Ryzen 3xxx on Linux

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Looks like there is some breakage to watch out for.

Link 1
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With Ubuntu flip flopping on 32-bit multiarch I've been thinking to switch distros. DDR4 is (getting) cheap so it may finally be time to upgrade to a 65w 3700x or 3900x/3950x as I'm still on a 4770k+GTX 1070.

Anyone upgrade/switch over to Ryzen 3xxx, and if so how good/bad was it?
 
Interesting. I'm sure it'll be resolved by the time I think about upgrading my Ubuntu box.
 
Interesting. I'm sure it'll be resolved by the time I think about upgrading my Ubuntu box.
When choosing during my last big upgrade, a 2600 was like $239 and a i5-8400 was $179 + board - rebate was only $20 more, so I went i5-8400.

Then I was thinking I'd upgrade to 1700x and then all the compile under load crashes happened so I said I'd wait for a while.

Was eagerly awaiting the Ryzen 3xxx series & now this. I really want a ryzen 3, but I am not paying hundreds of $ to "upgrade" to something that is broken out of the box. AMD+Linux really need to get it together...
 
Just be patient, it'll be fixed in no time just like the 2xxx series on release.

I'm watching those 12C/24T monsters, bu the time I can justify the cost of one I'm sure all problems will be resolved.
 
Thoughts and prayers. You could try Win10.

I'd rather slam my head in the door.

Don't need thoughts and prayers as the open source community is more efficient than Microsoft. You got a decent scheduler and kernel to handle all those cores yet? The NUMA implementation under Windows is more than a little embarrassing when Linux offers a 50% performance improvement running identical applications under AMD processors.
 
It's a systemd issue so if you need to run things now.... you could go the older LTS route with an older version of systemd.
I hear SUSE has pushed the systemd fix for tumbleweed.

You can also go with a non-systemd running distro like https://artixlinux.org/ or something.

Manjaro will be pushing a 18.1.0-rc4 release candidate iso in the next day or so. (I checked RC3 is still the latest... but the manjaro dev responsible for their ISOs said it's on the way yesterday.)
 
Since I only build a main desktop once every 4 or 5 years and do cheapie upgrades otherwise, I may do 3950x or 2970wx....Tough decision!!!

Any of you guys have a 2970wx & what are your thoughts? I have a MC at me and it's $749 for the 2970wx. This should be an I/O upgrade as well as a cpu upgrade. I'd move over a gtx 1070 and I'd probably purchase 4 x 16GB dr4-3200 or so and move over 2 nvme drives. Really really have an itchy trigger finger for something new.

Edit: Solely for use with Linux.
 
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Since I only build a main desktop once every 4 or 5 years and do cheapie upgrades otherwise, I may do 3950x or 2970wx....Tough decision!!!

Any of you guys have a 2970wx & what are your thoughts? I have a MC at me and it's $749 for the 2970wx. This should be an I/O upgrade as well as a cpu upgrade. I'd move over a gtx 1070 and I'd probably purchase 4 x 16GB dr4-3200 or so and move over 2 nvme drives. Really really have an itchy trigger finger for something new.

It is a tough decision- tossing both idea around, I arrived at 'wait'.

For most workloads, the higher per-core performance of the R9 3950X will be more useful, and for many workloads, the 'orphan' cores on the 2970WX (and 2990WX) are going to be less productive. I see final performance flip-flopping depending on workload.

However, since there should be a Zen 2 Threadripper coming at some point, you would have an upgrade path on TR4- and the Zen 2 arch may bring more performance for orphan cores too. The challenge with this is that AMD is likely to increase prices as well so said upgrade may be a long time coming economically speaking.

Since you're going to have to wait for the R9 3950X anyway, to me it makes sense to wait and see what AMD does with the Zen 2-based TR and decide then.
 
I'm in the same boat so to speak; I'm thinking of replacing my main general use/gaming rig (currently powered by Intel HEDT, using i7 5960X Haswell-E 8-core) and decided to wait for Zen2 to arrive. On the AM4 platform I'm most interested in the Ryzen 93950X or whatever they call the full-package 16 core chip. Provided it is binned well and OCs equal or better than the 8 and 12 core options, it looks like a really strong chip to the point I am wondering if I really need to go HEDT this time. Threadripper Zen2 on the other hand, now no longer thought to be canceled and instead will debut by the end of the year, is a quandary for me. If they have an "X" type chip with great single thread performance and overclockability, I'll weigh it against the Ryzen 9 3950X 16 core and see if it is worth the additional price. At least for me, a "WX" chip type with tons of cores but lower clocks , primarily used exclusively for server/workstation level tasks, is not desirable since this is a general enthusiast use box.

