what amd driver do I use?
what amd driver do I use?
I recently built a new pc and since I switched from Windows to Lunux (Kubuntu) I got an amd gpu (6700 XT). Because people told me it is less of a hassle than Nvidia. It works fine out of the box, but the choice of drivers confuse me. For gaming is the default amdgpu good enough? Is amdgpu-pro the same as the official Radeon drivers from amd? Are they better for gaming? Is Mesa yet another driver or something in addition to a driver? Why are there no settings/gui anywhere (using the default amdgpu)?
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Oh. That clears up a lot. Thanks!
You listed AMDGPU-Pro as a kernel driver. Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm quite sure it is a proprietary userspace OpenGL/Vulkan driver that uses the open source AMDGPU kernel driver.
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I use the pre-built drivers in kernel. No need to worry or anything, just plug-and-play.
You don't want amdgpu-pro unless you're doing something really specific that needs OpenGL and OpenCL. amdgpu built-in is good enough for most games and use cases.
Mesa is just a graphic library. You'll need it.
Edit:
amdgpu-pro may be even worse to gaming then the amdgpu built-in.
Thans for clarifying. You say I need Mesa. Is that a seperate install or part of the driver?
It's probably already installed. It wouldn't be working if it wasn't
AMD just doesn't have any official gui setting software on Linux
third party tools like CoreCtrl will help you with some settings like overclocking, undervolting, etc. and for basic settings your desktop environment of choice already give you control over resolution/framerate/gamma/whatever
for an ingame overlay and fps limiting take a look at mangohudthere is also a lot of confusion because there are different software names for kernel driver (i.e. amdgpu) and userspace driver (i.e. Mesa) with additional varieties on top like vulkan-radeon and amdvlk (which is included in amdgpu-pro and typically worse)
luckily most people don't really need to care about that since most linux distro already give you the best gaming choice out of the box and updating your system will also update your amd driverThanks for thesugestion about mangohub and corectrl. Seems perfect.
For gaming, it works out of the box. You don’t need to install additional drivers. The other drivers are only necessary when dealing with things like machine learning and AI. They don’t offer better gaming performance and will only introduce problems similar to Nvidia.
Not only will the performance not be any better on amdgpu-pro, the performance will most likely be worse. Even AMD recommends that people who don't need to do machine learning or AI work, use the built-in driver.
Yep, it just works out of the box, that's how nice the drivers are! You get updates to them as part of your Kubuntu updates, although there's a PPA to install newer Mesa if you really want to. But for the most part, unless you need specific features of newer versions like for a new game release or a just released GPU, you can use the one that you already have just fine.
There's no control panel because it all uses generic interfaces that also works for Intel and all other open-source drivers. For example, monitor configuration is configured from your DE's display settings. You do need a third party GUI for overclocking.
If using Wayland, things like variable refresh rate is enabled by default and works out of the box. When HDR is ready, that will be turned on by default too most likely.
How is it going? I also run Kubuntu and I'm waiting for Black Friday to buy that same card.
I am very happy with it. I did switch from Kubuntu to Manjaro KDE, but that was not because of the GPU. The only thing that bothers me is that the fans can be noisy during some games at high load. But during everyday desktop use the fans are idle since its passive cooling capabilities are good (I have one from Powercolor, so any other brand may be different on this point). For me, the temp stays at <40°C for normal desktop use. I haven't seen it go over 83 during gaming. You can adjust the fan curve with Corectl and even overclock it (I haven't) if you want; but everything else just works without additional drivers/software. Now, I don't play heavy fps games, but the games I do play are lag/stutter free. My most taxing game atm is Cities Skylines 2 and I get a solid 60fps with that and my heavily modded Minecraft runs smooth as butter. All in all, I think the card gives excellent value for money.
Awesome,that is great to hear. I was looking at the Sapphire version of that card but Powercolor also came up.
My current card is about 12 years old so anything would be an improvement at this point!
People already said that you are good to go with the built-in amdgpu kernel driver. I only want to add, that you have made a great choice; I am running with the same AMD 6700 XT gpu and it just rocks with wayland and has no issues when resuming from hibernate.
The last more demanding game I played was Elite Dangerous (max settings, except anti-aliasing) with 60 FPS capped (my monitor cannot do more) on 1980x1200 resolution. It was a pleasent experience without crashes related to the graphics driver. (:
Edit: And mesa updates are always exciting. They sometimes improve overall performance and stability.
Yeah, I'm happy with it. It was a bit over my budget but I figured it was worth it. I also decided to go with an amd cpu instead of intel like I always had. And not regretting that either.
Are the mesa updates part of the driver or does one manually update them?
I think @heartsofwar gave a nice overview of what Mesa provides in relation to the driver in the kernel. So, amdgpu-driver updates come with a kernel update and mesa is it's own package for userspace (everything visual on your desktop, not just for games)
Are you running Elite Dangerous via Proton?
Yes, it even works through flatpak-sandboxed Steam. I had to install a GE-version of Proton to make it work in the early days, but I guess it will now work with the default Proton version shipped with Steam.