OpenCL

[xorgon]

Hello, I've been working on a parallel particle simulation using OpenCL. I've got to the point of writing documentation and need to link any potential users to the AMD OpenCL SDK. As per this thread​ and this thread​, the page has gone missing. Is there any further update as to when/where this will be fixed?

Thanks,

Elijah

[dipak · Accepted solution]

I have already reported the problem to the concerned team. I'm waiting for their response now. As soon as I have any update, I'll post it. 

[xorgon]

Okay, thank you!

[xorgon]

Hello, I was talking to the AMD Business Development Manager in the UK, who mentioned that I might find the SDK on the GPUOpen GitHub. I found this repository​ which has these releases​. This has the SDK as of June 2017, is this the current SDK that can be linked to users?

[dipak]

Yes, on Windows, this OpenCL SDK is the latest one available right now.

[Andrey2007AMD]

Hi, dipak

Any update ? I have no any links to download AMD APP SDK:

https://developer.amd.com/tools-and-sdks/

[dipak]

Hi Andrey,

As I've been informed, the concerned team has decided to drop the support for APP SDK and hence, any related package on developer.amd.com might not be accessible anymore. Instead, they are recommending to use this lite SDK package available here: https://github.com/GPUOpen-LibrariesAndSDKs/OCL-SDK/releases

If I get more information about this, I'll share with you.

Regards,

[xorgon]

Is there any support for developing on Linux with AMD hardware?

[dipak]

You don't need a SDK for Linux with AMDGPU-PRO or ROCm stack, as the library to link against is shipped with the driver.

The headers to compile can be found wih your package manager.

For example on debian based distro:

sudo apt-get install opencl-headers

[Reference: Nothing here · Issue #2 · GPUOpen-LibrariesAndSDKs/OCL-SDK · GitHub

[xorgon]

Oh, awesome, thank you!

[rdemaria]

I am a bit lost. The AMD APP SDK also included an OpenCL driver for CPU (both AMD and Intel). Is ROCm providing a driver for CPUs (AMD and Intel)?

[dipak]

No, only GPU support is provided by the ROCm driver.

[rdemaria]

Which package should be used to have OpenCL on AMD CPUs?

[dipak]

With the latest linux drivers AMDGPU-Pro and ROCm, all the OpenCL support comes with the driver itself. Currently, CPU is not supported by both these drivers.

[colesdav]

Hi,

Where OpenCL is going with AMD?
What's the Roadmap/Plan?

On Windows the AMD App SDK for OpenCL has been dropped and the website is gone, and we get pointed to an alternative on GitHub.

On the Linux side there is ROCm.
GCN 1.0 series cards are not supported on ROCm.

What would you advise someone coding on Windows and learning OpenCl on AMD Cards today - is it worth it?

I do not know the exact situation with Nvidia but I have seen they start to improve OpenCL support in the past year.
I have just seen some GTX 1080 OpenCL benchmark perfomance numbers and they are looking pretty good.

I am looking at building a Threadripper based PC next and I was looking for new GPU's to run OpenCL.
I can purchase new 2 slot high GTX1080 with good cooling solutions cheaper than RX Vega 56, and I cannot get any RX Vega 56 or 64 that are 2 slot high.
I could fit multiple GTX 1080 cards on  a Threadripper board but only ~ 2 RX Vega 56.

Thanks.

[colesdav]

Hi

Here is an OpenCL performance comparison from Compubench.
AMD Radeon RX Vega vs. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti in CompuBench - performance benchmark for various ...

Do you think these numbers are accurate?
There are some tests that RX Vega64 cannot run - do you have any comment on that?

Thanks.

[Andrey2007AMD]

I Agree with you. AMD should have a good support of OpenCL, also we need the new Version of AMD APP SDK

Why not ?

[colesdav]

Hi,

Yes it is a strength of AMD Cards versus Nvidia OpenCL support (although Nvidia have CUDA which is heavily promoted).
If you look at the Nvidia CUDA pages:

Accelerated Computing - Training | NVIDIA Developer

and especially here:

Educator Resources | NVIDIA Developer

It just seems they are working to promote what they have already versus the AMD OpenCL site that looks to be falling to bits.
I think having a well supported OpenCL platform on Windows is very important to get students / people starting out with OpenCL.

Most people will have some copy of Windows already running on their PC or Laptop.
Adding the extra complexity of installing a new Linux OS, working with the new AMDGPU drivers which do not even have a GUI interface, and then fighting with the ROCm installation on top of that is quite a barrier to cross, just to start coding in OpenCL.

The fact that the Windows App SDK is no longer supported by AMD makes it look like they are dropping OpenCL.

If I were Nvidia I would be aiming the crosshairs at AMD OpenCL  users at the moment because it is one area left to target along with mining performance.

They already win out on power consumption and gaming performance with their existing cards which are mostly over 2 years old (GTX1080 for example).
Unfortunately Vega was late, it is power hungry, and it has taken a while for AIB cards to turn up and to get to get the drivers working well on them.

It looks like Nvidia are about to release a new set of cards.

