The goal of this page is to track compatibility with graphics hardware as well as provide information on how to configure some specifics.
ATI/AMD graphics cards
In general this comes down to generation and the port you are running.
On older kernels, all AGP Radeon cards are affected by random hangs caused by AGP GART code. You will need to provide radeon.agpmode=-1 on kernel command line to work around the issue. This is not necessary at least on kernels 4.19 and newer.
Rage, Rage Pro etc.
Interface: PCI, AGP
OpenGL: 1.2
Works: Console, X11 untested but may work
KMS: No
3D acceleration: No 2D acceleration: X11 (untested) X11 driver: xf86-video-mach64
Wayland: Only compositors that support fbdev
These models can generally be found in some old Macs. The framebuffer console is served by an fbdev driver, there is no modern KMS driver.
In X11, these GPUs are served by the xf86-video-mach64 driver. It will not work out of box – you need to correctly set up your modelines in xorg.conf.d to make it work.
Rage 128 series
Interface: PCI, AGP
OpenGL: 1.2
Works: Console, X11 untested but may work
KMS: No
3D acceleration: No 2D acceleration: X11 (untested) X11 driver: xf86-video-r128, xf86-video-fbdev Wayland: Only compositors that support fbdev
Similar things as above apply.
Radeon 7000 series
Interface: PCI, AGP
OpenGL: 1.3
Works: Yes, AGP may have issues
KMS: Yes
3D acceleration: Yes
2D acceleration: X11
X11 driver: xf86-video-ati
Wayland: Only compositors that support fbdev
These cards come up, but experience freezes shortly after boot, as far as has been confirmed. 3D acceleration is covered by Mesa. These cards only support fixed-function OpenGL, which means you can’t use the modesetting driver or GLAMOR with them.
Radeon 8000 series to 9250
Interface: AGP
OpenGL: 1.4
Works: Yes, issues on musl
KMS: Yes
3D acceleration: Yes
2D acceleration: X11
X11 driver: xf86-video-ati
Wayland: Only compositors that support fbdev
These cards work, including 3D acceleration. However, on musl systems, OpenGL currently renders junk, and there is no known workaround other than using a glibc system.
Since these cards do not support shaders, you can’t use the modesetting driver or GLAMOR with them.
Radeon 9500 and newer, X300 – X600, X1050
Interface: AGP
OpenGL: 2.0/2.1
Works: With issues
KMS: Yes
3D acceleration: Yes
2D acceleration: X11, GLAMOR
X11 driver: xf86-video-ati, modesetting
Wayland: Yes
These cards seemingly work, but experience system hangs when running complex OpenGL applications (the issue manifests e.g. when loading a map in a 3D game).
These cards support shaders and generally render simple things (e.g. glxgears) correctly, including on musl systems. Being OpenGL 2.1 capable hardware, they can run accelerated Wayland and can use the modesetting driver and GLAMOR in X11.
In general, things are good enough for desktop work and video, without stability issues. Running games results in those hangs, though.
Radeon X700 – X850, X12xx
Interface: AGP, PCI Express
OpenGL: 2.0/2.1
Works: Yes (untested)
KMS: Yes
3D acceleration: Yes
2D acceleration: X11, GLAMOR
X11 driver: xf86-video-ati, modesetting
Wayland: Yes
These cards should work but haven’t been widely tested.
Radeon X700 – X850, X12xx
Interface: AGP, PCI Express
OpenGL: 2.0/2.1
Works: Yes (untested)
KMS: Yes
3D acceleration: Yes
2D acceleration: X11, GLAMOR
X11 driver: xf86-video-ati, modesetting
Wayland: Yes
These cards should work but haven’t been widely tested.
Radeon X1300 – X19xx
Interface: AGP, PCI Express
OpenGL: 2.0/2.1
Works: Depending on model
KMS: Yes
3D acceleration: Yes
2D acceleration: X11, GLAMOR
X11 driver: xf86-video-ati, modesetting
Wayland: Yes
These cards should technically work.
However, on Macs, at least certain models use a reduced video BIOS, where a part of it is loaded by the OS afterwards. This prevents function in Linux. No workaround is currently known to the project.
PC versions of the cards should work at least on G4 Macs and so on once booted into Linux.
Radeon HD 2xxx – 4xxx
Interface: AGP, PCI Express
OpenGL: 3.3 (3.2 on big endian)
Works: Yes
KMS: Yes
3D acceleration: Yes
2D acceleration: X11, GLAMOR
X11 driver: xf86-video-ati, modesetting
Wayland: Yes
These cards work. You may experience driver bugs on big endian systems.
