On Linux with AMD GPUs you can decide between the RADV and AMDVLK drivers for Vulkan API support, and it appears AMD want to make things a little easier for you.
It can get a little confusing so here's the real basics: AMDVLK is the "official" external Vulkan driver developed by AMD, whereas RADV is part of Mesa and comes with most distributions by default. Sometimes certain games work better on one, sometimes on the other. Additionally, AMD only directly support Ubuntu and Red Hat, whereas Mesa with RADV focuses on everything they can.
With the latest AMDVLK 2021.Q1.1 release, AMD has made switching between the two a little easier. With this driver installed, you only need to set an environment variable to tell whatever game or application you're using what driver to use with "AMD_VULKAN_ICD" set to either "AMDVLK" or "RADV". The default is AMDVLK of course, if none is set.
Here's the highlights of this new driver release:
New feature and improvement
- Add AMD switchable graphics layer to switch AMD Vulkan driver between amdvlk and RADV
- Update Khronos Vulkan Headers to 1.2.164
- Navi21 performance tuning for game X-Plane, Madmax, Talos Principle, Rise of Tomb Raider, F12017
Issue fix
- RPCS3 Corruption observed on Game window on Navi10
See more on GitHub.
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XGL update:
PAL update:
Spoiler, click me
* Update due to argument IImage* retired from SignalNativeFence()
* Remove Mutex::Init(), RWLock::Init(), and ConditionVariable::Init() usage
* [Navi21] X-Plane: LLPC performance tuning
* Add scope to some settings
* Add AMD switchable graphics layer to switch AMD Vulkan driver between amdvlk and RADV
* [Navi21] Madmax LLPC performance tuning
* Fix memory alignment for memory dedicated allocation
* [Navi21] Talos Principle: LLPC performance tuning
* Update PAL Interface in Vulkan to 640
* Update Khronos Vulkan Headers to 1.2.164
* Remove DebugReportCallback::Message() and DebugUtilsMessenger::Message() since they are unused
* PhysicalDevice::m_memoryUsageTracker::trackerMutex corrputed
* [Navi21] Rise of Tomb Raider-LLPC performance tuning
* Move spirv-headers from XGL to LLPC
* flags cleanup - meaningless const on return types
* Enable NGG compactionless for GFX10.3+
* [Navi21] F12017 LLPC performance tuning
PAL update:
Spoiler, click me
* Add Mesh shader support
* ImageAspect Removal (clean up IsFullSubresRange asserts)
* Bump version number to 288
* Reorder start of CMakeLists.txt in pal root so that TEST_BIG_ENDIAN works for stand alone builds
* Add declarative heap selection in GpuMemoryCreateInfo
* Fix warning (found in cmake build) that bltSyncToken is defined twice
* [Navi21] Meta equation of multiple layer image is incorrect.
* Add new interface function to query command feedback status from PAL Security Processor
* Remove Util::ConditionVariable::Init()
* Remove RWLock::Init() from PAL
* Ensure there is a fallback to local visible memory when requesting invisible memory for RGP traces
* Move initialization of Util::ConditionVariable to constructor
* Initialize Util::RWLock in constructor
* Fix several issues in error handling
* Fence style barrier signaling and waiting, part1
* Remove Mutex::Init()
* File::Rseek & File::FastForward Added
* [Navi21] Meta equation of 4/8xMsaa image is incorrect
* Update UserDataMapping enum
* Add Tonga back to null device tables
* Fix DRI3, Wayland and DRM traces
* Remove several dead settings
* Allow Util::Vector to qualify as a `range_expression` concept
* Generate different RPM shaders on diff milestones of a chip
* YV12 format update
* Inconsistent layout masks for ResolveSrc/ResolveDst
* Initialize Mutex in the constructor
* [GFX9/10] Remove RMW for DB_RENDER_OVERRIDE in most cases
* Remove ImageAspect from PAL interface (replaced with plane index), and add numPlanes to SubresRange
* Fix invalid SET_PREDICATION asserts
* [cmake] Created PalBuildParameters.cmake
* Add a nodiscard helper
* Minor mistake on handling exception in palElfProcessorImpl.h
* Missing DrawDispatchInfo in CmdBufferLogger output
* [Navi10] RPCS3 Corruption observed on Game window
3 Likes, Who?
AMD and Valve are two of most helpful companies and must be supported from us.
