In the code base utilized to produce Mesa 25.0, a new layer called amdgpu_virtio has been accepted. This layer allows guest systems to utilize the OpenGL and Vulkan drivers Radeonsi, Radeonsi_drv_video, and RADV, which are provided by the host. The access is facilitated through virtio, a mechanism that ensures high performance 3D acceleration in a virtual machine. Currently, this driver can only be utilized in conjunction with Qemu+KVM.
It has been reported that the performance of AMDGPU_Virtio surpasses that of previously developed drivers like VIRGL and Venus in accessing Vulkan and OpenGL from guest systems. When subjected to tests like Unigine Heaven and Superposition, the performance in guest systems reached around 99% of the performance observed when running the tests directly on the host machine.
One of the notable advantages of this new approach is the simplification of deployment. The guest system utilizes the same drivers as when operating without virtualization, with the only difference being the utilization of an additional layer based on virtio instead of direct access to LIBDRM (AMDGPU).