AMD is adding HDMI 2.1 support for Linux. That’s good news for the Steam Machine.

Last year, we saw how long ago the vagaries of The HDMI license is an open source development for AMD drivers including protecting the future Steam Machine by receiving official HDMI 2.1 display support. Now, however, it appears that AMD is making real progress in adding full HDMI 2.1 compliance to its Linux amdgpu driver soon.

In the patch notes for changes to the amdgpu driver written on Friday (and recognized Phoronix), AMD’s Harry Wentland says the company is finally adding HDMI FRL (Fixed Rate Link) support to the popular Linux driver. That’s what it looks like allows higher bandwidth on compatible HDMI cables compared to the TMDS standard found on HDMI 2.0 and earlier. This enables direct support for higher resolutions, dynamic HDR, and features like Variable Refresh Rate that are not supported in HDMI 2.0.

Wentland says the change only represents “a small version of HDMI,” in part because he lacks support code. Show Stream Compression (DSC) which allows higher resolutions and image rates up to 10K at 100 Hz. But Mr. Wentland adds that the DSC support is “still under evaluation and will be sent later,” and that “more.
compliance” for HDMI 2.1 is “in the works.” AMD’s driver developer with the handle agd5f also Comment on Phoronixnoting that “the full implementation (of HDMI 2.1) will eventually be available when patches are ready and compliance testing is complete.”