VRAM on Linux in focus: Valve tests optimizations for 8GB AMD GPUs

Valve develops kernel patches and tools to optimize VRAM on 8 GB AMD GPUs on Linux, with impacts for Steam Deck and SteamOS.

What is happening

Valve is expanding efforts to make games on Linux more stable and fluid, especially on PCs with limited memory. The work involves engineer Natalie Vock, hired by Valve, who works on the RADV Vulkan driver for AMD GPUs.

According to reports, she is developing patches that aim to improve VRAM management on GPUs with 8 GB or less, with a focus on those who use Proton to run Windows games on Linux. The idea is to optimize GPU memory usage without requiring high-performance hardware.

How it works

From a technical standpoint, the effort includes two kernel patches: the first expands support for the DRM device memory cgroup controller (dmemcg) to better manage GPU memory in the system; the second adjusts the TTM memory management code to handle VRAM allocations and evictions.

Together, these patches should make GPU VRAM more efficient, freeing up resources for games when they are in active use.

User-space components

In addition to the kernel patches, there are two user-space components: dmemcg-booster, a systemd service that leverages the enhanced dmemcg, and plasma-foreground-booster, which integrates with KDE Plasma to better manage foreground apps and optimize VRAM.

Impact for Linux devices

The proposal is to keep VRAM dedicated to games with higher priority whenever the title is in the foreground, to obtain better performance without the rest of the system degrading the availability of GPU memory.

Context and next steps

If you have an 8 GB AMD GPU, the expectation is for noticeable improvements as soon as these patches are included in the main kernel (upstream). The Steam Machine also falls into this scenario, as it is expected to feature an 8 GB AMD GPU, explaining Valve's interest in this improvement.

What lies ahead

These changes should head to the upstream flow in the kernel, paving the way for platforms like Steam Deck and Frame, which use Linux-based SteamOS, to benefit from these VRAM optimizations.

What do you think of these changes? Do you believe they will actually improve the gaming experience on Linux with 8 GB AMD GPUs? Leave your comment below.

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