AMD’s recent choice to move its Radeon RX 5000 and RX 6000 GPUs to a maintenance mode for driver updates on Windows may impact future game support, but Linux users are not affected.
Many Linux fans were not concerned, but even the Phoronix website, which focuses solely on the platform, mentioned that some individuals were puzzled by the new AMD policy, necessitating the need for a clarification statement.
AMD stopped supporting their AMDVLK proprietary driver in September this year, opting to back the community-maintained RADV driver on Linux instead. This means that the Radeon GPU driver on Linux will remain unaffected by AMD’s decisions and will continue to receive regular updates.
AMD has decided to streamline development and show stronger support for the open-source community by consolidating the Vulkan driver strategy for Linux. As a result, the company will no longer continue the AMDVLK open-source project and will fully endorse the RADV driver as the official Vulkan open-source driver for Radeon.
AMD Drivers on Linux now support the older Radeon R9 300 series.
Phoronix’s post states that the AMDGPU kernel driver is extensive, as it naturally accommodates older AMD models like the Radeon R9 Fury X based on GCN 1.2 architecture. The site also notes occasional enhancements for outdated ATI models.
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More recent and highly favored GPUs, particularly those in the Radeon RX 6000 series, are expected to receive significant support from the open-source driver community.
The website concludes that the modifications in the Windows driver for Radeon Software do not usually affect Linux users and fans.
