprietary drivers do and don't always match the performance of proprietary drivers. For what it's worth, I've heard that the RadeonSI open source driver (part of Mesa) is better than the Nouveau open source driver, but the Nvidia proprietary driver is better than the AMDGPU-PRO driver. You should probably stick to previous generation hardware when using Linux unless you don't mind being a pioneer.

What you say is generally true for devices which have closed and open drivers. But this has changed on AMD recently. AMDGPU is the "main driver" and 100% open source, works better for general desktop workloads. AMGGPUPro is for workstations, and includes things like Cuda. I don't know about the details, and information (from a users perspective) is quite difficult to find. Being somewhat of a power-user, I find GPU-driven video decoding imperative (and: tear-free, deinterlaced if needed etc) - and also need Cuda.

[David89]

RX480 running absolutely fine here on Arch Linux with Ryzen. I'm actually pretty impressed about OpenGL Performance, since switching to Ryzen. Hitman is - give or take 2-3 FPS - on par with DX11 on Windows - which is awesome, but goes to show, how much of a CPU Bottleneck OpenGL can be.

 

Wine with the Gallium Nine patches has some issues, but i can't really pinpoint them to a specific reason right now (have to dig deeper in to the logs). Sometimes Shadows on DX9 Games are horrible and sometimes it just crashes with some memory access violation (Mafia 2)

 

Overclocking is a bit of a PITA, but it's possible. However, i'm not able to get AMDGPUPro running, because it needs Xorg1.18 and Arch Linux as a rolling release is near Xorg1.20 - so i had to downgrade. That said though, you don't need AMDGPUPro, as @Wild Penquin said. However, it doesn't include Cuda - it's OpenCL and at least on ArchLinux the OpenCL stuff has been put in to place as a standalone package, which works actually very well.

 

Even Fan Control works pretty well - at least on my MSI RX 480 i can't turn off the Fan completely though. But i can't here it at 600 RPM, so i don't really care.

 

The only thing, that really is missing, is FreeSync - at least for me. My Monitor doesn't officially support FreeSync, but under Windows i can force it active and it works - that isn't possible under Linux, as it sets it according to the EDID, and my monitor doesn't have that specific information, so it defaults to "not available". And as always, right now there is no GUI to set it, so you need to use the console.

 

Apart from that: It's beautiful how good it works. TBH, i haven't been considering an NVidia Card for ages, and as it stands now, i never will again. AMD is doing so much for Linux at the moment, the green team has just plain and simple lost the game. Considering what i had to endure with NV the last time i tried them, it's pretty much "Gameover" in my book for the greens. I'm a Linux User for about 8 years now and yes, AMD Cards sometimes needed a bit of manual tuning (especially back in the day with the 1950 Pro), but most of the time, they where at least usable. NV though broke compatibility so often, i lost count after a while.

[Wild Penquin]

@David89, thanks for the information!

 

Have you tried hardware video playback (va-api, vdpau)? On different frame rates (24, 25, 50, 60) and de-interlacing? Is there any tearing while playing video?

[David89]

9 minutes ago, Wild Penquin said:

@David89, thanks for the information!

 

Have you tried hardware video playback (va-api, vdpau)? On different frame rates (24, 25, 50, 60) and de-interlacing? Is there any tearing while playing video?

Most of the time i use VLC and set de-interlacing to CPU - so i can't say in noticed anything out of the ordinary. But vdpau works.

 

HVEC decoding doesn't, but i'll try it anyway.

 

That Video in the attached screenshot has ~ 95 Mbit Bitrate (imagine, Streaming something like that :D), 4k res, 30 FPS and is h264. I believe it's also 10 Bit Colour, but im not sure about that.

 

[David89]

Yep, HEVC doesn't work HW-Accelerated right now. But keep in mind: I'm on Arch Linux, so that list may not apply to Ubuntu or other Distributions, that do not use the newest MESA packages...

[SCHISCHKA]

11 hours ago, David89 said:

The only thing, that really is missing, is FreeSync - at least for me. My Monitor doesn't officially support FreeSync, but under Windows i can force it active and it works - that isn't possible under Linux, as it sets it according to the EDID, and my monitor doesn't have that specific information, so it defaults to "not available". And as always, right now there is no GUI to set it, so you need to use the console.

freesync is one of the features I want confirmation of.

I stopped using arch years ago because everytime Xserver upgrades theres a risk of proprietary drivers breaking. I dont know if the arch LTS branch will help you there or if LTS is just for the kernel.

[David89]

16 hours ago, SCHISCHKA said:

freesync is one of the features I want confirmation of.

I stopped using arch years ago because everytime Xserver upgrades theres a risk of proprietary drivers breaking. I dont know if the arch LTS branch will help you there or if LTS is just for the kernel.

It wont - but breaking proprietary drivers isn't an issue anymore - at least for me - apart from the fact being, that Arch has no LTS Branch.

There is no benefit for gamers in using AMDGPUPro. It is in fact the opposite: Mesa is faster. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=rx580-pro-open&num=2

(That is btw one of the reasons i use Arch Linux, and actually really dislike Ubuntu and it's derivates)

Except when you are using Vulkan, then AMDGPUPro is a little bit faster, but RADV Vulkan is still Alpha and - as mentioned - you can install those binarys standalone on Arch - which effectively gives you the best of both worlds at the moment.

 

In what reagards do you want confirmation?

 

http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/HOW-TO-ENABLE-AMD-FREESYNC-IN-LINUX.aspx

 

This enough?^^

[SCHISCHKA]

8 hours ago, David89 said:

Arch has no LTS Branch.

 

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/System_maintenance#Install_the_linux-lts_package

8 hours ago, David89 said:

This enough?^^

cheers

[David89]

9 hours ago, SCHISCHKA said:

 

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/System_maintenance#Install_the_linux-lts_package

cheers

It's still only the Kernel

[SCHISCHKA]

45 minutes ago, David89 said:

It's still only the Kernel

ok so it doesnt hold back any drivers? I would have thought they would have the dependencies sort themselves out. They brought out LTS shortly after I moved off Arch. I moved off arch because an update broke Nvidia & XServer version matching.

[David89]

14 minutes ago, SCHISCHKA said:

ok so it doesnt hold back any drivers? I would have thought they would have the dependencies sort themselves out. They brought out LTS shortly after I moved off Arch. I moved off arch because an update broke Nvidia & XServer version matching.

This happend to me on Ubuntu many, many times and was one of the reason i even switched the PC of my parents to Arch (which had an Nvidia Card back then), because i always thought Ubuntu is easier to maintain. I don't do updates daily on none of my Arch Systems, but in the last 2 years, i did not have any issues, that prevented me from just using the PC. There are some hiccups with controling the Fan speed, some minor GDM/Gnome issues and so on. Before that, Catalyst was a bit shaky from time to time, but never had a really broken Xorg on AMD Cards.

 

After two 8800 GTX and a GTX 480 literally going up in smoke on me, i've never really used NV-Cards in my personal rigs since then. I had been using ATI Cards before that and even back then, there where no immediate issues - you just couldn't update Xorg for a while, until Catalyst did catch up.

 

But that is one of the reasons Nvidia has lost the Linux game - at least for me. Yes, they are faster, but both closed source and the Nouveau have issues, that - at least for me - are not acceptable. I'd rather have a bit less FPS, than having to constantly check for compatibility or having to tinker around for hours (i've done that enough with Catalyst back in the day and don't really have any patience for that any more...)