[Radeon HD 7850] Steam can't detect memory video

[Tikilou]

Hello, with my HIS AMD Radeon HD 7850 Turbo, and Ubuntu 12.10 64bits with Catalyst 12.11 beta 11 drivers, (and other stable), steam does not detect the memory video of the graphic card.

This causes a bug in Big Picture Mode, at the first launch, it's run in slow résolution, 1066x600 and big picture option detect 1.02kb of memory video.

Steam system information :

Processor Information: Vendor: GenuineIntel Speed: 3401 Mhz 4 logical processors 4 physical processors HyperThreading: Unsupported FCMOV: Supported SSE2: Supported SSE3: Supported SSSE3: Supported SSE4a: Unsupported SSE41: Supported SSE42: Supported Network Information: Network Speed: Operating System Version: Ubuntu 12.10 (64 bit) Kernel Name: Linux Kernel Version: 3.5.0-19-generic X Server vendor: The X.Org Foundation X Server release: 11300901 Video Card: Driver: ATI Technologies Inc. AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series Driver Version: 4.2.11995 Compatibility Profile Context Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz VendorID: 0x1002 DeviceID: 0x6819 Number of Monitors: 1 Number of Logical Video Cards: 1 Primary Display Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Desktop Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Primary Display Size: 23,54" x 13,23" (26,97" diag) 59,8cm x 33,6cm (68,5cm diag) Primary VRAM Not Detected Sound card: Audio device: Realtek ALC898 Memory: RAM: 16003 Mb Miscellaneous: UI Language: English LANG: fr_FR.UTF-8 Microphone: Not set Total Hard Disk Space Available: 42241 Mb Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 1656 Mb

[Union]

I have the exact same problem with my Radeon HD 55XX. I just installed the Catalyst 12.11 experimental driver.

Processor Information:
    Vendor:  GenuineIntel
    Speed: 1596 Mhz
    4 logical processors
    4 physical processors
    HyperThreading:  Unsupported
    FCMOV:  Supported
    SSE2:  Supported
    SSE3:  Supported
    SSSE3:  Supported
    SSE4a:  Unsupported
    SSE41:  Supported
    SSE42:  Supported
    
Network Information:
    Network Speed:  
    
Operating System Version:
    Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS (64 bit)
    Kernel Name:  Linux
    Kernel Version:  3.2.0-34-generic
    X Server vendor:  The X.Org Foundation
    X Server release:  11103000
    
Video Card:
    Driver:  ATI Technologies Inc. ATI Radeon HD 5500 Series

    Driver Version:  4.2.11978 Compatibility Profile Context
    Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
    Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
    VendorID:  0x1002
    DeviceID:  0x68da
    Number of Monitors:  1
    Number of Logical Video Cards:  1
    Primary Display Resolution:  1920 x 1080
    Desktop Resolution: 1920 x 1080
    Primary Display Size: 20.91" x 11.77"  (23.98" diag)
                                            53.1cm x 29.9cm  (60.9cm diag)
    Primary VRAM Not Detected
    
Sound card:
    Audio device: 
    
Memory:
    RAM:  3914 Mb
    
Miscellaneous:
    UI Language:  English
    LANG:  en_US.UTF-8
    Microphone:  Not set
    Total Hard Disk Space Available:  450579 Mb
    Largest Free Hard Disk Block:  413347 Mb
    
Installed software:
    
Recent Failure Reports:
    Mon Dec 10 13:24:59 2012 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20121210142456_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-6336e3bc-f4ee-4a67-949d-c5a202121210''
    Mon Dec 10 13:25:28 2012 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20121210142524_2.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-79980169-892d-47b8-8b43-568c52121210''
    Mon Dec 10 13:25:48 2012 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20121210142544_3.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-1c7ffee7-548c-45c5-93be-9dec92121210''

[SgtBilko]

Same here on XFX 5770, ubuntu 12.10 & amd 12.10 drivers.

[Beelzebud]

Same thing on 12.04, 5770, 12.11 beta 11 drivers. I don't have any performance issues, as long as anti-aliasing is off, so I assume this is just a cosmetic issue in the UI.

[SgtBilko]

My specs listed below for reference. Big Picture runs dog slow for me, I had presumed that to be due to being on AMD 12.10 drivers not the 12.11 beta driver. Note that this is after today's update.

