The AMD Radeon RX 480 / RX 580 “Polaris” graphics cards remain very popular on the Steam Survey and among enthusiasts/desktop users at large even though they are nearly a decade old. The nine year old Polaris graphics cards have aged well in the marketplace and are an affordable choice. For Linux users they continue enjoying strong open-source driver support. It turns out Linux creator Linus Torvalds himself is still relying on an AMD Radeon RX 580 with one of his main systems.
Due to bisecting and working through a regression that popped up during the Linux 6.17 merge window this week, Linus Torvalds’ main display went black when booting into the new kernel code. It offered a glimpse at his current system configuration used by Torvalds in the development of the Linux kernel.
A few years ago Linus Torvalds switched to using AMD Ryzen Threadripper after 15 years of using Intel CPUs for his main system. Threadripper continues serving him well for quick Linux kernel builds – no surprise there, even the newly-released Threadripper 9970X and 9980X deliver some crazy fast Linux kernel build times. With not being a gamer himself, Linus Torvalds continues getting by in 2025 with the AMD Radeon RX 580 “Polaris” graphics card.
While working through a DRM regression for Linux 6.17, he noted he is currently using a Radeon RX 580 with ASUS ProArt 5K display on his speedy system for kernel builds. Or as he called it the “same old boring Radeon RX 580.“
Running a 5K display with a Polaris GPU would be too much for gaming, but paired with Display Stream Compression (DSC) is suitable for his desktop and kernel development workflows. It actually was due to an AMDGPU Display Stream Compression commit that led to his regression in Linux 6.17 that is now being sorted through. For now he reverted the problematic patch to continue on with managing the Linux 6.17 merge window.
While not related to the regression noted, it turns out Linus Torvalds is back to using an unspecified Intel-powered laptop. Shortly after the arrival of Apple Silicon ARM-based laptops, Torvalds was using an Apple MacBook M1. But it turns out he’s back to using an Intel laptop. He didn’t note a particular laptop model or CPU besides simply noting it’s using “Intel i915” graphics.
Besides Threadripper + Polaris for quick kernel builds and an Intel laptop, Linus Torvalds is also known to recently use an Ampere Altra workstation for ARM64 Linux kernel testing.