Radeon HD 5xxx, 6xxx, 7450, 8450, R5 230/235 etc.
Interface: PCI Express
OpenGL: 4.4/4.5 (3.2 on big endian)
Works: Yes
KMS: Yes
3D acceleration: Yes
2D acceleration: X11, GLAMOR
X11 driver: xf86-video-ati, modesetting
Wayland: Yes
These cards work. You may experience driver bugs on big endian systems. You will also not be able to utilize OpenGL beyond 3.2 on big endian systems.
These are the last cards that function on big endian systems in general. GCN cards currently have broken kernel drivers in all kernels.
Radeon GCN (HD 7000/8000 series, R/RX/WX series etc.)
Interface: PCI Express
OpenGL: 4.6
Works: Little endian
KMS: Yes
3D acceleration: Yes
2D acceleration: X11, GLAMOR
X11 driver: xf86-video-amdgpu, modesetting
Wayland: Yes
This includes everything up to Vega. These cards only work on little endian systems due to amdgpu kernel driver requirement.
Radeon RDNA (Navi)
Interface: PCI Express
OpenGL: 4.6
Works: Little endian and kernel 5.4+
KMS: Yes
3D acceleration: Yes
2D acceleration: X11, GLAMOR
X11 driver: xf86-video-amdgpu, modesetting
Wayland: Yes
In Void, AMD Navi cards (RX 5xxx etc.) work starting with kernel 5.4. In upstream (vanilla) kernel you will need at least 5.6.
NVIDIA graphics cards
Support for NVIDIA cards is generally significantly more limited and you will need to use the nouveau driver.
Pre-GeForce (RIVA etc.)
Interface: PCI, AGP
OpenGL: 1.2
Works: Console, X11 may work with fbdev
KMS: No
3D acceleration: No
2D acceleration: No
X11 driver: xf86-video-fbdev
Wayland: Only compositors that support fbdev
The framebuffer console is served by an fbdev driver, there is no modern KMS driver.
There is no 3D acceleration support, you may still be able to get X11 to work with xf86-video-fbdev.
GeForce 2 and older, 4 MX
Interface: AGP
OpenGL: 1.3
Works: Issues
KMS: Yes
3D acceleration: Yes
2D acceleration: X11
X11 driver: xf86-video-nouveau
Wayland: Only compositors that support fbdev
At least GeForce 2 MX only comes up in kernel 4.4, with newer kernels failing to initialize the card. It is not known whether this affects GeForce 3 and 4 MX series as well.
X11 will not come up on GeForce 2 MX. There is some issue with the video outputs disappearing when scanning EDID.
GeForce 3 and 4
Interface: AGP
OpenGL: 1.3
Works: Unknown
KMS: Yes
3D acceleration: Yes
2D acceleration: X11
X11 driver: xf86-video-nouveau
Wayland: Only compositors that support fbdev
It is currently unknown whether these cards work.
GeForce FX
Interface: AGP
OpenGL: 2.1
Works: Unknown
KMS: Yes
3D acceleration: Yes
2D acceleration: X11, GLAMOR
X11 driver: xf86-video-nouveau
Wayland: Yes
It is currently unknown whether these cards work.
GeForce 6xxx, 7xxx
Interface: AGP, PCI Express
OpenGL: 2.1
Works: Yes
KMS: Yes
3D acceleration: Yes
2D acceleration: X11, GLAMOR
X11 driver: xf86-video-nouveau
Wayland: Yes
These cards work, but suffer from nouveau bugs, which may cause broken rendering in various applications. Some video pixel formats may also be broken. In general it is good enough for video and accelerated desktop.
GeForce 8xxx, 9xxx, 200 series
Interface: PCI Express
OpenGL: 3.3
Works: Little endian
KMS: Yes
3D acceleration: Yes
2D acceleration: X11, GLAMOR
X11 driver: xf86-video-nouveau
Wayland: Yes
These cards should work with nouveau at least on little endian systems.
GeForce 400 and newer series
Interface: PCI Express
OpenGL: 4.6
Works: Little endian, when supported by nouveau
KMS: Yes
3D acceleration: Yes
2D acceleration: X11, GLAMOR
X11 driver: xf86-video-nouveau
Wayland: Yes
These cards should work with nouveau at least on little endian systems. Exact hardware support is subject to nouveau support (e.g. reclocking on new cards may not work and so on).
