This year brought a big change for Linux gamers as AMD officially wrapped up support for its AMDVLK driver. This shift allows them to focus solely on the more popular RadeonSI and RADV Mesa drivers. Many users have long preferred these Mesa drivers, which have shown impressive performance in graphics tasks and gaming.
One area where AMDVLK had an edge was in Vulkan ray-tracing performance. However, recent benchmarks show that RADV has significantly improved in this regard, especially in late 2025. This end-of-year benchmarking serves as a final comparison between the now-defunct AMDVLK and the robust RADV driver.
AMD halted AMDVLK development back in May 2025. They decided to dedicate their resources to enhancing RADV for Linux users. This decision reflects a broader trend in the industry where companies are focusing more on open-source solutions.
For these benchmarks, I used the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT graphics cards, the last models to be supported by AMDVLK. The tests ran AMDVLK 2025.Q2.1 final release against RADV from Mesa 26.0-devel, ensuring easy reproducibility. My setup included a Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor with Ubuntu 25.10 and the Linux 6.18 kernel.
In the making of the benchmarks, various Vulkan graphics and compute tests were conducted to assess how the two drivers performed on the Radeon RX 9070 series. The results not only highlight the advancements of the RADV driver but also reflect the community’s preference for open-source support in gaming.
Interestingly, a recent survey by Steam showed that over 30% of gamers now use Linux as their operating system. This growing trend specifies the importance of robust driver support, emphasizing the impact of AMD’s decision on a rapidly expanding user base.
With these developments, AMD is reinforcing a commitment to the Linux community, paving the way for better gaming experiences in the future. As companies continue to focus on open-source solutions, users can expect improvements in performance and support.
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