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SteamOS updated, Valve drops AMDGPU-PRO for Mesa

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Valve haven't been sitting on their hands, as they have pushed out a fresh update for SteamOS that's currently in Beta. It's been a while and it's a good one.

They have rebased it against Kernel 4.11 and they have also updated the graphics drivers. The big thing here is that Valve have officially dropped AMDGPU-PRO in favour of Mesa. This goes to show how far Mesa has come, for Valve to be using it directly.

It also pulls in changes from the Debian 8.8 release, so it comes with everything there including the usual security updates too.

From the release notes:
QuoteIt has been a long time since the last update. We have not been idle. This update is huge. First, we have rebased our kernel changes on top of the latest 4.11 Linux kernel. We have updated all the graphics drivers. This update also switches SteamOS from the proprietary AMDGPU-PRO driver to the open source mesa driver. Our friends at Debian have released Debian 8.8[www.debian.org] so we picked up those updates as well. And of course it wouldn't be an update without the usual security patching.

Please be on the lookout for any regressions around game controller support, WiFi, or graphics.

This is easily the biggest SteamOS update we have ever done. Sorry it took so long but we hope this will give us a good base for quite a while.


Now they have this big update done and in Beta, I am keen to see what they do with SteamOS.

Find the release notes here.

Thanks for the info dubigrasu! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Mesa, SteamOS
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ghem May 22, 2017
Awesome news <3
I sense an AMD APU based Steam Machine in a not so distant future
Cybolic May 22, 2017
Great news! Now would be a good time to release a new official Steam Machine with a decent GPU, maybe based on the NFC S4 Mini? :D
Pecisk May 22, 2017
It seems Valve does move towards AMD based Steam Machines for next generation. It is certainly can be at least interesting, if not more. It certainly will cut down pricing of potential SMs.

And yes, AMD and Mesa devs have done incredible job. It is certainly coming back to compete with Nvidia.
Nyamiou May 22, 2017
I hope they could release an AMD based Steam Machine but they also have to redo their marketing else they will have a backlash from corrupt gaming journalists (ArsTechnica and Polygon) again and they won't be able to do anything.


Last edited by Nyamiou on 22 May 2017 at 10:43 pm UTC
slaapliedje May 22, 2017
I wonder what happened to that portable Steam Machine that was going to be AMD based. That would be phenomenal.

The SMACH Zero... everything says it was supposed to be released Q4 of 2016... would love one myself.


Last edited by slaapliedje on 22 May 2017 at 10:50 pm UTC
GustyGhost May 22, 2017
IMO AMD should have just adopted Mesa as their official driver like Intel have. We don't need the graphics driver equivalent to MIR vs Wayland vs X.
m0nt3 May 22, 2017
Quoting: AnxiousInfusionIMO AMD should have just adopted Mesa as their official driver like Intel have. We don't need the graphics driver equivalent to MIR vs Wayland vs X.

The have, AMDGPU-PRO is just that, for the PRO cards like firegl. It is not meant to be used for gaming, that is what AMDGPU is for. This is according to bridgman @ phoronix, who is an AMD opensource driver dev.
Smellymangames May 23, 2017
This is really big news. Dedication to opensource is paying off for AMD. I excitedly await the Vega cards. Could be huge for AMD and future Steam Machines.
Mezron May 23, 2017
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This sound great. If a AMD APU based Steam Machine is released, I gonna pick it up. All of my desktops and laptops are Nvidia.
With the rate radeonsi has been moving I'm expecting it to be completely on par with linux Nvidia proprietary in about a years time. And then be up to the same quality standards as Windows drivers a year after that. :crosses fingers:
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