Merged overnight were all the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) driver updates consisting of many kernel graphics/display driver improvements. Arguably most exciting with these updates for Linux 7.4 is the AMD Radeon (AMDGPU) driver seeing HDMI 2.1 FRL enabled by default along with other HDMI 2.1 features.

The HDMI 2.1 Fixed Rate Link (FRL) functionality for supporting higher resolutions and higher refresh rates is now enabled by default for AMDGPU in Linux 7.4. This happened as other features like VRR / FreeSync and ALLM on HDMI are now also in place and thus not risking a regression of the user experience. So with Linux 7.4 the HDMI 2.1 experience is in good shape on AMDGPU after users have been waiting years for it as this open-source driver work had been blocked by the HDMI Forum until earlier this year when it was mysteriously resolved.

Meanwhile on the data center side, AMDGPU with Linux 7.4 now has support for UALink over Ethernet (UALoE) support.

Also on the AMD side is supporting the NPU of the Ryzen AI Max 400 series (Gorgon Halo).

Meanwhile the Intel Xe kernel graphics driver has CPU binds and ULLS on the migration queue that should provide a bump for performance. The Intel driver in Linux 7.4 also now supports vRAM health checks and dealing with degraded video memory.

A lot of the Intel driver happenings continue to be focused on their forthcoming Crescent Island accelerator now known as the Intel GPU D Series.

On the open-source NVIDIA driver side, a lot of new Rust code continues pouring in for continuing to bring-up the Nova driver. The existing Nouveau driver continues seeing various fixes.

The MSM DRM driver for Qualcomm Adreno hardware has enabled GPU support for the Adreno A830, A845, A850, and X2-85 graphics processors. The Rockchip DRM driver meanwhile has seen work on HDMI 2.0 support.

The full list of DRM changes for Linux 7.4 can be found via this pull request now part of Linux Git.