Ubuntu and Mint are the most popular distros, however, and we should probably deal with the reality. And if we are to hope for a development in which more people switch to Linux, it will likely be to those distros, or other "stable" releases. Not bleeding edge stuff that can break any moment.

I saw the video this article linked above is based upon (or the other way around), and now even read a good lot of the comments in the comment section (it's not the usual madhouse, surprisingly). It's discouraging reading. I feel like in a minority here, but I keep repeating it nevertheless: not everybody are as comfortable with command line, config files and limitless tinkering as many on this domain. We just want to get hardware and software, and have the bloody thing work. That is precisely why I use Linux Mint. It simply works out of the box with minimum fuzz. Wouldn't know what to do to get all this talked about stuff working anyway, like self-compiled patches from github or one of the oh so many bug trackers. This is out of reach for probably 90%+ of people, and goes right back to the typical comment about Linux (we've heard it for years, tinker-tinker-tinker, only for nerds).

I'm very much a potential AMD customer, but all this stuff makes me very wary to invest. It's not a small amount of money, and the last thing I want is for the new computer to work worse than the one I currently have. It's such a darn shame too. The hardware seems to be really good, but for the n-th time the software/driver side is letting AMD down, and letting their customers down. When retailers interviewed say the return rate for AMD GPUs is 5 times higher than for Nvidia, something is seriously fucking wrong. It's not something that can easily be blamed on user error.

Yes, most of those numbers will be Windows users, but it's pretty clear it applies to Linux too, since we're still talking about "next kernel will solve it".

At this point it seems wise to postpone purchasing if you can, and go for Nvidia if you can't.

Quoting: TuxeeApart from that you can alwaays install a mainline kernel.

You can always add some repo and install something, sure. But we were talking about out of the box experience, right? (At least you were complaining about that)? And as far as I can tell, Ubuntu / Mint do a poor a job at keeping gaming related stack up to date out of the box, unless you configure things explicitly.

Quoting: TuxeeThrow out the AMD card and get an NVidia again - why not?

Garbage blob experience. AMD might be behind in timely support (so downside - you need to wait until drivers stabilize), but they are light years ahead in support in general. I.e. they support all Linux use cases, not "what we sanctioned" that Nvidia do.

I wouldn't take blob vs AMD's delayed support. No way.

Last edited by Shmerl on 16 February 2020 at 7:59 pm UTC

Seriously, I bought a Sapphire 5700 XT Pulse running on an regularly updated Arch installation (+ Dual Boot Windows 10) and so far everything runs flawless with amazing performance.

I really wonder what's wrong with you system. :/

Quoting: subSeriously, I bought a Sapphire 5700 XT Pulse running on an regularly updated Arch installation (+ Dual Boot Windows 10) and so far everything runs flawless with amazing performance.

I really wonder what's wrong with you system. :/

Rolling distro is the key. That's simply the best option for up to date hardware support.

Last edited by Shmerl on 17 February 2020 at 8:24 am UTC

Quoting: subSeriously, I bought a Sapphire 5700 XT Pulse running on an regularly updated Arch installation (+ Dual Boot Windows 10) and so far everything runs flawless with amazing performance.

I really wonder what's wrong with you system. :/

Well, since the setup runs ok with Kernel 5.3 and the Kisak Mesa PPA it is hardly a hardware issue. My (or the) issue is - how to put that? - the overall air of "expect regressions in the future".

Quoting: ShmerlRolling distro is the key. That's simply the best option for up to date hardware support.

Erm... So Kernel 5.3 was ok, 5.4 total disaster (so sad), 5.5 nice again... Am I supposed to see the benefit of a rolling release here? The "always the newest kernel" doesn't sound like a bullet-proof recipe here.
To sum it up: It boils down to "rolling release" or "no AMD GPU". I already stated that a rolling release distro is a far from optimal solution for me. At the very same time I'm told, that NVidia is pure evil. I'm sure that Windows fans would gloat over such exchanges...

5.3 was bad, 5.4 was semi-usable, 5.5 was mostly OK. 5.6 is stable. So I've seen quite gradual progression here. Rolling distro nails this.

Last edited by Shmerl on 17 February 2020 at 9:03 am UTC

Quoting: TuxeeErm... So Kernel 5.3 was ok, 5.4 total disaster (so sad), 5.5 nice again...

