It took me TWO YEARS to get this working! (GPU on Pi)

After TWO YEARS it finally works! Video output through multiple GPUs on the Raspberry Pi. Well... sorta. Check out what we have working in the video—and what's yet to be discovered.

Special thanks to EVERYONE who's worked so hard on this over the past couple years, especially those in the GitHub issues. See links below if you want to dive deeper into the Pi external GPU rabbit hole!

#RaspberryPi #GPU #AMD

More info:

Graphics cards used in this video:

- Dell AMD Radeon HD7470 1GB: TODO

Adapters and equipment used in this video (some are affiliate links):

Contents:

00:00 - Persistence pays off
01:21 - M2_VGA works!
01:57 - AMD Radeon cards
02:46 - GUIs work!
03:34 - 3D Benchmarks... kinda work!
04:13 - Memory woes
05:45 - Can it run Crysis?
07:01 - Will other ARM SoCs work better?
08:05 - What about Windows?
08:16 - And that RX 6700 XT?
08:35 - To boldly go.

[RaidOwl]

That's pretty sweet. Next step is to have GPU manufacturers ship a GPU with a CM4 built into it 😁

[ergo]

Thank you for contributing to open source community!

The process you're showing is part of why we have free things like Blender and Linux. People dedicate their time to making something work for the rest of us

In arms case, this is particularly exciting because this may one day lead to a desktop pc platform alternative to the red and blue giants.

[CognosSquare]

Your work on the Pi-GPU are the stuff of legends Jeff.

[froid_san]

That was one heck of a wild ride to get a GPU working. Thanks for your contribution to the Pi community!

[famitory]

seems like a useful tool here would be an open-source PCIe "card" that's actually a SBC on it's own, and acts to test what PCIe features are working properly for whatever CPU they're talking to. then you could more rapidly rule out any given SBC platform without having to dig into driver dev

[fattomandeibu]

Maybe one day, due to your pioneering exploration, we'll get to see the truly epic sight of a Pi 5(or 6, 7 etc.) model B with a triple slot RTX 3090 sticking out of the top... or more likely watch it fall over. Still be pretty fun.

[MegaManNeo]

It's just the beginning, Jeff.
You guys made the first step in what could turn the RPi platform in a reliable desktop platform for everyone in the future.

[RN]

Kudos for the hard work and sticking with it. I would have given up when it became obvious the problems were in the underlying PCIe implementations and controllers.

[theprodigal]

Based on what you say, Minecraft might be the first game to test, because it uses OpenGL and Java. I don't know about OpenGL, but Java is definitely supported on Arm.

[EeroafHeurlin]

The epitome of a good hack, technically challenging and increases your understanding of low level things but mostly useless outside of the learning experience and bragging rights.

[TailRecursion]

He finally did it, the absolute legend!

[elFarto]

Great to see you finally got it working!

[christopherleadholm]

Jeff, i have watched you since at least you began the gpu adventure... it doesnt seem like it's been two years, but, hey, i guess it has been.

I've been trying to keep up with yours, as well as a couple other pi-related youtube channels' stuff and what you're all up to, but it's hard - you and the others tend to move on to new projects and things faster than i can duplicate or even comprehend them sometimes!!!

I like to explore each little bit of it on my own, and can get distracted going (seemingly) 'where no man has gone before' all on my own. ; - )
-
I've found doing things yourself is the BEST way to learn things you dont know...

good work, jeff. nice stuff. keep it up

[alphaLONE]

Finally! Loaded the video as soon as it popped up in my notifications. Kudos to you and all the community members that got together to bring this so far.

[MichaelKlements]

Such awesome work! The amount of patience and persistence required to get this working is amazing, well done!

[Wickedmk]

I saw your comments and pictures on github a week ago or so on this topic, nice to be able to be part of your journey

[donnhussey]

The best part is that there is someone out there named El Farto, and you said their name in your video. Simple things make my day.

[technosurfer]

This is an amazing milestone in a long and arduous journey. Given that the Pi is becoming more PC-viable with every successive generation, I really hope the Pi Foundation and Broadcom consider aiming for SystemReady SR compliance so that PCIE devices like all AMD GPUs just work.

[izzieb]

After many recompilations of the Linux kernel, Jeff has finally succeeded!

[RazorSkinned]

y'all are total legends for finally pulling this off.