Ubuntu – State of AMD drivers in 16.04

amd-graphicsdriversfglrxgraphics

I am really confused about the state of AMD drivers on 16.04

My question is six-fold.

  1. What is the difference between
    • The amdgpu driver,
    • The radeon driver, and
    • The amdgpu-pro driver?

  1. When would each of those drivers be used?

  2. Are they all open-source?

  3. Can you switch between them?

  4. Which GPUs are supported?

  5. Is AMD working on an fglrx replacement for 16.04?

As I do not have an AMD card, I am unable to experiment.

I understand this is a broad question, but I want this to be a canonical question 🙂

Best Answer

Here's what I've been able to find so far:

    • A: The amdgpu driver, pre-installed in 16.04, is used for AMD's newest graphics cards. 3

    • B: The radeon driver, also pre-installed in 16.041, is a replacement for the fglrx driver1, and is used for older AMD cards that amdgpu doesn't support.

    • C: amdgpu-pro is not its own driver, but rather an overlay on top of amdgpu2. It is optimized for gaming2.

  2. I think Ubuntu decides automatically. Although the amdgpu-pro driver has to be downloaded manually.

    • The amdgpu driver is completely open-source
    • The radeon driver is completely open-source
    • The amdgpu-pro driver is partially open-source

  4. I have no idea. Probably not.

  5. Still have to do more research....

  6. amdgpu-pro is the replacement for fglrx.

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