FreeBSD Graphics

If you are a FreeBSD user and you are trying to set up graphics on your workstation then you might be interested in the Graphics FAQ!

/Add HW context support to i915   /Brightness   /DRI3   /Developer   /FAQ   /Getting started with kernel projects   /Kernel development workflow   /OptimusVideoSupport   /Ports development workflow   /Roadmap archive   /SCFB   /StatusReportSummary   /Update DRM generic code to Linux 3.8   /Update i915 GPU driver to Linux 3.8   /WITH_NEW_XORG  

Contents

  1. FreeBSD Graphics
    1. Overview
    2. Team
      1. Contact
    3. Developer info
    4. Hardware Support
      1. AMD / Radeon Graphics
      2. Intel Graphics
      3. NVidia / GeForce Graphics
    5. Ports
      1. Development Repository
    6. Kernel Drivers
      1. Contributing
      2. Video driver loaded at boot time
    7. Wayland
    8. OpenCL
    9. Reporting
      1. Issues / Bugs
      2. Test Results
    10. Known Issues

Overview

This page and all the linked articles presents the status and directions of all the low-level components making FreeBSD usable as a desktop.

This includes:

It does not include:

Team

Name

Responsible for

Baptiste Daroussin

Eitan Adler

Jean-Sébastien Pédron

Kernel video drivers

Jung-uk Kim

Koop Mast

X.Org-related ports, Mesa ports

Niclas Zeising

X.Org-related ports

Matthew Rezny

Contact

We also have a blog, which could be used to:

What have we been doing:

Developer info

Developer informations, including tasks in progress and similar, are available in the developer section.

Hardware Support

The tables below are not an exhaustive list of supported hardware. Hardware is only listed if and when it has been explicitly tested/confirmed by developers and/or users. Graphics hardware missing from these tables may or may not work. If you have tested hardware that is not on the list, please report the results.

About GPU codenames vs. marketing names

The entries below are misleading because they use the marketing names as the "key". This table needs to be rewritten using GPU codenames as the key.

If your GPU is not supported

If your GPU is not supported by FreeBSD, you can fallback on VESA (if your computer uses a BIOS) or SCFB (if your computer uses UEFI). For the latter case, you can find instructions to setup SCFB in a dedicated article.

AMD / Radeon Graphics

Manufacturer

Video card family

Status

Min. FreeBSD version

Comments

AMD

Radeon 7000

RV100

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon 7500

RV200

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon 9000

RV250

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon 9200

RV280

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon 9250

RV280

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon 9550

RV350

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon 9800

R350

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon X300

RV370

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon X600

RV370

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon X700

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon Xpress X1270

RS690

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon X1650

RV530

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 2400

RV610

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 2600

RV630

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 3200

RS780

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 3400

RV620

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 3450

RV620

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 3650

RV635

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 3870

RV670

Doesn't work

Any

See notes: 1 - See "KMS on Radeon HD 3870" on x11@

AMD

Radeon HD 4200

RS880

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Mobility Radeon HD 4200

RS880M

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 4350

RV710

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 4650

RV730

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 4670

RV730

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 4850/4870

RV770

Works

Any

See notes: 1

AMD

FirePro 3D V4800

Evergreen / Redwood

Works

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1

AMD

Mobility Radeon HD 5000

Madison / Redwood

Doesn't work

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1 - Hybrid platform

AMD

Radeon HD 5450

Evergreen / Cedar

Works

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 5750

Evergreen / Juniper

Works

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 5770

Evergreen / Juniper

Works

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1

AMD

Mobility Radeon HD 5870

Evergreen / Juniper

Works

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 6250

Northern Islands / Palm

Works

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 6310

Northern Islands / Palm

Works

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 6250

Northern Islands / Wrestler

Works

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 6290

Northern Islands / Wrestler

Works

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 6450

Northern Islands / Caicos

Works

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 6550

Sumo

Works

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 6800

Northern Islands / Barts

Works

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 6950

Northern Islands / Cayman

Works

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 6970

Northern Islands / Cayman

Works

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1

AMD

FirePro V4900

Northern Islands / Turks

Works

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 7340

Northern Islands / Wrestler

Works

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 7560D

Northern Islands / Cayman

Works

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 7660D

Northern Islands / Cayman

Works

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1

AMD

Radeon HD 7700

Southern Islands / Cape Verde

Partially supported

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1, 2 - Acceleration doesn't work yet.

