Testing your GPU setup

[dos2unix]

For a long time I used the older tools. glmark2, glxgears, glxinfo, and those were great back in the day.

It's 2026.

vkmark supports newer hardware than glmark2. You might get a better benchmark using this.

vulkan-smoketest (not all distro's have this available).

vkcube
vkcubepp (C++ version, for real speed)
vulkaninfo (gives you 10 times as much info as glxinfo)

vkmark
=======================================================
vkmark 2025.01
=======================================================
Vendor ID: 0x1002
Device ID: 0x747E
Device Name: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT (RADV NAVI32)
Driver Version: 104869894
Device UUID: 1ebbff3755de771c5c2c367ca34736e4
=======================================================
[vertex] device-local=true: FPS: 19831 FrameTime: 0.050 ms
[vertex] device-local=false: FPS: 20311 FrameTime: 0.049 ms
[texture] anisotropy=0: FPS: 20329 FrameTime: 0.049 ms
[texture] anisotropy=16: FPS: 20384 FrameTime: 0.049 ms
[shading] shading=gouraud: FPS: 20239 FrameTime: 0.049 ms
[shading] shading=blinn-phong-inf: FPS: 20097 FrameTime: 0.050 ms
[shading] shading=phong: FPS: 20363 FrameTime: 0.049 ms
[shading] shading=cel: FPS: 20435 FrameTime: 0.049 ms
[effect2d] kernel=edge: FPS: 20252 FrameTime: 0.049 ms
[effect2d] kernel=blur: FPS: 20107 FrameTime: 0.050 ms
[desktop] <default>: FPS: 19852 FrameTime: 0.050 ms
[cube] <default>: FPS: 20365 FrameTime: 0.049 ms
[clear] <default>: FPS: 18455 FrameTime: 0.054 ms
=======================================================
vkmark Score: 20078
=======================================================

Running a 7.0 kernel

uname -a
Linux blackTower.localdomain 7.0.0-62.fc45.x86_64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Mon Apr 13 14:44:00 UTC 2026 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Nearly 18% faster than a pre-6.19 kernel.
Nearly 26% faster than a pre-6.19 kernel running X11.

Here's the kicker...
Nearly 47% faster than windows 11.

====================================
vkmark Vulkan scores across kernel generations:

Baseline	Score	Delta vs 7.0
Pre-6.19 (X11)	~13,700	-47%
Pre-6.19 (Wayland)	~17,400	-18%
7.0.0-62.fc45 (Wayland)	20,078	baseline
Windows 11	~13,700	-47%

 

[KGIII]

This may be of interest:

FurMark Homepage

FurMark - GPU stress test and graphics card benchmark

geeks3d.com

There's also glmark2, which might be a part of the past for the vkmark that you mentioned, or maybe their names are just similar.

 

[MikeWalsh]

This does kind of assume - as always! - that the user IS running the very newest of everything, AND that they have a reasonably modern, powerful & "fully-supported" GPU....

....doesn't it?


Mike.

 

[dos2unix]

This does kind of assume - as always! - that the user IS running the very newest of everything, AND that they have a reasonably modern, powerful & "fully-supported" GPU....

OS, and kernel yes, hardware no. In fact one of the main things these kernels do is support older GPUs that weren't supported previously.

This part is from [Claude.Ai]

Good news — this is a real and significant change. Here's the breakdown:

What happened in Linux 6.19 (released February 8, 2026):

AMD GCN 1.0 / GCN 1.1 discrete GPUs now default to the AMDGPU driver rather than the legacy Radeon driver, gaining better performance and RADV compatibility out-of-the-box. Phoronix

Which GPU architectures are affected:

For more than two decades, Linux relied on the aging Radeon DRM driver for AMD's GCN 1.0 and GCN 1.1 graphics cards, while newer GPUs (GCN 1.2 and beyond) benefited from the advanced AMDGPU driver. Tom's Hardware The affected architectures and example cards are:

• GCN 1.0 "Southern Islands" — Radeon HD 7000 series (e.g., HD 7950, HD 7970)
• GCN 1.1 "Sea Islands" — Radeon HD 8000 series and early R-series (e.g., R9 280, R9 290X)

Why it matters:

Users can now fully leverage the ACO compiler, which significantly improves shader compilation times and reduces stuttering compared to the older LLVM-based backends. Huuphan More importantly, cards like the AMD Radeon HD 7970, R9 280 and R9 290X are gaining native RADV Vulkan support as a result OMG! Ubuntu, which means Proton/DXVK compatibility layers now work properly on these cards.

