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Linux Gaming @lemmy.ml

neku @discuss.tchncs.de

11mo ago

all AMD-PC do I need the proprietary drivers

Should I use the proprietary drivers? How much fps do I loose if I use the open drivers? I use ChimeraOS (Arch Linux)

19 comments

No. The open source drivers are better at almost everything. The only reasons to use the propriatary one is if you need some OpenCL improvements of if you are using a Radeon Pro GPU. For normal usage and gaming the open source driver will offer more performance and better compatibility.
- if you need some OpenCL improvements
  As far as I can tell mesa and the proprietary drivers both use the ROCm packages for OpenCL. I don't think there's actually a difference on that front.
  
  I honestly don't realy know. The Arch wiki says that there are some differences with AMF and OpenCL but I don't know how up to date that information is.
  
  Mesa has its own OpenCL implementations for AMD GPUs too: Clover and RustiCL. However, Clover is not really developed any more (afaik) and lacks some important extensions, such that many programs can't use it. RustiCL is rather new, and I don't know how well it works.
- I wish Nvidia was the same story

Don't use proprietary drivers and don't install amdvlk or whatever it's called, just use mesa if the Steam install asks you to choose.
The open source drivers for AMD have great performance, they power the Steam Deck and have great compatibility.
- and more tested too

As far as I know, the open source drivers are recommended for AMD - my driver installer in Mint doesn't even list proprietary drivers.

Tangential: do you need proprietary drivers for ROCm?
- Nope rocm works great with open source drivers and is way better than it was 6 months to a year ago
- No, I think I have the library rocm smi lib (or something like that) (on Endeavour/Arch btw) installed and it is used by btop to display GPU stats. EDIT: The Arch package is extra/rocm-smi-lib

Usually not.
How much fps do I loose if I use the open drivers?
None.
- Isn't there an fps limitation on HDMI using the open source GPU drivers? Something about hdcp/hdmi2.1?
  
  There is, you won’t be going above 4k/60fps IIRC.

Do science at it
- If only there were an easy way...
  
  I'm serious. Systematically install, test, and take notes on all the drivers (there are like 4 iirc). If I wasn't taking a crap right now, I could check my config and send it to you, but there is no guarantee it will work for you. Best thing to do is to do science at your own computer.

19 comments