For the upcoming Linux 6.17 kernel cycle AMD already queued fixes for GPU compute on some older AMD hardware, improved debugging support for AMDGPU, and other enhancements. Sent out today was a final batch of feature changes for AMDGPU/AMDKFD expected for the upcoming Linux 6.17 merge window. Most notable is AMD SmartMux support coming to Linux.
AMD SmartMux already works with current/recent hardware and is supported under Microsoft Windows drivers it seems. Now though AMD SmartMux is coming to Linux for improving hybrid GPU laptop support for systems offering both integrated graphics and discrete graphics.
In the Linux patch wiring up initial Linux support for AMD SmartMux, it’s described as:
“SmartMux is a mechanism to switch the GPU being used for scanout in a hybrid configuration. This is used for devices with an eDP and two GPUs. This is only valid when the system has a physical switch (Multiplexer) in the board to switch between the two GPUs.
When a graphically intensive workload like a game is being run, the system can be switch the active display to the dGPU, so that we can avoid copying the buffer from dGPU to APU for scanout. This helps with latency and FPS. When power consumption is preferred, the system can be switched to the APU.”
Thus SmartMux can help with better graphics performance on such systems by avoiding a buffer copy from the dGPU to iGPU/APU or also to help manage manage power efficiency by ensuring the multiplexer is going to the iGPU (APU).
In addition to bringing SmartMux support to Linux, the AMDGPU pull request today also brings per-queue reset improvements for GFX9 and newer compute, GFX10 (RDNA1) and newer graphics engine, SDMA 5.0 and newer, JPEG 2.0 and newer, and Video Core Next 2.0 and newer. Over the past year the AMD Linux graphics driver has been working on its per-queue reset support for a better reset experience when the GPU/driver runs into problems rather than having to go through a full GPU reset.
There are also AMDGPU Image Signal Processor (ISP) updates, SMU fixes, display idle D3 updates, and a variety of other fixes.
When it comes to the AMDKFD kernel compute driver, AMDKFD can now be built on LoongArch systems for those wanting to use that Chinese CPU architecture with Instinct/Radeon hardware with AMDKFD+ROCm compute.
More details on the many changes to find with today’s AMDGPU/AMDKFD pull ahead of the Linux 6.17 merge window can see this pull request. The Linux 6.17 stable kernel should be out in early October and powering the likes of Ubuntu 25.10 and Fedora 43 and other Q4’2025 Linux distributions.