I have been advised to get  WX9100 2 slot high Vega based workstation cards so I could get a 2 slot high version of Vega and fit four of them in a Threadripper motherboard, those cards cost ~ 1550 each.  I do not need many of the features in AMD workstation cards yet. Hopefully I will be able to justify purchasing one someday in the future.

New 2 slot high GTX1080s are now selling at ~ 450, at or less than the cost of a Vega 56 (which are all at least 2.2 slots high).
I do not know if the Nvidia price drops are because of Etherium mining crash or if new GTX card expectation is lowering demand for the older cards.

PowerColor did start to produce the 2 slot high Red Dragon Vega 56 8GB  which has an R9 Nano sized PCB.
That was EOL, now it looks like an option might be PowerColor R9 Nano Vega 56 8GB but initial pricing for those is looking like ~ 550. 

Bye.

[dipak]

The fact that the Windows App SDK is no longer supported by AMD makes it look like they are dropping OpenCL.

OpenCL support for GPUs is still same and the support always comes with the driver itself. The basic support does not depend on the SDK packages. SDK packages provide headers and libraries that are required for OpenCL development. Like earlier APP SDK, the new lite SDK does provide all these required files. So, from an OpenCL developer point of view, it is almost same.

I know APP SDK had one advantage though. A cpu runtime was also part of this APP SDK, so it was really useful for someone who didn't have any gpu and wanted to use the cpu for learning/programming opencl. Yes, currently the lite SDK doesn't provide this support.

[colesdav]

Hi,

Regarding controlling AMDGPU drivers and GUI interface ... this post might help.
AMDGPU Pro Control Panel ?

If you install AMD ROCm in addition to the basic AMDGPU/ AMDGPU-PRO drivers you at least get access to a command line interface tool that allows you to control your GPU's clocks and fan speeds without poking around in and changing the contents of your driver related directories. In my case on Ubuntu it works! You can also use it along with basic bash command line to generate individual Ubuntu command terminals that will give you real time report of GPU temps, fan speed etc.

I had to find the above information myself after lots of reading and searching.
Why was this not mentioned in the Driver Install Instructions or tips or something?

In addition - someone kindly pointed me to a GUI that might work with the AMDGPU&ROCm drivers.
I have started to install it and I will report how I get on to the forum, but really AMD should do this or at least get their own Driver GUI interface out and working on Ubuntu and other Linux (I would pick Fedora and Centos).

Again here Nvidia win with the Driver GUI interface on Linux. It has similar look and feel as their Windows Drivers and it installs for me no problem at all.

Bye.

[Andrey2007AMD]

Hi dipak, but how developer will learn OpenCL without examples ? The removed AMD APP SDK contains the best examples! I think this is strange decision, may be now AMD doesn't  love OpenCL ?

[marty1885]

AMD is not supporting OpenCL as much as they do in the past. (Still waiting OpenCL 2.0 on ROCm, have been asking for that for ever now....)

OpenCL ins't that hard to learn provided with past experiences of parallel computing. There are good tutorials online teaching OpenCL.

Introductory Tutorial to OpenCL™ - CodeProject
OpenCL Vector Addition – Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility

http://developer.amd.com/wordpress/media/2013/07/AMD_Accelerated_Parallel_Processing_OpenCL_Programm...
https://www.seas.upenn.edu/~cis565/Lectures2011/Lecture15_OpenCL.pdf

[Andrey2007AMD]

Hi marty1885, thank you for information.

[colesdav]

Hi,

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine shows this as the last Snapshot that has any information about that website:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170623171107/https://developer.amd.com/tools-and-sdks/opencl-zone/amd-...

I think that the web page should have been left up to help people learning OpenCL on AMD hardware.
I am sure you could add an explanation to say that the AMD App SDK is no longer supported, and point to the new installer on Github as well.
Please consider maintaining the site.

Bye.

[colesdav]

This may be useful.

https://web.archive.org/web/20171125164203/http://developer.amd.com/tools-and-sdks/opencl-zone/

[vadmus]

That's great! but i can't download clamdfft for windows Does anyone have installer of this package?

[dipak]

clFFT package is available here: Releases · clMathLibraries/clFFT · GitHub

Please note. clFFT is different than OpenCL SDK or APP SDK. Hence, it is recommended to create a new thread against it.

[vadmus]

clFFT is new version of clAmdFft? So how do you think, can i change all clAmdFft functions to clFFT functions?

[dipak]

clAmdFft wrapper can be found here: clFFT/clAmdFft.h at master · clMathLibraries/clFFT · GitHub

However, it says:

*! @file clAmdFft.h

* /note clAmdFft.h is a deprecated header file. 

* This header is provided to help projects that were written with the older clAmdFft codebase, to help them

* port to the new API at their own schedule.  It will not be maintained or updated, and will be removed after

* a reasonable amount of time has passed.  All new code should be written against clFFT.h. 

* Older projects should migrate to the new header at their earliest convenience.

*/

[colesdav]

This is where I downloaded it from a year ago: Download AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing SDK 3.0.130.135

Make sure to run a virus scanner.