Which GPU would *you* choose?

[pocock]

They already made some contributions at the kernel level.

Does anybody know if AMD provides any prototype boards to the X developers or if there is any way to explore that with them?

[MauryG5]

I was now reading information on the Polaris MPC talks about but they are cards in any case old as a conception. They have the manufacturing process still at 14 nM among other things. Even if they give less problems, they are still old cards compared to the Navi so I personally always prefer the Navi. Or sooner or later they will have to solve those small bugs and then to me the 5700 XT is fine, the fault in our case is the Kernel that from version 5.7.X unfortunately has taken steps backwards as regards the reading of Navi 10/14. They are the ones who have to search for the bug and fix it ... We hope they do it as soon as possible because it is a long time now that we have been moving forward with this bug ...

[pocock]

I built backports of all the necessary components for Big Navi (llvm, mesa) on Debian buster.  The kernel requires gcc-9 or greater but I hope to have that sorted out too.

In theory, this means I can just plug the card in and it may work

Online shops are starting to list it for ordering on Wednesday.

Here are the latest specs in a useful comparison table

Key things that jumped out at me:

• yes, the AV1 codec hardware support is apparently included, this will allow playback at 4K even if we don't have optimized media stacks on POWER
• the 16GB RAM will be good for multi-monitor or multi-seat, this is a priority for me and one of the main reasons I'm putting some time into testing it
• the XT card appears to offer 30% higher pixel fill rate, probably worth the extra $70 for anybody with multiple monitors/users
• the biggest sacrifice with the XT is the extra half slot it consumes.  Not an issue if you have Talos II Lite or a PCIe 4 riser kit for vertical mounting.

I couldn't find details about idle power usage.  Personally, my GPU is almost always idle, I don't do gaming.  I'm hoping that it shuts off the fans when idle as with some of the predecessors.

[MPC7500]

FWIW, there is absolutely no problem to playback 4K on Navi14

[Hasturtium]

At this point - assuming I build a Power9 machine in the next few months - which GPU is more likely to behave itself with a contemporary install of Ubuntu? A Radeon FirePro W7000 (GCN 1.0), or an XFX Radeon R9 390 (GCN 1.1)? And is amdgpu likely to work if I force it with kernel parameters? And while I'm at it, how is Navi support at this point?

These are things I wonder before hearing that Intel's Arc is coming early next year... Here's hoping they manage solid OSS drivers like they have for their IGPs so far, and that they'll work on non-x86 architectures in due time.

[MPC7500]

I assume you already have these GCN1.0 GPUs? They should work. Just try them out.

Price-wise, all GPUs are bad at the moment. The best is still a GCN4.0 RX550.

Navi is more or less well supported since kernel 5.6.13.

RDNA GPUs are not supported at the moment.

Here you can find a good overview:
https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/POWER9_Hardware_Compatibility_List/PCIe_Devices#AMD

[rjzak]

Here you can find a good overview:
https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/POWER9_Hardware_Compatibility_List/PCIe_Devices#AMD

How up-to-date is the GPU list? A few of the items have wording like "May need at least linux 4.16", or "A compatibility mode is expected to be included in Linux 5.4 and above that will resolve this issue. ", or requires kernel patches from 3 years ago. I'm considering a Talos II build, but am worried about the GPU issue. Is the 580 still the best working non-pro Radeon? I'm also not familiar with AMD cards, I've always been an Nvidia person, but won't be using one for the Talos due to the many obvious reasons... I'm assuming Void Linux is the best way to go to side-step the 64k kernel page issue, and that this issue is still a problem today?

[Hasturtium]

How up-to-date is the GPU list? A few of the items have wording like "May need at least linux 4.16", or "A compatibility mode is expected to be included in Linux 5.4 and above that will resolve this issue. ", or requires kernel patches from 3 years ago. I'm considering a Talos II build, but am worried about the GPU issue. Is the 580 still the best working non-pro Radeon? I'm also not familiar with AMD cards, I've always been an Nvidia person, but won't be using one for the Talos due to the many obvious reasons... I'm assuming Void Linux is the best way to go to side-step the 64k kernel page issue, and that this issue is still a problem today?

Hey there! I'll go through these questions in order and give the answers I've found so far.
- The support list is pretty up to date by now. Don't worry about warnings about kernel versions prior to 5.10, you're unlikely to run into a current distro shipping with one. The 5.4 error in particular had to do with DMA handling mostly applicable to Radeons, but that's a settled issue from everything I've heard. Kernel patches are also irrelevant. Everything from PCIe Radeons going back to the Radeon HD 2000 series through pre-Polaris Radeons should be handled by the radeon driver, and everything from the Radeon RX 400 on up should be handled by amdgpu. There are only two caveats: currently nothing newer than the Radeon RX 5500/5700 currently works with ppc64le, and the Radeon HD 7000 series through the Radeon R9 series may work with the amdgpu driver.

- The Radeon RX 500 series should work fine - if you want something a little faster, an RX 590 should also not be problematic. The state of Navi/RDNA1 is also reliable. Consumer Radeon RX 5500 and 5700 cards also reportedly work well, I just wanted a safe bet and lucked into my Radeon Pro W5500 at MSRP during the worst part of the GPU shortage.

- You can always set up your machine with a distribution which uses 64KB kernel pages by default while using the integrated video, recompile your kernel for 4KB pages, install and boot that, and then set to working with 4KB kernel pages. For broader adoption's sake I hope Intel gets up to speed in Linux soon and works better with non-4KB kernel pages, but I am happy with Void despite an initial learning curve.

I'm starting to think there should be a General GPU Troubleshooting thread here, now that Blackbirds are going into a lot of hands. People need a central place to compare notes and discuss procedure and results.

[power9mm]

for the least headache, should one go with a wx7100 currently, or would i be okay with an rx 580 or vega 64? looking for the easiest gpu solution. this is for desktop/games not so much workstation stuff.

[Hasturtium]

for the least headache, should one go with a wx7100 currently, or would i be okay with an rx 580 or vega 64? looking for the easiest gpu solution. this is for desktop/games not so much workstation stuff.

I wouldn't worry too much, then. RX 580 or Vega should be fine with the amdgpu driver at this point, so long as you're running a 4KB page size kernel. I slapped a little info into a thread that could be useful if you want to boot with integrated skiroot graphics and then switch to your GPU within X/Wayland. Do post in the game thread with whatever results you have - I'm keen to start testing games myself, and will start posting some resources and results there soon.

[MPC7500]

Any of these cards should working. What is your concern? 64K issue is solved since Kernel 5.10.101. I have a RDNA1.
Do you own one of these cards already?

The only cards aren't working are RDNA2. But Raptor is working on it.

[power9mm]

No I don't own any of these cards yet. I've never owned an ATi or AMD gpu in my life (always used nvidia, never had an issue with it on linux which is the only OS ive used for quite a bit now).

However I'm shopping for a GPU currently anyways, so one i can use in a power9 helps.

I'm waiting to sell a few things off before picking up a basic blackbird mobo and 4 core.

[MauryG5]

Unfortunately Nvdia, using proprietary drivers, does not get along very well with our Power9 machines and therefore consequently the resulting operation is never very good. For example, the old 2070 works but has limitations such as 3D acceleration which does not work. The only cards that are good and can be fully exploited are AMD at the moment ...

[ClassicHasClass]

If you're using a 64K page kernel (Fedora, for example), I can attest that the WX7100 works fine with amdgpu. I haven't had a need to try something newer.