[SOLVED] Difference between AMD drivers - open source and pro

Efka · 2025-06-21 03:37:32

Hi, currently i have AMD Radeon PRO W5500 gpu and now i dont know what drivers i need as there are open source and PRO.
What is difference between these two?
My main goal is to drive monitors and use gimp, mpv, maybe try LLM`s
Thank You.

Last edited by Efka (2025-07-07 15:05:36)

BS86 · 2025-06-21 07:14:18

you need no drivers, as they are integrated into the kernel and mesa. You only need to install vulkan drivers if you want to use vulkan (vulkan-radeon and lib32-vulkan-radeon)
The "proprietary" drivers AMD delivers are only aimed at enterprise distributions that don't update kernel and mesa major versions for years and AMD recently announced that they kill the proprietary parts in those, too and go full open source.

Last edited by BS86 (2025-06-21 07:15:05)

Lone_Wolf · 2025-06-21 12:47:34

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AMDGPU … components for more details

Efka · 2025-07-07 15:05:15

Sorted. Thank You all for help!

rupeshforu3 · 2025-07-08 15:32:45

Upto now I heard that any operating system like Linux or windows needs drivers to be installed.

Even now we must install realtek firmware and other software for the proper functioning of realtek rt8192 in Linux.

But you are saying that there's no need to install drivers or software related to amdgpu.

I think that rocm which is the runtime for AMD GPUs must be installed for the safety of PC hardware. Am I thinking false.

Open cl runtime is provided by others like pocl, mesa etc., but rocm is safe I think so.

seth · 2025-07-08 20:19:45

Define "driver" - obviously it's not "firmware".
You need the driver to talk to the HW and the firmware because otherwise the HW would not work.
Next to that there're random GL libraries and https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GPGPU#ROCm is actually a GPGPU library - and most certainly does not "be installed for the safety of PC hardware".

rupeshforu3 · 2025-07-09 13:29:11

Hi I want to know the following concepts.

1) opencl
2) opengl
3) vaapi
4) opencv
5) openmp
6) vulkan
Etc.,.

I think that all of these are related to CPU and GPU.

Which is the best book to know about them.

seth · 2025-07-09 14:15:54

Have you tried to just check wikipedia (or the arch wiki) what any of that is?
Books about any of this will typically not cover that, but how to use it.

Arch Linux

#1 2025-06-21 03:37:32

[SOLVED] Difference between AMD drivers - open source and pro

#2 2025-06-21 07:14:18

Re: [SOLVED] Difference between AMD drivers - open source and pro

#3 2025-06-21 12:47:34

Re: [SOLVED] Difference between AMD drivers - open source and pro

#4 2025-07-07 15:05:15

Re: [SOLVED] Difference between AMD drivers - open source and pro

#5 2025-07-08 15:32:45

Re: [SOLVED] Difference between AMD drivers - open source and pro

#6 2025-07-08 20:19:45

Re: [SOLVED] Difference between AMD drivers - open source and pro

#7 2025-07-09 13:29:11

Re: [SOLVED] Difference between AMD drivers - open source and pro

#8 2025-07-09 14:15:54

Re: [SOLVED] Difference between AMD drivers - open source and pro

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