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<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
version="5.0"
xml:id="sec-gpu-accel">
<title>GPU acceleration</title>
<para>
NixOS provides various APIs that benefit from GPU hardware
acceleration, such as VA-API and VDPAU for video playback; OpenGL and
Vulkan for 3D graphics; and OpenCL for general-purpose computing.
This chapter describes how to set up GPU hardware acceleration (as far
as this is not done automatically) and how to verify that hardware
acceleration is indeed used.
</para>
<para>
Most of the aforementioned APIs are agnostic with regards to which
display server is used. Consequently, these instructions should apply
both to the X Window System and Wayland compositors.
</para>
<section xml:id="sec-gpu-accel-opencl">
<title>OpenCL</title>
<para>
<link xlink:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCL">OpenCL</link> is a
general compute API. It is used by various applications such as
Blender and Darktable to accelerate certain operations.
</para>
<para>
OpenCL applications load drivers through the <emphasis>Installable Client
Driver</emphasis> (ICD) mechanism. In this mechanism, an ICD file
specifies the path to the OpenCL driver for a particular GPU family.
In NixOS, there are two ways to make ICD files visible to the ICD
loader. The first is through the <varname>OCL_ICD_VENDORS</varname>
environment variable. This variable can contain a directory which
is scanned by the ICL loader for ICD files. For example:
<screen><prompt>$</prompt> export \
OCL_ICD_VENDORS=`nix-build '<nixpkgs>' --no-out-link -A rocm-opencl-icd`/etc/OpenCL/vendors/</screen>
</para>
<para>
The second mechanism is to add the OpenCL driver package to
<xref linkend="opt-hardware.opengl.extraPackages"/>. This links the
ICD file under <filename>/run/opengl-driver</filename>, where it will
be visible to the ICD loader.
</para>
<para>
The proper installation of OpenCL drivers can be verified through
the <command>clinfo</command> command of the <package>clinfo</package>
package. This command will report the number of hardware devices
that is found and give detailed information for each device:
</para>
<screen><prompt>$</prompt> clinfo | head -n3
Number of platforms 1
Platform Name AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing
Platform Vendor Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.</screen>
<section xml:id="sec-gpu-accel-opencl-amd">
<title>AMD</title>
<para>
Modern AMD <link
xlink:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Core_Next">Graphics
Core Next</link> (GCN) GPUs are supported through the
<package>rocm-opencl-icd</package> package. Adding this package to
<xref linkend="opt-hardware.opengl.extraPackages"/> enables OpenCL
support. However, OpenCL Image support is provided through the
non-free <package>rocm-runtime-ext</package> package. This package can
be added to the same configuration option, but requires that
<varname>allowUnfree</varname> option is is enabled for nixpkgs. Full
OpenCL support on supported AMD GPUs is thus enabled as follows:
<programlisting><xref linkend="opt-hardware.opengl.extraPackages"/> = [
rocm-opencl-icd
rocm-runtime-ext
];</programlisting>
</para>
<para>
It is also possible to use the OpenCL Image extension without a
system-wide installation of the <package>rocm-runtime-ext</package>
package by setting the <varname>ROCR_EXT_DIR</varname> environment
variable to the directory that contains the extension:
<screen><prompt>$</prompt> export \
ROCR_EXT_DIR=`nix-build '<nixpkgs>' --no-out-link -A rocm-runtime-ext`/lib/rocm-runtime-ext</screen>
</para>
<para>
With either approach, you can verify that OpenCL Image support
is indeed working with the <command>clinfo</command> command:
<screen><prompt>$</prompt> clinfo | grep Image
Image support Yes</screen>
</para>
</section>
</section>
<section xml:id="sec-gpu-accel-vulkan">
<title>Vulkan</title>
<para>
<link xlink:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulkan_(API)">Vulkan</link> is a
graphics and compute API for GPUs. It is used directly by games or indirectly though
compatibility layers like <link xlink:href="https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/wiki">DXVK</link>.
</para>
<para>
By default, if <xref linkend="opt-hardware.opengl.driSupport"/> is enabled,
<package>mesa</package> is installed and provides Vulkan for supported hardware.
</para>
<para>
Similar to OpenCL, Vulkan drivers are loaded through the <emphasis>Installable Client
Driver</emphasis> (ICD) mechanism. ICD files for Vulkan are JSON files that specify
the path to the driver library and the supported Vulkan version. All successfully
loaded drivers are exposed to the application as different GPUs.
In NixOS, there are two ways to make ICD files visible to Vulkan applications: an
environment variable and a module option.
</para>
<para>
The first option is through the <varname>VK_ICD_FILENAMES</varname>
environment variable. This variable can contain multiple JSON files, separated by
<literal>:</literal>. For example:
<screen><prompt>$</prompt> export \
VK_ICD_FILENAMES=`nix-build '<nixpkgs>' --no-out-link -A amdvlk`/share/vulkan/icd.d/amd_icd64.json</screen>
</para>
<para>
The second mechanism is to add the Vulkan driver package to
<xref linkend="opt-hardware.opengl.extraPackages"/>. This links the
ICD file under <filename>/run/opengl-driver</filename>, where it will
be visible to the ICD loader.
</para>
<para>
The proper installation of Vulkan drivers can be verified through
the <command>vulkaninfo</command> command of the <package>vulkan-tools</package>
package. This command will report the hardware devices and drivers found,
in this example output amdvlk and radv:
</para>
<screen><prompt>$</prompt> vulkaninfo | grep GPU
GPU id : 0 (Unknown AMD GPU)
GPU id : 1 (AMD RADV NAVI10 (LLVM 9.0.1))
...
GPU0:
deviceType = PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_DISCRETE_GPU
deviceName = Unknown AMD GPU
GPU1:
deviceType = PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TYPE_DISCRETE_GPU</screen>
<para>
A simple graphical application that uses Vulkan is <command>vkcube</command>
from the <package>vulkan-tools</package> package.
</para>
<section xml:id="sec-gpu-accel-vulkan-amd">
<title>AMD</title>
<para>
Modern AMD <link
xlink:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Core_Next">Graphics
Core Next</link> (GCN) GPUs are supported through either radv, which is
part of <package>mesa</package>, or the <package>amdvlk</package> package.
Adding the <package>amdvlk</package> package to
<xref linkend="opt-hardware.opengl.extraPackages"/> makes both drivers
available for applications and lets them choose. A specific driver can
be forced as follows:
<programlisting><xref linkend="opt-hardware.opengl.extraPackages"/> = [
<package>amdvlk</package>
];
# For amdvlk
<xref linkend="opt-environment.variables"/>.VK_ICD_FILENAMES =
"/run/opengl-driver/share/vulkan/icd.d/amd_icd64.json";
# For radv
<xref linkend="opt-environment.variables"/>.VK_ICD_FILENAMES =
"/run/opengl-driver/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json";
</programlisting>
</para>
</section>
</section>
</chapter>
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