GUIn00b here. How do I determine which amd display drivers I’m currently using, and how do I switch?
Some commands to see what you have now:
lsmod | grep -P 'amd|ati|radeon'
pacman -Qs xf86-video-a
Is there a particular reason why you want to change?
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[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$ lsmod | grep -P 'amd|ati|radeon'
amdgpu 11673600 3
edac_mce_amd 57344 0
drm_buddy 20480 1 amdgpu
gpu_sched 57344 1 amdgpu
video 73728 1 amdgpu
drm_ttm_helper 16384 1 amdgpu
ttm 102400 2 amdgpu,drm_ttm_helper
drm_display_helper 208896 1 amdgpu
gpio_amdpt 20480 0
gpio_generic 24576 1 gpio_amdpt
[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$ pacman -Qs xf86-video-a
local/xf86-video-amdgpu 23.0.0-1 (xorg-drivers)
X.org amdgpu video driver
local/xf86-video-ati 1:19.1.0.r15.g7a6a34af-1 (xorg-drivers)
X.org ati video driver
[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$
More and more of my games keep breaking. While waiting for a reply to this thread, I went digging and found some “Optimize Linux for Gaming” stuff and looked up info on installing MESA drivers and whatnot. Now my GUI session is REALLY REALLY tripping. It’s like the system is renderiiiiiiing 2 diiffereeeeeeeeeeent GUI outputs and flickers back and forth between the 2 weirdly. So it looksl ike my system is constantly stuttering.
Some good news, I had mesa-amber and lib32-mesa-amber installed. I installed mesa and lib32-mesa, rebooted and not only has my system stopped stuttering, but the Windows game that broke today in Lutris/WINE is working again.
Regarding my original question, the thing that prompted me to look into it is there’s a post here on the forum (a survey) asking for feedback on the different AMD graphics driver packages. [SURVEY] Linux Gaming guide - AMD Drivers The author of the topic lists 3: AMD RADV, AMD AMDVLK, and AMD AMDGPU PRO. This is also why I had tried installing mesa-amber.
Anyway, I’m still curious to know what I’ve got and how to switch (if needed). It seems AMD RADV is the most preferred among the voters in that forum thread, so I want to make sure I have that.
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the general hardware info could help:
inxi -Fxxc0z | eos-sendlog (creates pastebin and show url to post here)
and details on GPU:
inxi -Gaz
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https://0x0.st/H-JD.txt
[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$ inxi -Gaz
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Navi 22 [Radeon RX 6700/6700 XT/6750 XT / 6800M/6850M XT]
vendor: XFX Speedster QICK 319 driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: RDNA-2
code: Navi-2x process: TSMC n7 (7nm) built: 2020-22 pcie: gen: 4
speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: HDMI-A-1 empty: DP-1,DP-2,DP-3
bus-ID: 2d:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:73df class-ID: 0300
Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.7 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.8
compositor: gnome-shell v: 43.3 driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
unloaded: modesetting failed: radeon alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: radeonsi
gpu: amdgpu display-ID: 0
Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 model: LG (GoldStar) ULTRAGEAR serial: <filter>
built: 2021 res: 2560x1440 dpi: 109 gamma: 1.2 size: 597x336mm (23.5x13.23")
diag: 685mm (27") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 2560x1440 min: 640x480
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (navi22
LLVM 15.0.7 DRM 3.49 6.2.7-arch1-1) direct-render: Yes
[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$
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should not show this… aand you do change kernel now?
6.2.7-arch1-1
same lag/stutter with it?
loaded: amdgpu unloaded: modesetting
failed: radeon
you can try uninstalling radeon driver may somhow it tries to load this partly…
yay -R xf86-video-ati
Aside from this it looks like setup correctly:
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (navi22
LLVM 15.0.7 DRM 3.49 6.2.7-arch1-1) direct-render: Yes
I do see its GNOME and running wayland you can try logging in on Xorg session to see if it is the same.
2 Likes
You have an AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT. It uses the amdgpu kernel module along with mesa. You should have installed the following for gaming on those platforms.
lib32-mesa
vulkan-radeon
lib32-vulkan-radeon
libva-mesa-driver
lib32-libva-mesa-driver
mesa-vdpau
lib32-mesa-vdpau
2 Likes
congratulations. You had legacy mesa installed for current gen hardware …
this does not hurt. Your GPU is too new for radeon anyway, so get rid of it. (radeon is the old AMD driver for 10+ years old GPU’s)
exactly that.
If you have amdvlk installed, remove it. You can check with pacman -Qs amdvlk if it is installed. It causes all sorts of issues and vulkan-radeon is superior anyway.