AMD has been really showing interest and initiative in Linux on both CPU and GPU sides which is nice to see, so if the performance is there I really want to reward them for Linux support (along with other more user-beneficial decisions compared to competitors at Intel / Nvidia) . The quick compatibility updates for Ryzen 3000 series certainly bodes well, along with phenomenal driver support such as the FLOSS based GPU drivers etc
 
AMD has been really showing interest and initiative in Linux on both CPU

Note that Intel is way ahead in terms of Linux support- as in, they produce their own kernel spins, contribute massively to kernel development, and release their own rolling desktop distribution with their tweaks. AMD has a lot of catching up to do here.
 
Note that Intel is way ahead in terms of Linux support- as in, they produce their own kernel spins, contribute massively to kernel development, and release their own rolling desktop distribution with their tweaks. AMD has a lot of catching up to do here.

They product their own entire distro, with very respectable performance.
 
Note that Intel is way ahead in terms of Linux support- as in, they produce their own kernel spins, contribute massively to kernel development, and release their own rolling desktop distribution with their tweaks. AMD has a lot of catching up to do here.

This is very true. I love AMD... but I have a hard time hating Intel due to their FOSS support in general. lol

It would be nice if AMD had the same level of public facing Linux support. I know they do a lot in the background... and we all compare them a lot to Nvidia with the GPU stuff. It's easy to forget that Intel also has GPUs and drivers in MESA. And as you say they are very active in the server software space. It seems like Intel has serious plans to turn clear Linux into a major OS player in the server space long term.

When Intel releases their XE cards I'm going to be really really torn. Two options with open source driver stacks... I won't know what to do. Perhaps AMD CPU Intel GPU. lol
 
When Intel releases their XE cards I'm going to be really really torn. Two options with open source driver stacks... I won't know what to do. Perhaps AMD CPU Intel GPU. lol

We've gotta see what compatibility and performance is like before being torn methinks..
 
Part of me is hoping it makes sense.... AMD/Intel instead of Intel/AMD just seems to cute.

If Intel's drivers come with a proper GUI configuration application and the compatibility/performance/price is there I'd switch in a heartbeat. Totally agreed, more competition is definitely a good thing.
 
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My imaginary ultrabook (or nearly so) AMD APU would make the perfect mobile gaming part for any OS, whenever AMD gets around to that level of efficiency.

But I'll dream: six cores at ~4.0GHz, ~RX570 level GPU, and a 1080p120 panel with Freesync. 13" or 14" with great productivity / media consumption battery life.

Can I have it?
 
I'm thinking I may have waited this long...should I wait for the 3950x ? :)
 
So I run Debian unstable using a self built kernel like I have since before Debian implemented rolling releases. Moved my install from an 1800x to a 3900x and kept everything the same except the motherboard.

I can boot into 5.3-rc3 just fine if I do it with nomodeset, which disables loading amdgpu consequently. If I load normally, my rx480 loads xorg seemingly without error but nothing responds and the ui eventually freezes. Kernel is still responsive though.

I can't find any info on this happening to anyone else. I assume because they're using much newer video cards with this kind of new hardware. My motherboard is the Asus pro x570 workstation Ace.

I'm still trying to figure out what is failing, nothing in logs.... Absolutely nothing seems to not work when booting to console. Phoronix benchmarks all work fine so it isn't stability related. Might be some kind of power management issue with the video card but loading with amdgpu.dpm=0 seemed to make it lock up worse (before the desktop was displayed)
 
So I run Debian unstable using a self built kernel like I have since before Debian implemented rolling releases. Moved my install from an 1800x to a 3900x and kept everything the same except the motherboard.

I can boot into 5.3-rc3 just fine if I do it with nomodeset, which disables loading amdgpu consequently. If I load normally, my rx480 loads xorg seemingly without error but nothing responds and the ui eventually freezes. Kernel is still responsive though.

