RadeonHD
Introduction
The RadeonHD driver software is an OS 4.x 2D graphics driver for RadeonHD graphics card. It also supports some Radeon Rx models.
The RadeonHD driver version up to V3 supports the RadeonHD 2000-7000 series cards (and the older Radeon X1300-X1950). From Version 5, the RadeonHD driver only supports Southern Islands chipsets such as the RadeonHD 7770, R7-240 and R7-250.
There are five versions of the RadeonHD driver commercially released:
End Of Line Versions
- RadeonHD Lite
- RadeonHD v1 (including pre v1)
- RadeonHD v2
Current Versions
- RadeonHD v3
- RadeonHD v5 - only supports Southern Islands chipsets
Lite version is supplied as an OEM driver under agreement to third parties. This version is intended for emergency boot and installation of the AmigaOS4.1 Final Edition CD and therefore is limited to 800x600 pixel screen resolution and compositing is not possible. It does not contain any SPE-FPU optimisations and it does not support 64-bit VRAM.
Version 1 is supplied as part of the Standard Edition of the Enhancer Software package. It is end of line with no further development planned.
Version 2 is supplied as part of the Plus Edition of the Enhancer Software package. It is end of line with no further development planned.
Version 3 is supplied as part of the Graphics Upgrade add-on for the Enhancer Software package and Enhancer Software Release 2.
Version 5 is available as a standalone product
Features
The main features of the RadeonHD driver currently are:
- Framebuffer
- VGA and DVI output for all cards
- Full 2D acceleration for supported RadeonHD graphics chipsets including compositing ¹
- Support for "R520" (X1300-X1950 series)
- Support for "R700" (HD4000 series)
- Support for "Evergreen" (HD5000 series)
- Support for "Northern Islands" (HD6000 series)
- Support for "Southern Islands" (selected HD7000, R7, R9 series)
- Composited video (a variant of textured video) for accelerating video playback ¹ ²
- Hardware mouse pointer
- RadeonHD_RM.resource backend for 3D drivers (the render manager)
- 64-bit VRAM Support ¹ ³
- SPE-FPU optimisations ¹ ³
¹ Not available on RadeonHD Lite
² Only available on RadeonHD v2 or later
³ Only available on RadeonHD v3 or later
Installation
Files are copied automatically by the Enhancer Software Installation script. The kicklayout text file (found in the SYS:Kickstart drawer) will need to be editted to add the RadeonHD.chip file if not already added to this file.
Manual Installation
1. Copy the file RadeonHD.chip to your Kickstart directory in your System partition (SYS:)
2. Adding it to your Kicklayout:
- Open MultiEdit text editor and select Open... from the Project menu. In the file requester select the Kickstart directory in the SYS: drive. Then select the Kicklayout file and click the Open icon on the toolbar.
- Add the following line to your Kicklayout file (paying attention to replicate it exactly as shown in the image below)
MODULE Kickstart/RadeonHD
- Once you have added the line you can Save your work by selecting Save file from the Project menu or clicking the Save icon on the toolbar.
Hardware Compatibility
Driver requirements
- RadeonHD PCI or PCI Express Graphics Card
- AmigaOS 4.1 or greater
- AmigaOne X1000, X5000 or A1222 with latest firmware
- AmigaOne 500 (SAM 460ex)
- SAM 440ep with PCI to PCI-E adapter
Graphics Card Compatiblity
Accelerated 2D supported graphics card chipsets
The following cards have no 3D driver support on AmigaOS:
- Radeon HD 4000 series
- Radeon HD 5000 series
- Radeon HD 6000 series
Accelerated 2D/3D supported graphic card chipsets
3D driver support on AmigaOS is provided by Warp3D-SI and Warp3D Nova when used with the latest RadeonHD drivers.
- Radeon HD 77xx-79xx series graphics card (excluding the Radeon HD 7790)
- Radeon HD R7 240/240D ¹
- Radeon HD R7 250 ¹
- Radeon HD R7 250E
- Radeon HD 250X/265
- Radeon HD R9 270/270X/280/280X
¹ Oland chipsets require the newer RadeonHD drivers (v1.20, v2.21 or v3.6) exclusively available from the Enhancer Software Standard Edition, Plus Edition or Enhancer Software Graphics Driver Upgrade respectively.
Copyright and Distribution Agreements
The RadeonHD graphics driver software for AmigaOS is Copyright (C) A-EON Technology Ltd. Unauthorised copying and distribution is prohibited by law. Please refer to the end user licence documentation with the driver for more detail.
The RadeonHD Lite graphics driver software has been currently licenced to Hyperion Entertainment CVBA for inclusion on the X1000 and Sam 460 versions of OS 4.1 Final Edition CD only. Hyperion Entertainment CVBA have not licenced any other version of the RadeonHD driver, including either the RadeonHD v1, v2, v3 or v5 and therefore can only distribute the RadeonHD Lite version with AmigaOS.
ACube Systems s.r.l has been granted permission to distribute the RadeonHD Lite with their Sam 460 systems.