Valve continues to improve the gaming performance of Linux open source drivers for AMD GPUs, as part of the Mesa project
Mesa is a long-running project that started life as an open-source driver, bringing the OpenGL graphics API to a host of different platforms. Today, developers from AMD, Google, Intel, and others all take part. One of the most well-known Mesa drivers is RADV: A Vulkan-based driver specifically for AMD's GPUs running on a Linux operating system. A recent update to them, created by Valve's developers, has added a neat little performance boost for any device using them.
Naturally, what's been done is all very complicated, but it comes down to this: Drivers for graphics cards contain a program called a compiler that converts shader programs that a game or application has issued into a binary format that the GPU can then run.
AMD's Linux driver for its Radeon graphics chip has its own compiler (known as LLVM) but RADV uses one that Valve created, called ACO (literally Amd COmpiler).
And it's this that has been given a vital update by software developers within the Steam Deck team, as reported by Phoronix. The tweaks to the compiler have resulted in a reduction in the number of instructions the GPU has to process for the same outcome, helping to decrease the overall code size and boosting runtime performance.
According to Phoronix, some people have experienced performance gains in games like Cyberpunk 2077 by as much as 14%. It's not clear under what circumstances such an increase was seen but even if it's only a small percentage gain for the most part, it's still a completely free uplift.
Why would Valve be involved in all of this? It's all down to the Steam Deck, as the software that runs it (SteamOS) is Linux-based and uses the RADV driver for the integrated GPU inside the AMD custom processor that powers the handheld PC.
Read more on pcgamer.com