Already asked this a month ago or so but i'll post it again, did you or did you not upgrade, along with the Kernel, the firmware that came with Mint ? Because those are utterly outdated and navi 10 firmware have been updated a couple of time.

I'm running Mint 19.2 and everything is good / usable since 5.3-rcx (as far as I remember ok ) and updating to each release candidates since then.

Edit : https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/log/?qt=grep&q=navi10

Last edited by TobyGornow on 17 February 2020 at 9:40 am UTC

I update firmware regularly, as soon as upstream gets it.

Quoting: ShmerlI update firmware regularly, as soon as upstream gets it.

Quoting: ShmerlI update firmware regularly, as soon as upstream gets it.

It gets pulled in automatically on Arch, right?
I never did that manually.

My 18.04 configuration seems to have the proper firmware, since everything runs ok.

The ones I had previously
foo@bar:/lib/firmware/amdgpu/bak$ md5sum *
5074bcbcc3592cb22d0a0ef04ead35ab  navi10_asd.bin
3f52075a7db731365236d3050aa23d9e  navi10_ce.bin
d99c5124e5560153768a71cec8a4726e  navi10_gpu_info.bin
98ddcd564bddf7ed6045afff4abf6704  navi10_me.bin
c9cd7f8cdd97c18f3068887f1877e2a6  navi10_mec2.bin
c9cd7f8cdd97c18f3068887f1877e2a6  navi10_mec.bin
2dd1563ba76158c98d9409eb94daab2e  navi10_pfp.bin
5261715f1fbcfa6e586012dfa922356c  navi10_rlc.bin
5f41f20b8e89dfecb0d9e25cebd661cb  navi10_sdma1.bin
5f41f20b8e89dfecb0d9e25cebd661cb  navi10_sdma.bin
ca8b8ef19533560979d28fcd100dadce  navi10_smc.bin
7f06e5bc7c740c12be2c4c70a877ba2c  navi10_sos.bin
d6d91356292b5795a62ff944dea35f45  navi10_vcn.bin

The ones I have now (copied from who knows where)

foo@bar:/lib/firmware/amdgpu$ md5sum navi10*
c906f2da7ad8b89e33f3cd134d734048  navi10_asd.bin
b6ed20f0474ecaeea76d012007d0d649  navi10_ce.bin
d99c5124e5560153768a71cec8a4726e  navi10_gpu_info.bin
979f8cb3fa80c39579defdcb5d2e67cf  navi10_me.bin
91ebf96e685bfb26df02300e68a38d3c  navi10_mec2.bin
91ebf96e685bfb26df02300e68a38d3c  navi10_mec.bin
b224f16230c2d9dcf8454c2ff4c91a59  navi10_pfp.bin
8079175c2641084b982a116b46997516  navi10_rlc.bin
94e4e03692743d9d4f1f5493a2c0a3e4  navi10_sdma1.bin
94e4e03692743d9d4f1f5493a2c0a3e4  navi10_sdma.bin
7cb1705435cabe9f4220d9388b52f46c  navi10_smc.bin
1d75437a69d7070f174913eeb9b5a8aa  navi10_sos.bin
d64f8f5998de0d95cbeb18d5f73a6c0b  navi10_ta.bin
1afe1cd7fc5ec5ac02707bf933365e7e  navi10_vcn.bin

The ones that come with 20.04:

foo@bar:/lib/firmware/amdgpu$ md5sum navi10*
c906f2da7ad8b89e33f3cd134d734048  navi10_asd.bin
013d6b13e32b251a15f20d116b692a0c  navi10_ce.bin
d99c5124e5560153768a71cec8a4726e  navi10_gpu_info.bin
273cae45d26d7f9b94b8913ebcca4ee5  navi10_me.bin
99965d301414640b8136be603899fe5e  navi10_mec2.bin
99965d301414640b8136be603899fe5e  navi10_mec.bin
2b18285f717e0b836646b4622326e4fa  navi10_pfp.bin
d59ec47efc4283d3d7df8960f7f68380  navi10_rlc.bin
1d5f14e1061aac5bf4a7cdb267f9619e  navi10_sdma1.bin
1d5f14e1061aac5bf4a7cdb267f9619e  navi10_sdma.bin
c11beaf3cd5da0704cdf4ecaf781ad2f  navi10_smc.bin
1416ca567e33480dc2723d9979b46c17  navi10_sos.bin
5ba13b8604df3627499d8fd1eb6511a5  navi10_ta.bin
1afe1cd7fc5ec5ac02707bf933365e7e  navi10_vcn.bin

That's one of the major points of my rant: What is supposed to be the "correct configuration" for an RX 5700? How many firmware versions are floating around? Which one is the firmware to go for? (Which kernel versions, which Mesa versions, etc.)

