Intel's Vulkan Linux Driver Now Supports Device Generated Commands "DGC"
([Intel] 2 Hours Ago
VK_EXT_device_generated_commands)
- Reference: 0001632040
- News link: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-ANV-Vulkan-DGC
- Source link:
Exciting yesterday in the land of Intel's open-source Vulkan driver "ANV" for Linux systems was [1]introducing experimental support for descriptor heaps with the VK_EXT_descriptor_heap extension. Today there is another separate exciting development for this open-source Intel driver: Vulkan device generated commands are finally merged!
Back in September 2024 was [2]VK_EXT_device_generated_commands with Vulkan 1.3.296 . The Vulkan device generated commands "DGC" functionality was worked on by a variety of vendors to succeed NVIDIA's former vendor-prefixed extension. DGC allows for the GPU device to generate a number of commands for command buffers on-device. At the time this was argued as one of the biggest additions to the Vulkan API since ray-tracing.
Vulkan DGC lets applications record commands from shaders and execute them directly without having to go back to the CPU. In turn this can eliminate performance bottlenecks and all around an efficiency win for games/engines and other applications making use of the extension. VKD3D-Proton is among the notable software since then making use of DGC.
The AMD Radeon RADV driver saw its DGC support [3]merged back in 2024 . Going back to September 2024 was [4]this Mesa merge request for adding DGC support to the Intel ANV driver. Now one and a half years later, the code is finally merged.
This VK_EXT_device_generated_commands support for the Intel Vulkan Linux driver is merged ahead of next quarter's Mesa 26.2 release. Recently the DGC support was extended back to Skylake/Gen9 era graphics as well as making other improvements. After a lot of work all of the known issues with these 25 patches were addressed and the Intel Vulkan driver is ready with DGC as their latest advancement for Linux gaming and the open-source Linux desktop ecosystem at large.
[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-ANV-Descriptor-Heap-Merge
[2] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Vulkan-1.3.296-Released
[3] https://www.phoronix.com/news/RADV-VK-EXT-DGC
[4] https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/31384
Back in September 2024 was [2]VK_EXT_device_generated_commands with Vulkan 1.3.296 . The Vulkan device generated commands "DGC" functionality was worked on by a variety of vendors to succeed NVIDIA's former vendor-prefixed extension. DGC allows for the GPU device to generate a number of commands for command buffers on-device. At the time this was argued as one of the biggest additions to the Vulkan API since ray-tracing.
Vulkan DGC lets applications record commands from shaders and execute them directly without having to go back to the CPU. In turn this can eliminate performance bottlenecks and all around an efficiency win for games/engines and other applications making use of the extension. VKD3D-Proton is among the notable software since then making use of DGC.
The AMD Radeon RADV driver saw its DGC support [3]merged back in 2024 . Going back to September 2024 was [4]this Mesa merge request for adding DGC support to the Intel ANV driver. Now one and a half years later, the code is finally merged.
This VK_EXT_device_generated_commands support for the Intel Vulkan Linux driver is merged ahead of next quarter's Mesa 26.2 release. Recently the DGC support was extended back to Skylake/Gen9 era graphics as well as making other improvements. After a lot of work all of the known issues with these 25 patches were addressed and the Intel Vulkan driver is ready with DGC as their latest advancement for Linux gaming and the open-source Linux desktop ecosystem at large.
[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-ANV-Descriptor-Heap-Merge
[2] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Vulkan-1.3.296-Released
[3] https://www.phoronix.com/news/RADV-VK-EXT-DGC
[4] https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/31384