Do you use that somewhat old AMD GPU on Linux and are not able to run games with Vulkan, or achieve satisfactory performance? Perhaps what you need is just to activate the correct driver. Hereâs how to enable the best driver for GPUs from the âSea Islandsâ and âSouthern Islandsâ families on Linux.
Drivers for your AMD GPU on Linux
AMD video cards have two drivers that can be enabled by default in Linux distributions, being âRadeonâ and âAmdgpuâ. What defines which one is enabled by default is your GPU model. Very old GPUs are generally only compatible with the âRadeonâ driver, while the most current models use âAmdgpuâ. However, there are two of AMDâs GPU families that are compatible with both drivers. Iâm talking about âSea Islandsâ and âSouthern Islandsâ.
In these GPUs the compatibility with âAmdgpuâ is in an experimental phase, so it is not activated by default, it is necessary to activate it manually through a simple and quick procedure.
If you want to gain a broader understanding of the types of drivers that exist for AMD GPUs on Linux before performing the procedures shown below, read This article that we wrote about it.
Identifying your AMD GPU and driver in use
Below is a list of all GPU models from the âSea Islandsâ and âSouthern Islandsâ families. If your GPU is on that list, then the procedure is likely to be necessary.
âą Tahiti, Bonaire, Hawaii, Pitcairn, Cape Verde, Oland.
There is a very simple command that will tell us whether the GPU in use at the moment is or is not compatible with âAmdgpuâ. Simply copy the command below, paste it into the terminal and pressâEnterâ:
lspci -k | grep amdgpu
Two lines similar to these will appear:
Kernel driver in use: radeon
Kernel modules: radeon, amdgpu
The driver that appears in the âKernel driver in useâ line is the one that is currently activated, whereas the contents of the âKernel modulesâ line are the drivers that are available for use. If the command above did not return anything, then your GPU is only compatible with the âRadeonâ driver.
If in your case the driver in use at the moment is âAmdgpuâ, then you donât need to do anything else, the best option is already activated. However, if the driver currently in use is âRadeonâ, and âAmdgpuâ is appearing as available, follow the procedure below to activate it:
How do I activate âAmdgpuâ on my âSea Islandâ or âSouthern Islandâ?
First letâs edit the settings file for Grub so that during the boot the system knows that it should use âAmdgpuâ.
sudo nano /etc/default/grub
You will have a similar, but not necessarily identical, screen below:
At the end of the line âGRUB_CMDLINE_LINUXâ, Before closing quotes, paste the line:
radeon.cik_support=0 amdgpu.cik_support=1 radeon.si_support=0 amdgpu.si_support=1
It should look like the example below:
Now to save press the key combination âControl + O» and «Enterâ. Then close the text editor with âControl + Xâ.
To activate the new settings, it is necessary to update Grub with the command below:
On Linux Mint, Ubuntu and derivatives:
sudo update-grub
In Fedora:
sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
In Manjaro, Arch and derivatives:
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Restart the machine, and youâre done!
If you run the command âlspci -k | grep amdgpuâYou will see that the driver in use is now âAmdgpuâ.
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