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Radeon Software for Linux 21.10 brings Vulkan Ray Tracing in preview

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While work is ongoing in Mesa to get AMD GPUs to support Ray Tracing, AMD directly have released Radeon Software for Linux 21.10 that brings along support to Linux.

Before getting too excited, keep in mind this release states that Ray Tracing for AMD RDNA 2 based chips is a "developer preview" aimed to help developing and testing with the newer vendor neutral Vulkan Ray Tracing Extensions - so if you're going to try playing some games with it, keep in mind it's not yet finished.

Additionally the Radeon Software for Linux 21.10 release also adds in "full support for Ubuntu 20.04.2" so it's now officially supported across:

  • Ubuntu 20.04.2
  • Ubuntu 18.04.5 HWE
  • RHEL/CentOS 7.9
  • RHEL/CentOS 8.3
  • SLED/SLES 15 SP 2

You're probably best off sticking with Mesa for general usage and gaming though, but if you're seriously enthusiastic about Ray Tracing on AMD this is currently your best bet to try it out.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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4 comments

dpanter Apr 20, 2021
Oh hell yes, one step closer! Now to find anything that runs...

AMD raytracing in Linux ladies and gentlemen.

Quake2RTX initial performance guesstimated to 2070 super-ish. Getting 60 fps in 3440x1440 takes some tweaking and allowing for a bit of resolution scaling.


Last edited by dpanter on 20 April 2021 at 9:15 pm UTC
x_wing Apr 20, 2021
Just as a general reminder:

You don't have to opt-out of Mesa drivers at system level in order to test this as you can simply install AMDGPU-PRO vulkan as a client driver along side RADV (you will have to use VK_ICD_FILENAMES in order to select the driver though)
Cyba.Cowboy Apr 21, 2021
Do the NVIDIA drivers support ray-tracing yet?

I nearly bought a version of my existing laptop with a ray-tracing graphics card, but the price-jump was pretty big over what I have now, so I put it off until I upgrade next... I haven't looked into ray-tracing too much, in part because I'm lazy and do most of my gaming on my Sony PlayStation 4 Pro / Nintendo Switch, but from what I understand, it makes quite a big difference.
Phlebiac Apr 21, 2021
Quoting: Cyba.CowboyDo the NVIDIA drivers support ray-tracing yet?

Since before there were official Vulkan extensions for it. Quake II RTX in the screenshot above was released by Nvidia.
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