Steam Machine May Soon Fully Support HDMI 2.1
Players may recall that AMD previously attempted to push the HDMI Forum (HDMI standards organization) to approve open-source support for HDMI 2.1 on Linux, but was strongly rejected. However, the situation now appears to be different.
An AMD Linux developer has hinted that the company is preparing to provide full HDMI 2.1 support for AMD GPU drivers, bringing a complete open-source implementation after years of effort.
Valve also provided assistance in this process, as its Steam Machine runs on the Linux-based SteamOS operating system and uses AMD graphics cards.
AMD has already submitted the first batch of Linux kernel patches, focusing on the Fixed Rate Link (FRL) feature unique to the HDMI 2.1 standard. This feature can achieve higher bandwidth on the interface, effectively supporting AMD GPUs running Linux systems to output 4K 120Hz and 5K 240Hz resolutions.
Because these resolutions require higher data bandwidth, the updated HDMI 2.1 standard must be used in the AMD GPU open-source graphics driver, rather than the currently supported HDMI 2.0.
At the end of last year, Valve conducted an important negotiation. Given its use of AMD hardware and related experience, Valve attempted to communicate with the leadership of the HDMI Forum to obtain approval for the open-source implementation. AMD had previously invested months of engineering resources in internally developing the necessary code and planned to release it publicly in 2024. However, the HDMI Forum gave a strong response, claiming that an open-source implementation was impossible without violating its fair use requirements. Valve's SteamOS uses open-source AMD GPU driver components, as the Steam Machine is equipped with an AMD RDNA 3 GPU, and the company's negotiations appear to have worked.