This weekend AMD upstreamed a number of new AMDGPU firmware files into the linux-firmware.git repository that serves as a basis for all of the binary firmware/microcode files used by the Linux kernel drivers. This big set of new AMDGPU firmware files is likely for the upcoming RDNA 3.5 / "RDNA3 refresh" / RDNA3+ as it appears will be called updated RDNA3 graphics for upcoming AMD Ryzen SoCs.

Hitting the linux-firmware.git upstream tree were new firmware files for the GC 11.5, PSP 14.0.0, SDMA 6.1.0, UMSCH 4.0.0, VCN 4.0.5, VPE 6.1.0, and DMCUB 3.5 IP blocks. These individual IP blocks have been brought up individually within the AMDGPU Linux kernel open-source driver over the past number of months as covered in numerous Phoronix articles at this point.

While the AMD graphics intellectual property blocks are versioned independently and can be re-used by different products, all of these firmware files being submitted at the same time point to these versions likely being tied together for the same upcoming product(s). With GC 11.5 (GFX11.5) being part of the new batch of firmware files, this firmware upstreaming is likely all for the RDNA3+ / RDNA 3.5 refresh parts.

Further pointing to these firmware files likely being for AMD RDNA3+ hardware besides the fact of not seeing any GC 12.0 firmware for GFX12 graphics engine is that VCN 4.0.5 is also in use where as the AMDGPU Linux driver [1]recently enabled VCN 5.0 support . Presumably VCN5 will be with RDNA4 and there has been other AMDGPU IP enabling of larger version leaps likely for RDNA4.

Historically AMD hasn't published their AMD graphics firmware files until launch day or sometimes slightly before launch... That has improved recently to come sooner rather than later, since these firmware files are needed for enabling the open-source graphics driver to properly function. When the firmware files only reach linux-firmware.git at launch or within days of launch, typically it's not picked up by Linux distribution packages in time and thus a nuisance for early adopters to enjoy out-of-the-box open-source driver support at launch -- even if the necessary Linux kernel and Mesa versions are met. So with more recent launches we've seen AMD doing a better job at getting these firmware files out there sooner so that there is time for the linux-firmware packages in prominent Linux distributions to be updated ahead of launch.

So seeing these GFX11.5 / presumably-RDNA3+ firmware files being published now is a positive sign. Presumably we'll be hearing more about RDNA3+ APUs at Computex Taipei and that would align timing wise with the firmware files being posted at this point.

Along with the latest linux-firmware.git binary files, Linux 6.9+ and Mesa 24.1+ are presumably in good shape for RDNA3+ graphics but we'll see once having our hands on hardware for Linux testing and benchmarking.

The new AMDGPU firmware files can be found in [2]linux-firmware.git .



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMD-VCN5-AMDGPU-Linux-Driver

[2] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/log/