I recently built a new pc and since I switched from Windows to Lunux (Kubuntu) I got an amd gpu (6700 XT). Because people told me it is less of a hassle than Nvidia. It works fine out of the box, but the choice of drivers confuse me. For gaming is the default amdgpu good enough? Is amdgpu-pro the same as the official Radeon drivers from amd? Are they better for gaming? Is Mesa yet another driver or something in addition to a driver? Why are there no settings/gui anywhere (using the default amdgpu)?
People already said that you are good to go with the built-in amdgpu kernel driver. I only want to add, that you have made a great choice; I am running with the same AMD 6700 XT gpu and it just rocks with wayland and has no issues when resuming from hibernate.
The last more demanding game I played was Elite Dangerous (max settings, except anti-aliasing) with 60 FPS capped (my monitor cannot do more) on 1980x1200 resolution. It was a pleasent experience without crashes related to the graphics driver. (:
Edit: And mesa updates are always exciting. They sometimes improve overall performance and stability.
Yeah, I’m happy with it. It was a bit over my budget but I figured it was worth it. I also decided to go with an amd cpu instead of intel like I always had. And not regretting that either.
Are the mesa updates part of the driver or does one manually update them?
I think @heartsofwar gave a nice overview of what Mesa provides in relation to the driver in the kernel. So, amdgpu-driver updates come with a kernel update and mesa is it’s own package for userspace (everything visual on your desktop, not just for games)
Are you running Elite Dangerous via Proton?
Yes, it even works through flatpak-sandboxed Steam. I had to install a GE-version of Proton to make it work in the early days, but I guess it will now work with the default Proton version shipped with Steam.