With Linux 6.19 aging AMD GCN 1.0 and GCN 1.1 GPUs switched the default kernel driver used to provide for much better performance, RADV Vulkan support out-of-the-box, and other improvements compared to using the legacy Radeon DRM kernel driver. For 2026, Timur Kristóf of Valve’s Linux graphics team has more improvements still planned to enhance these older AMD graphics cards on Linux.
Timur Kristóf published a New Year’s Eve blog post to highlight the recent work done on transitioning GCN 1.0/1.1 GPUs to the AMDGPU kernel driver by default, following the remaining feature limitations/gaps being addressed. But there still are some bugs and other enhancements for these older AMD GPUs that he is looking to address moving forward.
Timur noted these areas where he still intends to help driver more improvements for better AMD graphics card support in AMDGPU for that early Graphics Core Next hardware:
– Add support for DRM format modifiers for all SI/CIK/VI/Polaris GPUs. This would be a huge step forward for the Vulkan ecosystem, it would enable using purely Vulkan based compositors, Zink, and other features.
– Add support for TRAVIS and NUTMEG display bridges, so that we can also switch to amdgpu by default for CIK APUs. I couldn’t find the hardware for this work, if you have it and want to help, please reach out.
– Refactor SI and KV power management so that we can retire the legacy power management code, which would further ease the maintenance burden of these GPUs.
– Eventually retire the non-DC legacy display code from amdgpu to ease the maintenance burden.
– Deal with a few lingering bugs, such as power limit on Radeon 430, black screen with the analog connector on Radeon HD 7790, as well as VM faults on SI/CIK.
– Verify sparse mapping (PRT) support. I already wrote a kernel fix and a Mesa MR for enabling it.
– Implement transfer queue support for old GPUs in RADV.
Some of these action items aren’t strictly limited to GCN 1.0/1.1 but would also benefit other GPUs like Polaris.
Those wanting to learn more can read Timur’s blog post for his latest recap on these open-source Linux driver improvements for aging AMD GPUs.
