Amd Radeon 7970, Linux & OpenCL

Jay

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Curious if anyone has a way to get OpenCL drivers working under Linux for the AMD Radeon 7970 card. I have it running under a Windows 7 machine as the OPENCL drivers aren't available for Windows 10. Tried installing on Mint Linux 20.1, but AMD support for that card and Open CL seemed to stop after Radeaon drivers ~15.xxxx.

I'm still a noob (can't believe I'm almost 50 and using that term), but it is what it is. I'm good at following instructions, especially if all I have to do is cut and past commands into a command prompt environment. Definitely willing to tackle this if someone is able to help me along, thus I can retire another Windows 7 machine to the pasture.

TIA.
 

StefanR5R

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2016
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I don't have an AMD card myself at present, at least none for which I wanted OpenCL. But from browsing AMD's web site a bit, it indeed *looks* as if the current amdgpu(-pro) driver supports only GCN-2.0 cards and later (such as Hawaii, Bonaire, and later), whereas GCN 1.0 cards (such as your Tahiti) are stuck with the old Crimson Edition driver, in order to get OpenCL working. :-(
 
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Jay

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Thanks for taking time to look into this. Only other option I suspect is to find an old ISO for circa 2015 or before Ubuntu and try installing?
 

StefanR5R

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2016
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Would be good if a current or former user of the Catalyst driver could comment here.
 

crashtech

Lifer
Jan 4, 2013
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Needing to keep my Milkyway boxes on Windows is an irritation. But most of my 280x/7970 GPUs are near the end of their useful life anyway. When they "pass on," so will many of my Windows installations...
 

Jay

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
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It looks like the combination of AMD Catalyst™ 15.9 Proprietary Linux Graphics Driver and Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS might work. However, Ubuntu 12.04.4 is no longer supported so you may have issues with drivers for other hardware components.
Yeah, that's basically the same as maintaining Windows 7 box to keep that card in production.

It's a shame AMD doesn't keep this card in it's updated drivers. It still has plenty of power (and draws as much), and with the shortage of GPUs right now, allowing people to dust off these cards and keep them in production instead of getting price gouged on the reseller market right now would be awesome. But, other than brand loyalty, doesn't make business sense, so it won't happen.
 

crashtech

Lifer
Jan 4, 2013
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I think the 7970/280x has earned its place as one of the best GPUs of all time. I agree that it's a shame that it's not better supported. The fact that someone hasn't cobbled together something that works is a testament to the complexity of GPU drivers.
 

Jay

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Thanks for the suggestion. I threw in a spare HDD last night and installed Ubuntu 12.04.5 and installed the 15.2 AMD drivers and got it working. A few trial and errors (more errors than I care to admit), but that's how I learn. ;)
It looks like the combination of AMD Catalyst™ 15.9 Proprietary Linux Graphics Driver and Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS might work. However, Ubuntu 12.04.4 is no longer supported so you may have issues with drivers for other hardware components.
 

biodoc

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2005
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I threw in a spare HDD last night and installed Ubuntu 12.04.5 and installed the 15.2 AMD drivers and got it working. A few trial and errors (more errors than I care to admit), but that's how I learn.
I'm impressed. :) Congrats!