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I do not see where the thread say you should install mesa-amber stuff…
yea i saw this not before my last post was posting it at the same time i think…
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I’m not quite sure what you’re asking about the kernel. Can you rephrase that? (Thank you x1000 for your help btw! 
)
I removed xf86-video-ati and rebooted. I went ahead and ran all those commands again:
[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$ lsmod | grep -P 'amd|ati|radeon'
amdgpu 11673600 38
drm_buddy 20480 1 amdgpu
gpu_sched 57344 1 amdgpu
edac_mce_amd 57344 0
video 73728 1 amdgpu
drm_ttm_helper 16384 1 amdgpu
ttm 102400 2 amdgpu,drm_ttm_helper
drm_display_helper 208896 1 amdgpu
gpio_amdpt 20480 0
gpio_generic 24576 1 gpio_amdpt
[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$ pacman -Qs xf86-video-a
local/xf86-video-amdgpu 23.0.0-1 (xorg-drivers)
X.org amdgpu video driver
[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$ inxi -Fxxc0z | eos-sendlog
https://0x0.st/H-to.txt
[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$ inxi -Gaz
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Navi 22 [Radeon RX 6700/6700 XT/6750 XT / 6800M/6850M XT]
vendor: XFX Speedster QICK 319 driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: RDNA-2
code: Navi-2x process: TSMC n7 (7nm) built: 2020-22 pcie: gen: 4
speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: HDMI-A-1 empty: DP-1,DP-2,DP-3
bus-ID: 2d:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:73df class-ID: 0300
Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.7 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.8
compositor: gnome-shell v: 43.3 driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
unloaded: modesetting failed: radeon alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: radeonsi
gpu: amdgpu display-ID: 0
Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 model: LG (GoldStar) ULTRAGEAR serial: <filter>
built: 2021 res: 2560x1440 dpi: 109 gamma: 1.2 size: 597x336mm (23.5x13.23")
diag: 685mm (27") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 2560x1440 min: 640x480
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (navi22
LLVM 15.0.7 DRM 3.49 6.2.7-arch1-1) direct-render: Yes
[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$
While writing this reply, I just now checked for amdvlk and it was indeed installed, so I removed it and installed vulkan-radeon via pacman. I’m going to reboot. In the meantime, I also ran a couple more checks for all of the packages/modules that @ricklinux mentioned:
[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$ pacman -Qs lib32-mesa
local/lib32-mesa 22.3.6-1
An open-source implementation of the OpenGL specification (32-bit)
local/lib32-mesa-vdpau 22.3.6-1
Mesa VDPAU drivers (32-bit)
[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$ pacman -Qs vulkan-radeon
local/lib32-vulkan-radeon 22.3.6-1
Radeon's Vulkan mesa driver (32-bit)
local/vulkan-radeon 22.3.6-1
Radeon's Vulkan mesa driver
[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$ pacman -Qs lib32-vulkan-radeon
local/lib32-vulkan-radeon 22.3.6-1
Radeon's Vulkan mesa driver (32-bit)
[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$ pacman -Qs libva-mesa
[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$ pacman -Qs libva-mesa-driver
[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$ pacman -Qs lib32-libva-mesa-driver
[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$ pacman -Qs mesa-vdpau
local/lib32-mesa-vdpau 22.3.6-1
Mesa VDPAU drivers (32-bit)
local/mesa-vdpau 22.3.6-1
VDPAU drivers
[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$ pacman -Qs lib32-mesa-vdpau
local/lib32-mesa-vdpau 22.3.6-1
Mesa VDPAU drivers (32-bit)
[nutzhell@nutzhell-ws ~]$
After I reboot, should I install the libva-mesa stuff? (sudo pacman -S libva-mesa ?)
That thread lead me to do a bunch more Google searching and THOSE OTHER sites are what lead me to install amber. 
(Presumably, I misunderstood the information in the “other” sites and the whole amber thing is entirely my error/misunderstanding. Not blaming anyone but me lol)
shows it uses 6.2.7-arch1-1 i was remembering yous mentioned to use another kernel before? may i have this confused with another user …
vulkan-radeon
lib32-vulkan-radeon
to use what uisers in the other one recommend (Mesa developed)
You need to replace the amber package with the default mesa…
mesa lib32-mesa
for more info consult the wiki:
https://discovery.endeavouros.com/gaming/gaming-101/2022/01/
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Thank you all for the help. I installed the remaining mesa packages and things are working much better!
To best give credit where it’s due, but moreover to make this thread as good of a reference as it can be for potential future visitors that may need this info, which reply would be the best to mark as the solution here?
I went ahead and picked one. Thanks all! Loving EOS and the community! <3
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