I think that this is the best approach possible to the driver.
I think that this is the best approach possible to the driver.
8 Likes, Who?
This is a vendor specific implementation of something that already exists and is not vendor specific. We have supported switching vulkan drivers with the VK_ICD_FILENAMES environment variable for months in Lutris so I don't really see what the big improvement is here.
7 Likes, Who?
I am happy AMD are contributing code, however I've been sticking with Mesa+RADV on my 5600 Fedora laptop as its been working great. Plays everything I can throw at it. Maybe with this change I'll try out AMDVLK in the future. Thanks for the heads up, Liam!
Last edited by pageround on 8 January 2021 at 2:06 pm UTC
Last edited by pageround on 8 January 2021 at 2:06 pm UTC
0 Likes
This is a vendor specific implementation of something that already exists and is not vendor specific. We have supported switching vulkan drivers with the VK_ICD_FILENAMES environment variable for months in Lutris so I don't really see what the big improvement is here.
Yep. In fact, you can use the same env var to switch to the closed source vulkan implementation as well. The only advantage I can see to this is that you can switch from one driver to another by just using a short name instead of a full path.
0 Likes
I am happy AMD are contributing code, however I've been sticking with Mesa+RADV on my 5600 Fedora laptop as its been working great. Plays everything I can throw at it. Maybe with this change I'll try out AMDVLK in the future.
Please don't. Messing with AMDGPU drivers is a risky operation for your OS and you shouldn't risk worsening the stability of your system if everything works great with Mesa.
For the record, last time I used AMDVLK Pro was for Doom Eternal when the Mesa driver wasn't ready yet. I haven't had a game that benefited from the AMDVLK (non Pro) driver. Currently, every game I play works fine with Mesa.
1 Likes, Who?
I am happy AMD are contributing code, however I've been sticking with Mesa+RADV on my 5600 Fedora laptop as its been working great. Plays everything I can throw at it. Maybe with this change I'll try out AMDVLK in the future. Thanks for the heads up, Liam!
FYI, you can try AMDVLK and the AMD closed source Vulkan implementation by just installing these libraries into a specific directory of your system and playing around with VK_ICD_FILENAMES in order to switch from one driver to another. You will probably end up using RADV for everything, but I think it's always welcome to have the option to test the other vulkan implementations (in my experience, it can help to detect driver bugs or game bugs).
0 Likes
AMDVLK is now used by default? I do not like that at all.
1 Likes, Who?
AMDVLK is now used by default? I do not like that at all.Presumably only if you go out of your way to actually install AMDVLK.
4 Likes, Who?
Any practical advantage of using AMD open source drivers instead of Mesa?
1 Likes, Who?
AMDVLK is now used by default? I do not like that at all.
If I remember correctly, installing AMDVLK or AMD Proprietary Vulkan drivers along side RADV makes them the default driver due that Vulkan Loader exposes the icd files in alphabetical order. This means that if an application selects the first available driver, it will default to AMDVLK. So, the problem is related to having the AMDVLK icd file name as "amd_icd64.json" while RADV driver icd named as "radeon_icd.x86_64.json". The solution: rename "amd_icd64.json" to "zamd_icd64.json" and RADV will be once again the default driver (bare in mind that if you installed your AMDVLK driver using some sort of distro package, this change will break a little bit the update/removal of the package).
But as strycore mentioned before, installing AMDVLK system wide is kinda pointless as RADV works better in 99% of cases.
Last edited by x_wing on 8 January 2021 at 4:09 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
Make it so I could actually buy a damn card would be a good idea first!