AMD

Radeon HD 7800

Southern Islands / Pitcairn

Partially supported

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1, 2 - Acceleration doesn't work yet.

AMD

Radeon HD 7950

Southern Islands / Tahiti

Partially supported

9.3, 10.0

See notes: 1, 2 - Acceleration doesn't work yet.

AMD

Radeon HD 8000

Sea Islands

Not supported

AMD

Radeon HD Rx 200

Volcanic Islands

Not supported

Intel Graphics

Manufacturer

Video card family

Status

Min. FreeBSD version

Comments

Intel

GMA 950

Calistoga

Works

9.1

Intel

GMA 4500 / 4500MHD

Eaglelake / Cantiga

Works

9.1

Intel

i[357]-xxx processors

Ironlake

Works

9.1

Intel

i[357]-2xxx processors

Sandy Bridge

Works

9.1

Intel

i[357]-3xxx processors

Ivy Bridge

Works

9.1

Intel

Xeon E3 V2 processors

Ivy Bridge

Works

9.1

Intel

i[357]-4xxx processors

Haswell

Works

11.0

See Update i915 GPU driver to Linux 3.8 for historical background.

Intel

Xeon E3 V3 processors

Haswell

Works

11.0

See Update i915 GPU driver to Linux 3.8 for historical background.

Intel

Intel i915 HD Graphics

Broadwell

Works

11-STABLE

Available via drm-next-kmod port

Intel

Intel i915 HD Graphics

Skylake

Works

11-STABLE

Available via drm-next-kmod port

Intel

Intel i915 HD Graphics

Kabylake

Works

11-STABLE

Available via drm-next-kmod port

NVidia / GeForce Graphics

Manufacturer

Video card family

Status

Min. FreeBSD version

Comments

NVIDIA

GeForce 6600 GT

Works

Any

Using nvidia driver

NVIDIA

GeForce 8200

Works

Any

Using nvidia driver

NVIDIA

GeForce 8800 GTS

Works

Any

Using nv driver, only report on current

NVIDIA

GeForce 8800M GTS

Works

Any

Using nv driver

NVIDIA

GeForce GT 440

Works

Any

Using nvidia driver

NVIDIA

GeForce GT 520

Works

Any

Using nvidia driver

NVIDIA

GeForce GTX 550 Ti

Works

Any

Using nvidia driver

NVIDIA

GeForce GTX 560 Ti

Works

Any

Using nvidia driver

NVIDIA

GeForce GTX 650 Ti

Works

Any

Using nvidia driver

NVIDIA

GeForce GTX 960

Works

Any

Using nvidia driver

NVIDIA

GeForce GTX 1080

Works

Any

Using nvidia driver

NVIDIA

Quadro K1200

Works

Any

Using nvidia driver

You may refer to the following resources to determine your video card family:

Notes:

  1. Radeon video cards:
    • AGP cards not supported before FreeBSD 10-CURRENT
    • Features not yet working/implemented:
      • Hardware-assisted video decoding

      • Audio over HDMI or DisplayPort

      • Multiple cards sharing output connectors
      • Power management
  2. The GALLIUM backed Software renderer works.

Ports

Development Repository

The x11 team has used various external repositories over time. There is not currently an active external repository.

Kernel Drivers

In sync with Linux...

Component

Linux version

DRM

3.8

TTM

ff7c60c (between 3.8 and 3.9)

i915

3.8

Radeon

3.8

Contributing

We have a dedicated article to get people started with contributions to the kernel.

Video driver loaded at boot time

If you want to automatically load a video driver at boot time, we recommend to do it from /etc/rc.conf: 

kld_list="radeonkms"

Loading the driver from /boot/loader.conf is not recommended and may not even work. Loading i915kms like this is known to cause a hang early in boot with a black screen.

Wayland

Wayland has it own page.

OpenCL

OpenCL has it own page.

Reporting

Issues / Bugs

If encountering problems in either the kernel driver or the in-development ports, post the following information to the mailing list

Test Results

If everything works, let us know on the mailing list. Your information helps us confirm which hardware/software configurations work well.

Please include:

Known Issues

CategoryInactiveProject CategoryStale

GraphicsOld (last edited 2021-04-25T04:04:02+0000 by MarkLinimon)