14 DAY TRIAL // Michel Dänzer announced today, November 17, 2016, the release of new stable versions of the open-source Radeon (xf86-video-ati) and AMDGPU (xf86-video-amdgpu) drivers for GNU/Linux distributions.
xf86-video-amdgpu 1.2.0 and xf86-video-ati 7.8.0 are now the latest versions, designed to support the recently released X.Org Server 1.19.0 display server and bringing all of those goodies that most owners of AMD Radeon graphics cards have been expecting for so long.
"I'm pleased to announce the 1.2.0 release of xf86-video-amdgpu, the Xorg driver for AMD Radeon GPUs supported by the AMDGPU kernel driver. This release supports xserver versions 1.10-1.19," said Michel Dänzer. "[And] 7.8.0 release of xf86-video-ati, the Xorg driver for ATI/AMD Radeon GPUs supported by the Radeon kernel driver."
DRI3 now enabled by default, new "TearFree" option prevents tearing
And now for the new features. Both drivers are now shipping with the "TearFree" option, which prevents tearing for all display configurations and is very effective with RandR 1.4 slave output and random RandR transforms. However, users should keep in mind that the "TearFree" option works only with the latest X.Org Server.
Another thing to get excited about is the enablement of DRI3 by default, but as expected, it will only work with versions of the X.Org Sever higher than 1.18.3. Additionally, the DRI3 feature requires GLAMOR to be enabled as well. Moreover, there's now support for DRI3/Present asynchronous page flips, but you must run a recent Linux kernel version.
The new DRI3/Present asynchronous page flips feature boosts the performance of full-screen applications in configurations where sync-to-vblank is disabled. Among other improvements, we can mention a significant increase in 2D compositing performance, which will require GLAMOR to be enabled by default.
Last but not least, the performance of the RandR 1.4 slave output has been improved, RandR 1.4's capabilities are displayed more accurately, it is possible to use the HW cursor with TearFree and rotation or RandR 1.4 slave output, and there's finally support for the SI (Southern Islands) family of AMD Radeon GPUs.
Those who fancy compiling their own drivers can now download xf86-video-amdgpu 1.2.0 and xf86-video-ati 7.8.0, but the rest of us will have to wait a little longer for our distribution maintainers to push the new versions to the repositories, along with X.Org Server 1.19.0, before we can enjoy better AMD Radeon graphics.