Hi everyone, how are you?
I’m not sure if this is the best place to post this. If it’s not, I kindly ask for guidance on where to post it more appropriately.
1. Specs and Goal
I have a ThinkPad P14s Gen2 with an AMD Ryzen™ 7 PRO 5850U CPU/GPU with Radeon™ Graphics × 16 (AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 GCN 5 architecture – not RDNA).
I’m currently using Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS.
My main goal with this laptop is to edit and render videos using Kdenlive, HandBrake, Blender, and DaVinci Resolve.
2. Packages and Setup
After a lot of research, I still have many doubts about whether I’ve installed the correct packages and whether I’ve configured everything in the best possible way to get the most out of my machine.
Reading the official AMD driver installation guide for Linux:
https://amdgpu-install.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
I couldn’t find clear options or packages supported by my CPU/GPU, since the following command presents many available options:
$amdgpu-install --usecase=[options] --opengl=[options] --opencl=[options] --vulkan=[options]
As far as I know, there’s no command that automatically detects what features are supported by my AMD CPU/GPU. Also, I couldn’t find a table that shows each CPU/GPU model and the functionalities supported by each.
From my research, I also discovered that there are native open-source drivers in Linux that are often recommended over AMD’s proprietary drivers. In other places, I’ve seen recommendations to use AMD’s drivers specifically for video editing and rendering applications.
There’s a lot of conflicting information, and it often feels contradictory. It’s all very confusing. I’ve already spent hours researching and testing on my machine, and I often feel frustrated by how challenging things still are in the Linux world.
If anyone can share information on how I can get the best possible configuration and packages, I would really appreciate it.
3. Codecs
I would like to have a complete list of all codecs I can install to avoid issues when editing and rendering audio and video. I’ve done a lot of searching, but what I find is always fragmented information. If anyone can share a full list of recommended codecs, I’d be very grateful.
4. Checking the System
It’s also important for me to have tools available to check if things are working properly. Below are the commands I’ve discovered so far:
Check OpenGL: $glxinfo | grep OpenGL
Check OpenGL: $xeglgears
Check OpenCL: $clinfo
Check Vulkan: $vulkaninfo | grep “GPU”
Radeon Monitor: $radeontop
If anyone has other useful commands to check if things are working properly, please share them.
5. AMD Additional Drivers!?
Finally, when I use laptops with NVIDIA GPUs, I see NVIDIA driver options listed under the “Additional Drivers” tab in Ubuntu’s “Software & Updates” application. I’d like to understand why this doesn’t happen for AMD drivers as well. To install and update AMD drivers, it seems necessary to download and install them manually. I really hope that AMD drivers can also be offered natively in Ubuntu in the future, just like NVIDIA drivers already are.
6. Thanks and Mutual Support
Thanks to anyone who read this far. I really need some help. I’d also like to better organize all this information so I can share it and help other people who might be in the same situation as me.
