Linus Torvalds has announced the release of the Linux Kernel version 5.17, with one of the most prominent features being the new AMD P-State driver for modern CPUs.
From the release announcement: "So we had an extra week of at the end of this release cycle, and I'm happy to report that it was very calm indeed. We could probably have skipped it with not a lot of downside, but we did get a few last-minute reverts and fixes in and avoid some brown-paper bugs that would otherwise have been stable fodder, so it's all good."
You can view a human-readable changelog thanks to the folks at Kernel Newbies but here's some of the highlights:
- AMD P-State driver - a performance scaling driver that introduces a new CPU frequency control mechanism on AMD Zen based CPU series in Linux kernel. Designed to give better power efficiency and can help the likes of the Steam Deck.
- Updates for next-generation AMD GPUs.
- More improvements to bring up support for Apple Silicon.
- Initial support for Intel Raptor Lake S graphics.
- Support for custom fan curves found on some ASUS ROG laptops.
- New driver for x86 Android tablets.
- Security: straight-line-speculation mitigations.
- An addition for System76 EC specific functionality.
- New driver for Lenovo Yoga Book.
And much more, that's just me cherry-picking a few bits that stood out.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Wonder if that means that nvidia will allow nvidia-powerd to work with AMD cpus now, getting a bit old hat that my 130w gpu is locked at 80w on Linux
Shame Mint is still stuck on 5.13 - haven't had to compile a kernel my self in some 15 years and I'm now about to start now
Shame Mint is still stuck on 5.13 - haven't had to compile a kernel my self in some 15 years and I'm now about to start now
2 Likes, Who?
Note that a scaling driver (acpi-cpufreq, intel-pstate, amd-pstate) is distinctly different from a scaling governor (performance, powersave, schedutil). Roughly speaking the governor controls what state the CPU should be in, and the driver actually knows how to get to that state.
11 Likes, Who?
does that mean that my fully AMD PC will run my games even faster ?
Awsome !
Awsome !
2 Likes, Who?
Loving this update!
Hopefully I can utilise the custom fan curves.
Hopefully I can utilise the custom fan curves.
0 Likes
Wonder if that means that nvidia will allow nvidia-powerd to work with AMD cpus now, getting a bit old hat that my 130w gpu is locked at 80w on Linux
Shame Mint is still stuck on 5.13 - haven't had to compile a kernel my self in some 15 years and I'm now about to start now
Can't you use the Ubuntu mainline kernels?
v5.17 Mainline Test
1 Likes, Who?
does that mean that my fully AMD PC will run my games even faster ?
Awsome !
Not really, for desktop systems you get the best performance by blasting full power.
However on an APU (like the Steam Deck) with a shared power budget between CPU and GPU, this can help give the GPU some more power by saving a bit on the CPU...
4 Likes, Who?
FauconNoir 21 Mar 2022
There should be smoother VR tracking too
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamVR-for-Linux/issues/21#issuecomment-1019202308
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamVR-for-Linux/issues/21#issuecomment-1019202308
6 Likes, Who?
Wonder if that means that nvidia will allow nvidia-powerd to work with AMD cpus now, getting a bit old hat that my 130w gpu is locked at 80w on Linux
Shame Mint is still stuck on 5.13 - haven't had to compile a kernel my self in some 15 years and I'm now about to start now
Can't you use the Ubuntu mainline kernels?
v5.17 Mainline Test
Maybe but last time I investigated ( due to unupported wifi card ) using that would break the system with every nvidia driver update if running the closed source drivers
0 Likes
does that mean that my fully AMD PC will run my games even faster ?
Awsome !
No, Linus hasn't mainlined the "go faster stripe" code yet, It's apparently stuck in legal due to The Flash complaining
2 Likes, Who?
PublicNuisance 22 Mar 2022
If that P state driver improves my 2600X i'll be a happy man. I'm not unhappy with it but the more the merrier.
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