Linux 6.19 boosts old AMD GCN HD 7900 GPU performance by ~30% with AMDGPU

[harlan4096]

Linux 6.19 switches old AMD GCN cards to AMDGPU by default – unlocking higher performance



As we reported earlier, Linux 6.19 flips the default kernel driver for AMD GCN 1.0 and GCN 1.1 GPUs from the legacy Radeon DRM driver to AMDGPU. That change targets “Southern Islands” and “Sea Islands” era cards, including parts like the Radeon HD 7950. This means that despite being over 13 year old, some of these cards are getting a second chance to deliver a ‘playable’ experience, for whoever is using them today.

One could say that this was a one-man effort, as Valve’s work here mostly traces back to Timur Kristóf. He has been pushing to move GCN 1.0 and GCN 1.1 cards off the legacy Radeon kernel driver and onto AMDGPU by default, and he presented the effort at XDC 2025 in Vienna.

In Phoronix testing, AMDGPU came out ahead across a stack of 1080p benchmarks. It was the fastest option in GravityMark (Vulkan), Batman: Arkham Knight (Low and High), DiRT Rally 2.0 (Low and High), Strange Brigade (Low through Ultra), and GPUScore: Breaking Limit. The key practical change is Vulkan support via Mesa RADV without manual kernel flags, since RADV depends on the amdgpu kernel driver for these older cards.


Source: Phoronix

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