AMD’s Radeon GPUs are experiencing remarkable improvements in ray tracing performance thanks to the latest MESA RADV Vulkan drivers. The RADV Vulkan driver, specifically designed for AMD graphics cards, has been making strides in terms of hardware support, consistent optimization, and bug fixes. This is particularly significant for Linux users, as ray tracing capabilities have historically been limited due to a lack of mature driver and software resources.
A recent update to the MESA 24.0, spearheaded by developer Friedrich Vock, has yielded impressive results. By optimizing the conversion of 1D ray launches to 2D, the driver now makes better use of GPU threads, resulting in enhanced performance. According to testing shared by the MESA community on FreeDesktop.org, the performance gains with the new driver are tangible across various games and scenarios.
For instance, utilizing the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT “RDNA 2” GPU, performance benchmarks showed significant improvements in popular titles such as Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Bright Memory Infinite Ray Tracing Benchmark, and Sackboy: A Big Adventure. In many cases, the new driver delivered performance increases ranging from 10% to a staggering 75%.
The enhancements also extend to higher-end GPUs like the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT “RDNA 3,” which exhibited remarkable gains of up to 200% in games such as Ghostwire: Tokyo, The Witcher 3, Control, and Chorus. The continuous optimizations injected into the driver over time contributed significantly to these impressive performance boosts.
As a result, MESA’s RADV Vulkan driver is emerging as a compelling alternative to AMD’s Vulkan “AMDVLK” driver. Not only does it provide support for outdated hardware, but it also delivers performance improvements with each update. While AMD certainly needs to remain competitive to retain its dominant position, it is evident that MESA is currently leading the way in the Linux ecosystem.
The source of the article is from the blog be3.sk