A Christmas gift for AMD GPU users is on its way, but it's causing quite a stir in the Linux community! Valve's Linux graphics driver team is proposing patches to enable the AMDGPU driver for older GCN 1.1 GPUs, replacing the Radeon driver. This move promises enhanced performance and Vulkan support, but it's not without its challenges.
Timur Kristóf, a key player at Valve, has been dedicated to improving the GCN 1.1 and GCN 1.0 support with the AMDGPU driver. While the AMDGPU driver has long been available for these GPUs, it hasn't been the default choice due to feature limitations and insufficient testing. Kristóf's recent work on analog video connector support and VCE 1.0 video coding has addressed some of these gaps.
The proposed patches aim to make AMDGPU the default driver for GCN 1.1 GPUs, ensuring better performance and Vulkan 1.3 support through RADV. But here's where it gets controversial—the older Radeon R9 290 and HD 7790 GPUs, despite their age, are still in use and appear in the Steam hardware survey for Linux. Kristóf's patches could breathe new life into these vintage GPUs, allowing them to run modern games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077.
The patches are ready to go, and the team is optimistic about the switch to AMDGPU. However, there's a race against time to include these changes in the upcoming Linux v6.19 kernel series. If not, the next kernel series, Linux v7.0 in 2026, will likely be the target.
This update is a significant step forward for AMD GPU users, but it raises questions: Are these patches a welcome upgrade for all users? What impact will this have on the Linux graphics driver landscape? Share your thoughts and predictions in the comments below!
