RE:science application + opencl/rocm + AMD GPU?

[PICCA Frederic-Emmanuel <frederic-emmanuel.picca@synchrotron-soleil.fr>]

Hello

> I'd like to request the team for sharing some experience on this topic:
> "scientific application + opencl/rocm + AMD GPU".  Any experience will
> be very helpful to me in terms of the being-investigated ROCm
> integration[1] to Debian.

first thanks for your all your work in Debian

> I'd like to ask you the following questions:

> 1. how's everything going without the amdgpu-pro[2] driver, especially
>   the opencl/rocm programs? Most importantly, can OpenCL work without
>   any non-free component?

for now there is nothing like amd-opencl-icd available in Debian. so there is no OpenCL for amd gpu out of the box.

> 2. how does the consumer-grade AMD gpu perform in terms of scientific
>   computing or other opencl/rocm applications?

I have a bunch of these cart at work. It works quite well for us, but installing the opencl stack is a pity...

> 3. do you think AMD GPU can be a practical alternative to Nvidia/CUDA
>   in at least a few applications?

Yes if we could have OpenCL out of the box.


Cheers


Frederic