I've tried again the different kernels on my to-become 20.04 partition:

Kernel 5.4 (if it boots smoothly, which it does half of the time):

foo@bar$ grep -rin amdgpu kernel-5.4-dmesg 
...
1262:[    2.449914] kernel: [drm] amdgpu: 8176M of VRAM memory ready
1263:[    2.449917] kernel: [drm] amdgpu: 8176M of GTT memory ready.
1308:[    3.348134] kernel: amdgpu: [powerplay] smu driver if version = 0x00000033, smu fw if version = 0x00000035, smu fw version = 0x002a2f84 (42.47.132)
1309:[    3.348135] kernel: amdgpu: [powerplay] SMU driver if version not matched
1310:[    3.362269] kernel: amdgpu: [powerplay] SMU is initialized successfully!
...
1384:[    3.628322] kernel: [drm] Initialized amdgpu 3.35.0 20150101 for 0000:0c:00.0 on minor 0

Kernel 5.5.4

foo@bar$ grep -rin amdgpu kernel-5.5-dmesg 
...
1258:[    2.464659] [drm] amdgpu: 8176M of VRAM memory ready
1259:[    2.464665] [drm] amdgpu: 8176M of GTT memory ready.
1293:[    3.348051] amdgpu: [powerplay] use vbios provided pptable
1294:[    3.348132] amdgpu: [powerplay] smu driver if version = 0x00000033, smu fw if version = 0x00000035, smu fw version = 0x002a2f84 (42.47.132)
1295:[    3.348132] amdgpu: [powerplay] SMU driver if version not matched
1298:[    3.402489] amdgpu: [powerplay] SMU is initialized successfully!
1397:[    6.272203] [drm] Initialized amdgpu 3.36.0 20150101 for 0000:0c:00.0 on minor 0
...
1421:[   12.453852] amdgpu: [powerplay] failed send message: SetHardMinByFreq (28)  param: 0x0002036b response 0xffffffc2

Kernel 5.6RC2
foo@bar$ grep -rin amdgpu kernel-5.6-dmesg 
...
1290:[    2.513659] [drm] amdgpu: 8176M of VRAM memory ready
1291:[    2.513661] [drm] amdgpu: 8176M of GTT memory ready.
1319:[    3.408019] amdgpu 0000:0c:00.0: RAS: ras ta ucode is not available
1320:[    3.440055] amdgpu: [powerplay] use vbios provided pptable
1321:[    3.440121] amdgpu: [powerplay] smu driver if version = 0x00000033, smu fw if version = 0x00000035, smu fw version = 0x002a2f84 (42.47.132)
1322:[    3.440122] amdgpu: [powerplay] SMU driver if version not matched
1323:[    3.498253] amdgpu: [powerplay] SMU is initialized successfully!
...
1370:[    3.864297] [drm] Initialized amdgpu 3.36.0 20150101 for 0000:0c:00.0 on minor 0
1414:[   12.014221] amdgpu: [powerplay] failed send message: SetHardMinByFreq (28)  param: 0x0002036b response 0xffffffc2

5.5 and 5.6 still have a single powerplay issue but it doesn't seem to do any harm.

Now to the FPS with ROTR (apart from the kernel everything else is identical):

5.4 - 33fps (maybe some clocking issue since the fan doesn't noticeably spin up)
5.5 - 134fps (hooray! Not up to my 18.04, kernel 5.3 setup which yields 143fps, but close enough, enabling ACO might already do the trick)
5.6rc - 133fpe (again hooray!)

So unless some patches aren't backported to 5.4 I might at least be fine with 5.5+. Remains only the OpenCL tinkering. Hopefully.