3 Likes, Who?
Make it so I could actually buy a damn card would be a good idea first!Yeah, with the current situation my plans to upgrade my PC early this year have been postponed. But it's okay; the game that would have mandated an upgrade won't be finished anytime soon either.
1 Likes, Who?
If I remember correctly, installing AMDVLK or AMD Proprietary Vulkan drivers along side RADV makes them the default driver due that Vulkan Loader exposes the icd files in alphabetical order.
I've had both RADV and AMDVLK installed for a long time and it always used to be RADV that loaded first unless I specifically asked for AMDVLK using environment variable. I think the reason for this is that the icd loaders resided in different folders and the folder with the mesa drivers was checked first so it didn't matter that "r" as in "radeon" comes after "a" as in "amd".
This behaviour seems to have changed lately however, because when a saw this thread I decided to check again by launching a game in Lutris and checking the DXVK_HUD. Without specifying a driver by environment variable, it was now running AMDVLK for some reason.
I wonder if there was an update that changed the folder structure at some point. The AMDVLK loader is currently in /etc/vulkan while the RADV one is in /usr/share/vulkan.
On a different note: To those of you wondering if you should install AMDVLK alongside RADV, the short answer is that you can, but you probably don't have a good reason besides just for testing. Multiple userspace Vulkan drivers can happily coexist on the same system and you can specify which to use by environment variable, but RADV is so good that it most likely covers all your needs on it's own.
0 Likes
radv is better because it has open development model. Keeping amdvlk around can be useful for some edge cases though. I don't install it globally, I just put it somewhere and load on demand VK_ICD_FILENAMES.
Last edited by Shmerl on 8 January 2021 at 8:00 pm UTC
Last edited by Shmerl on 8 January 2021 at 8:00 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
" RPCS3 Corruption observed on Game window on Navi10"
i know that emulators arent illegal, but can we spend an minute to talk about how amd is the manufacturer for ps4, ps5, xbox one, xbox series cpu/gpu and at the same time they fix bugs related to emulators and report this on the list of fixes on the driver relase notes?
kinda curious if you ask me...
i know that emulators arent illegal, but can we spend an minute to talk about how amd is the manufacturer for ps4, ps5, xbox one, xbox series cpu/gpu and at the same time they fix bugs related to emulators and report this on the list of fixes on the driver relase notes?
kinda curious if you ask me...
0 Likes
Emulators are fine, so AMD should have no problem with it. They don't have a stake in the copyright maximalists' lunacy.
Last edited by Shmerl on 8 January 2021 at 8:27 pm UTC
Last edited by Shmerl on 8 January 2021 at 8:27 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
This is a vendor specific implementation of something that already exists and is not vendor specific. We have supported switching vulkan drivers with the VK_ICD_FILENAMES environment variable for months in Lutris so I don't really see what the big improvement is here.
that's true, but it's easier to remember than /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json
0 Likes
I've had both RADV and AMDVLK installed for a long time and it always used to be RADV that loaded first unless I specifically asked for AMDVLK using environment variable. I think the reason for this is that the icd loaders resided in different folders and the folder with the mesa drivers was checked first so it didn't matter that "r" as in "radeon" comes after "a" as in "amd".
This behaviour seems to have changed lately however, because when a saw this thread I decided to check again by launching a game in Lutris and checking the DXVK_HUD. Without specifying a driver by environment variable, it was now running AMDVLK for some reason.
I wonder if there was an update that changed the folder structure at some point. The AMDVLK loader is currently in /etc/vulkan while the RADV one is in /usr/share/vulkan.
Never tested with different directories, so my comment is probably isolated to ICD files loaded in the same directory (at least at the time of my testing).
For the curious out there, this are the directories that the vulkan loader searches by default: https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Loader/blob/master/loader/LoaderAndLayerInterface.md#icd-discovery-on-linux
1 Likes, Who?
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