Performance impact:

Phoronix reports an average uplift of about 30% using the geometric mean of results on the Radeon HD 7950. VideoCardz

Who did the work:

This mostly traces back to Timur Kristóf at Valve, who pushed to move GCN 1.0 and GCN 1.1 cards off the legacy Radeon kernel driver and onto AMDGPU by default, and he presented the effort at XDC 2025 in Vienna. VideoCardz

Heads-up for sysadmins:

While the kernel now defaults to amdgpu for these cards, older distributions might still have hardcoded blacklists or GRUB parameters. Always check your current driver using lspci -k | grep -A 3 -i "VGA". Huuphan

As for Linux 7.0 — that kernel is expected to power Ubuntu 26.04 LTS this spring Phoronix, so Fedora and RHEL-adjacent distros should be picking up these changes in their next major cycles as well.

 

[dos2unix]

./furmark --demo furmark-vk --width 2560 --height 1440
[ Demo Quick Stats ]

• demo : FurMark (VK) (built-in: YES)
• renderer : AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT (RADV NAVI32)
• 3D API : Vulkan 1.4.328
• resolution : 2560x1366
• frames : 15014
• duration : 78734 ms
• FPS (min/avg/max) : 186 / 191 / 197
• GPU 0: SAPPHIRE Nitro+ RX 7800 XT [1002-747E]

.max temperature: 57�C
.max usage: 100%
.max core clock: 1960 MHz
.min core clock: 1338 MHz
- GPU 1: [1002-164E]
.max temperature: 35�C
.max usage: 0%
.max core clock: 600 MHz
.min core clock: 600 MHz

/Downloads/FurMark_linux64$ ./furmark --demo furmark-gl --width 2560 --height 1440
[ Demo Quick Stats ]

• demo : FurMark (GL) (built-in: YES)
• renderer : AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT (radeonsi, navi32, LLVM 21.1.8, DRM 3.64, 7.0.0-62.fc45.x86_64)
• 3D API : OpenGL 4.6 (Core Profile) Mesa 25.3.6
• resolution : 2560x1366
• frames : 6971
• duration : 37118 ms
• FPS (min/avg/max) : 127 / 188 / 195
• GPU 0: SAPPHIRE Nitro+ RX 7800 XT [1002-747E]

.max temperature: 60�C
.max usage: 100%
.max core clock: 1962 MHz
.min core clock: 201 MHz
- GPU 1: [1002-164E]
.max temperature: 35�C
.max usage: 0%
.max core clock: 600 MHz
.min core clock: 600 MHz

/Downloads/FurMark_linux64$ ./furmark --demo furmark-vk --p1440
[ Demo Quick Stats ]

• demo : FurMark (VK) (built-in: YES)
• renderer : AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT (RADV NAVI32)
• 3D API : Vulkan 1.4.328
• resolution : 2560x1440
• SCORE : 3535
• duration : 22221 ms
• FPS (min/avg/max) : 155 / 159 / 165
• GPU 0: SAPPHIRE Nitro+ RX 7800 XT [1002-747E]

.max temperature: 60�C
.max usage: 100%
.max core clock: 1994 MHz
.min core clock: 1344 MHz
- GPU 1: [1002-164E]
.max temperature: 35�C
.max usage: 0%
.max core clock: 600 MHz
.min core clock: 600 MHz

/Downloads/FurMark_linux64$

@KGIII - cool tool thnx for the link. I don't have earlier benchmarks to compare to.

 

[KGIII]

@KGIII - cool tool thnx for the link. I don't have earlier benchmarks to compare to.

I thought you might like it.

They do sometimes post testing results. They're not well organized, so a search engine is best. Well, if they are organized, I can't find it.

Here's one such example:

https://geeks3d.com/20250113/furmark-2-benchmark-charts-for-p1080-scores/