Processor Information:
    Vendor:  AuthenticAMD
    Speed: 2412 Mhz
    2 logical processors
    2 physical processors
    HyperThreading:  Unsupported
    FCMOV:  Supported
    SSE2:  Supported
    SSE3:  Supported
    SSSE3:  Supported
    SSE4a:  Unsupported
    SSE41:  Unsupported
    SSE42:  Unsupported
    
Network Information:
    Network Speed:  
    
Operating System Version:
    Ubuntu 12.10 (32 bit)
    Kernel Name:  Linux
    Kernel Version:  3.5.0-19-generic
    X Server vendor:  The X.Org Foundation
    X Server release:  11300000
    
Video Card:
    Driver:  ATI Technologies Inc. ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series

    Driver Version:  4.2.11903 Compatibility Profile Context
    Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
    Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
    VendorID:  0x1002
    DeviceID:  0x68b8
    Number of Monitors:  1
    Number of Logical Video Cards:  1
    Primary Display Resolution:  1280 x 1024
    Desktop Resolution: 1280 x 1024
    Primary Display Size: 13.31" x 10.63"  (17.01" diag)
                                            33.8cm x 27.0cm  (43.2cm diag)
    Primary VRAM Not Detected
    
Sound card:
    Audio device: ATI R6xx HDMI
    
Memory:
    RAM:  2016 Mb
    
Miscellaneous:
    UI Language:  English
    LANG:  en_GB.UTF-8
    Microphone:  Not set
    Total Hard Disk Space Available:  290998 Mb
    Largest Free Hard Disk Block:  242563 Mb
    
Installed software:
    
Recent Failure Reports:
    Wed Dec 12 13:55:28 2012 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20121212135525_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-99b6847d-27d9-47d0-a14e-9ef202121212''
    Wed Dec 12 13:58:58 2012 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20121212135853_1.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-28553255-a4f3-458d-9626-380722121212''

[Obikawa]

This problem exists with the free source Radeon driver, too.

[darren780]

still not fixed

[Pocket]

Welcome to dealing with Valve. Enjoy waiting forever for an issue they've forgotten exists and have no way of being reminded about.

[Nah-B No.53]

Originally posted by Pocket:

Welcome to dealing with Valve. Enjoy waiting forever for an issue they've forgotten exists and have no way of being reminded about.

I think it may be and AMD problem but still it bugs the ♥♥♥♥ out of me, well at least we can play most games under linux fine

[Dusk of Oolacile]

It probably isn't a Valve issue, but AMD. The same problem existed under windows as well for so many years. It was fixed after people started bugging AMD about it (after Rage was released). Do the same, keep submitting bug reports: http://www.amd.com/linuxreport

[Letalis Sonus]

There is AFAIK no unified way of determing VRAM, that's why the GLX_MESA_query_renderer OpenGL extension was introduced last year. The free drivers do already support it, but it seems Steam is not using it, yet.

As VRAM is only being accessed through a MMU, one can only get the size of the memory window being used without directly interacting with the driver.

[Pocket]

Interesting. Last I checked, running lspci doesn't detect VRAM either; would it make sense for it to be updated to use that OpenGL extension as well, so there's a system-level way to check your specs?

[Letalis Sonus]

Originally posted by Pocket:

Last I checked, running lspci doesn't detect VRAM either

Just as I said: lspci only provides general memory information about the PCI bus. However, VRAM is usually way too large to be fully addressable, so a MMU is used, which provides a fixed size window (usually: 256MiB) that can be moved across the whole VRAM to access the whole memory space. However, as the driver is the only one who controls the MMU, you can't guess VRAM size solely on PCI information.

[Pocket]

Hang on, something just occurred to me. If there was never a way to detect VRAM until this OpenGL extension was introduced, does this mean no Linux game or app has ever been able to address VRAM at all until recently?

[Letalis Sonus]

The drivers take care of everything concerning allocating and adressing VRAM, that's not really something any program has to worry about.

It's all just about how to get the total amount of VRAM available, e.g. to make certain guesses on which graphics settings should be disabled by default in a game. Pretty much every driver has provided that piece of information before, but everyone did it in its own way. The only place where you'll pretty much always find those values are the kernel and/or X logs, but it's hard to parse them out of there in a unified way.

[Pocket]

Originally posted by Letalis Sonus:

The drivers take care of everything concerning allocating and adressing VRAM, that's not really something any program has to worry about.

They do if they have no reliable way of getting it. Have to worry, I mean. And by worry I mean panic and just try to make do without it for fear that something might go wrong if they try to use more than they have available.

I'm convinced that this is what Valve's games still do; why else would performance be so abysmal? Besides failing to utilize all of the GPU's cores, which I've heard might be the case. I just really want to get to the bottom of this already. Is there a program I can get that monitors, in real time, resource usage to that extent? Bonus points if there's also one for Windows so I can compare.