As we approach the launch of AMD’s RDNA 4 GPU lineup, developers on Valve’s Linux Graphics Driver team have been optimizing the RADV driver for these GPUs (via Phoronix). RADV (Radeon Vulkan) is an open-source Vulkan driver for AMD GPUs, included in Mesa.
Ahead of the RX 9070 launch in March, Mesa 25.0 will be released, featuring key updates to the RADV driver for these GPUs. Linux users shouldn’t worry about RDNA 4 support. Valve Linux Graphics Driver team lead RADV developer, Samuel Pitoiset, has confirmed that support will be “Good Enough” for RDNA 4 GPUs (aka Radeon RX 9070).
This initial support, while sufficient, will be missing two features (cooperative matrix and video decode/encode) compared to GFX11 (RDNA3) due to time constraints.
DCC is still under active development, but it might be possible to finish it during the RC period.
Mesa 25.0 patch notes
As Samuel indicated, a couple of things won’t make it into the Mesa 25.0 release (expected end of February). These include Cooperative Matrix (VK_KHR_cooperative_matrix) and Video Decode/Encode (Vulkan Video). The former is important for specialized computation in gaming and machine learning, while the latter focuses on efficient video processing within the Vulkan API.
It’s important to note that the lack of Vulkan Video support doesn’t mean incomplete VA-API (Video Acceleration API) support for hardware-accelerated video decoding/encoding on RDNA 4. VA-API is separate from Vulkan Video and will likely be handled by AMD engineers.
The key takeaway is that RDNA 4 GPUs will have adequate RADV support, removing major limitations for Linux users of RX 9070 GPUs. The missing components are expected to be added after the GPU launch, further enhancing the overall user experience.
News Sources: Phoronix, freedesktop