I can't find any info on this happening to anyone else. I assume because they're using much newer video cards with this kind of new hardware. My motherboard is the Asus pro x570 workstation Ace.

I'm still trying to figure out what is failing, nothing in logs.... Absolutely nothing seems to not work when booting to console. Phoronix benchmarks all work fine so it isn't stability related. Might be some kind of power management issue with the video card but loading with amdgpu.dpm=0 seemed to make it lock up worse (before the desktop was displayed)

Does it happen if you boot into live media?
 
I'd have to download and setup a flash drive to tell. Might go that route to test tomorrow.

Gonna try Radeon drm module and disable amdgpu to see if that does it. Then next option is trying the amd proprietary driver.
 
I'd have to download and setup a flash drive to tell. Might go that route to test tomorrow.

Gonna try Radeon drm module and disable amdgpu to see if that does it. Then next option is trying the amd proprietary driver.

Trying a live distro is probably the first step to isolating the issue..
 
I didn't want to introduce a bunch of variables and have to work back to finding what is causing the thing to not work.

Turns out it is the amdgpu drm kernel module. I switched to the radeon drm module, and now everything is working in xorg like normal. I'd been using the amdgpu drm kernel module since it started supporting the polaris chipsets just fine on my 1800x and x370 motherboard. Something is happening on the x570/3900x that it doesn't like at all.

https://openbenchmarking.org/result/1908102-HV-1908103HV04

for some comparisons ... the performance change from 1800x to 3900x is surprisingly significant.

I'm seeing decent idle temps in linux of around 29c with ambient temps of 76f. boost clocks show 4500mhz for single cores at times, though it could have blipped up to 4.6.

4.2Ghz on all cores @ 76c full 24 thread load building the kernel (5.3-rc3) in 1min 21 seconds. My 1800x would take just over 3 minutes on the same drive/ram @ 16 threads.
 
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Having second thoughts on 3950x.

1) It's September and no news, what is availability going to look like? Even 3900x is in-stock only rarely.
2) Microcenter now has a 5700xt without blower config at my local store, so I'm tempted to go 3700x + 5700xt which should be a leap over i7-4770k and gtx 1070. Gaming @ 1080p 144hz. 5700xt+the 3700x is still cheaper than the 3950x alone.

Anyone know running pci-e 4.0 under linux? The inland premium pcie-4.0 ssd for 1TB is $179. Intel 660p 2TB is also the same price!

Hoping I can get like $175-$200 ea for the 1070s ( I have 2, 1 unused)
 
pcie-4 isn't really a factor in linux... that seems to work fine.

amdgpu drivers in linux for the navi arch are garbage at the moment.

hwmon support is always an afterthought in linux ...so there are out of tree patches you can do if you roll your own kernel. However, even with those, the values are all wrong except for temps.

P-state / sleep state (power gating) is not fully functional in linux for the 5700, so it will idle at higher wattages than windows at the moment. Linux ryzen support is also a bit un-optimized in dealing with ryzen process scheduling, so depending on workloads, the default scheduler will negatively impact your potential performance.

All in all, about par for the course for AMD new product releases. I can't tell if it's intentionally done at this point to keep competitors in the dark or if they just need more/better programmers and documentation processes.

I use the inland ssd you speak of. Works fine. Windows and linux. It's so incredibly fast. Got a couple of them to split with the wife's computer.
 
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Didn't Phoronix have some reviews on pcie 4.0 stuff? At work, cant dig up the link just yet
 
here's something. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=corsair-force-mp600&num=1

linux's pcie4 support is fairly solid and not directly related to new amd cpu releases.

Turning on support in amdgpu does require code in the amdgpu driver to initialize the hardware to use the link speed/mode but that's been in place for a while.


hrm.. I can run that test on my machine on the inland 1TB. Would be interesting to see how it stacks up on my setup (also a 3900x). Though, Asus in their infinite wisdom made the workstation motherboard's second M2 slot only pcie4x2 instead of 4x4 like the primary. makes more sense to buy an M2 expansion card and ride off the native ryzen pcie lanes rather tahn the x570 chipset that the second m2 slot sits on.

Still, probably worth a shot to see
 
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