{"id":52224,"date":"2026-10-19T09:14:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T09:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/?p=52224"},"modified":"2026-10-19T09:14:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T09:14:18","slug":"linux-kernel-7-3-released-with-better-gaming-on-gpus-with-limited-vram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/2026\/10\/linux-kernel-7-3-released-with-better-gaming-on-gpus-with-limited-vram\/","title":{"rendered":"Linux Kernel 7.3 Released with Better Gaming on GPUs with Limited vRAM"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Linus Torvalds announced<\/a> the release of Linux Kernel 7.3 on Sunday afternoon, October 18.<\/p>\n

The new kernel release added many new hardware support, improved gaming performance for GPUs with limited VRAM, and introduced numerous other improvements.<\/p>\n

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What’s New in Kernel 7.3<\/h3>\n

Kernel 7.3 comes with many new and improved processors support. It now supports Intel Starfire SoCs, and identifies AMD’s upcoming low-power CPU cores.<\/p>\n

For Apple, it added initial support for Apple M3 Pro, Max, Ultra, but not yet GPU. And, it optimized the power management for M1 Pro \/ Max \/ Ultra SoCs.<\/p>\n

The Kernel as well adds initial enablement for IBM’s upcoming POWER12 processors, and supports new SoCs, such as Samsung Exynos 1580, Canaan K210, Sophgo SG2000, Qualcomm Shikra, and Altera Agilex72 using Cortex-A720 cores.<\/p>\n

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Image by Heiko from Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

On the RISC-V side, it added the Smcsrind, Sscsrind, Smcntrpmf, Ssccfg, Smcdeleg, Zicclsm, Ziccamoa, Ziccif, Ziccrse, Za64rs, and Ssqosid extensions support, so the kernel can now recognize additional CPU capabilities for performance counters, memory access, cache bandwidth monitoring, and more.<\/p>\n

Linux 7.3 also introduced initial improvements to video RAM (VRAM) management, led by Valve engineer Natalie Vock, which improves the gaming performance on GPUs with limited VRAM, especially 8GB vRAM.<\/p>\n

It as well added DRM format modifier support for older AMD Radeon GPUs (from GFX6 to GFX9), improving compatibility between graphics APIs and Wayland compositors.<\/p>\n

The AMDGPU driver supports the GPU’s graphics block reset without resetting the entire GPU. So that it can now recovery from hangs on on Kaveri and Kabini GPUs without system reboot, and, recover Hawaii and Bonaire GPUs without crashing the entire graphical session.<\/p>\n

And for NVIDIA, the open-source nouveau kernel driver now supports H.264 hardware decoding on NVIDIA Turing (RTX 20 series) GPUs through Vulkan Video API, with support provided by the Mesa NVK driver.<\/p>\n

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The hardware monitoring subsystem has been updated with numerous new devices support.<\/p>\n

Lenovo’s Yogafan driver now supports monitoring the Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9, XiaoXin Pro 13ARE 2020, IdeaPad 3 15ALC6, Legion Pro 7 16AFR10H, Yoga Pro 7 14IAH10, Yoga 7 16ARP8, and Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9 systems.<\/p>\n

The EC sensor monitoring driver now supports the ROG STRIX Z390-E GAMING, ProArt Z690-CREATOR WIFI, ROG STRIX X870E-E GAMING WIFI7 R2, ROG CROSSHAIR X870E HERO, and ROG Maximus Z790 Hero motherboards.<\/p>\n

And, the asus_rog_ryujin driver now supports the ROG Ryujin III liquid cooling product.<\/p>\n

Other changes include:<\/p>\n