Linux kernel fix for AMD VRAM issue

Video memory is the graphics card’s fast local storage, and on Linux some AMD systems have been shuffling the wrong data out of it under pressure. A new fix from developer Natalie Vock changes that behavior on low-memory cards, especially 8 gigabyte models. (pixelcluster.github.io) AMD’s Linux graphics driver, called AMDGPU, supports Radeon cards across Graphics Core Next, Radeon DNA, and Compute DNA families. When video memory fills up, the driver can spill data into system memory that the graphics card reaches over Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, which is slower than keeping it on the card itself. (docs.kernel.org) (itsfoss.com) Vock wrote on April 9, 2026 that the problem shows up when the kernel cannot tell which app should keep scarce video memory. In that case, a game and a background browser tab can be treated the same, and game data can get pushed into Graphics Translation Table memory in system Random Access Memory instead. (pixelcluster.github.io) (itsfoss.com) Part of the groundwork is already upstream. Linux 6.15 added AMDGPU support for device-memory control groups, a kernel feature for setting priorities and limits on graphics memory use. (phoronix.com) Vock’s new work adds six kernel patches on top of that upstream support, plus two user-space tools called dmemcg-booster and plasma-foreground-booster. Together, they mark the foreground app so the kernel tries to evict other workloads from video memory first. (pixelcluster.github.io) (itsfoss.com) That changes a pattern Linux users have seen in long play sessions and other memory-heavy runs: performance can sag over time even when the main workload itself still fits inside the card’s memory budget. Vock said games should stay more stable “as long as the game itself doesn’t use more VRAM than you actually have.” (gamingonlinux.com) The immediate audience is Linux gamers on AMD cards with 8 gigabytes of video memory or less, but the mechanism is broader than games. Any sustained workload that competes with background processes for graphics memory can be affected if the foreground task is the one that needs fast on-card memory most. (itsfoss.com) (docs.kernel.org) The code is not fully in the mainline kernel yet. Vock said CachyOS users with kernel version 7.0rc7-2 or newer can already try it, while other users can build a development kernel or apply the six patch files manually. (pixelcluster.github.io) (itsfoss.com) Vock also said the same approach may help Intel Xe graphics, and a patch has been sent for Nouveau, the open-source Nvidia driver. For now, the clearest result is on AMD Linux systems where limited video memory has been turning background activity into stutter. (itsfoss.com) (gamingonlinux.com)