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AMD release the AMD GPU-PRO Beta Driver with Vulkan support for Linux

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AMD fans, today is your day to shine. AMD have released what they are calling " AMD Radeon™ Software AMD GPU-PRO Beta Driver, quite the mouthful.

It's compatible with these chips currently:
AMD Radeon R9 Fury X Graphics
AMD Radeon R9 380X Graphics
AMD Radeon R9 Fury Graphics
AMD Radeon R9 380 Graphics
AMD Radeon R9 Nano Graphics
AMD Radeon R9 285 Graphics
AMD Radeon R9 M395X Graphics

It only officially supports Ubuntu 14.04.4 (64-bit version). I imagine that will change soon with the release of Ubuntu 16.04.

It's a full driver which supports these APIs:
- ​OpenGL 4.5 and GLX 1.4
- OpenCL 1.2
- Vulkan 1.0
- VDPAU

Find their release notes and all the official info here. There are a bunch of issues and limitations you should read up on before trying it. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: AMD, Vulkan
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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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31 comments
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Natedawg Mar 18, 2016
Nice, now it makes even more sense why Ubuntu dropped the old AMD driver a few days ago in 16.04 :) I can't wait to see if it makes much difference, especially once games like the Talos Principal are fully optimized for Vulkan.
drmoth Mar 18, 2016
Congrats AMD! i was worried they were going to be too late...this looks promising
Pecisk Mar 18, 2016
So they backported it for 14.04 and now work with kernel for inclusion in mainline. Nice.
sr_ls_boy Mar 18, 2016
These R9 cards aren't cheap. At newegg, they start at $175.
WorMzy Mar 18, 2016
This seems to have taken a bit longer than hoped, but is good news nonetheless!
SXX Mar 18, 2016
Quoting: srlsboyThese R9 cards aren't cheap. At newegg, they start at $175.
Kernel module inside driver package have "CONFIG_DRM_AMDGPU_CIK=y" option set so it's should work on cheaper GCN 1.1 hardware. Bridgman told many times they supporting it from very beginning in their out-of-tree module. Of course it's may not work that well since it's beta.

There is also going to be SI (GCN 1.0) support eventually, but that might take a while.
Pecisk Mar 18, 2016
Quoting: WorMzyThis seems to have taken a bit longer than hoped, but is good news nonetheless!

Longer? They were in a middle of move just few weeks ago, and in fact they still are - mainstream kernel still needs to be sorted out. It's awesome they got time to release OFT version for restless crowd to test.
SXX Mar 18, 2016
Quoting: PeciskSo they backported it for 14.04 and now work with kernel for inclusion in mainline. Nice.
Keep in mind they only backported it to 14.04.4 which mean 4.2 kernel. It's likely wont work with older kernels.
GustyGhost Mar 18, 2016
Quoting: srlsboyThese R9 cards aren't cheap. At newegg, they start at $175.

There's no shame in going for used. I've seen GCN 1.2 cards on eBay for $125.
ChloeWolfieGirl Mar 18, 2016
TIL Mines an AMD Radeon R7 250 2GB Idk how drivers usually go but does anyone know if AMD will add Vulkan support to this card?
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