Windows 11 Gaming on AMD BC-250?! | Nagi Driver vs Linux

Summary

The video tests Nagi, an experimental, community-developed Windows graphics driver for the AMD BC-250. The board has lacked a complete AMD Windows graphics stack, although it can run games under Linux.

How Nagi works

• Nagi is not an official AMD driver or a modified version of Adrenalin. It is source-available experimental software with a noncommercial license, and it is not Microsoft-certified.
• It adapts existing Linux graphics technology to Windows’ WDDM driver architecture:
  • DirectX 11 uses an adapted DXVK engine.
  • DirectX 12 uses VKD3D-Proton.
  • These use a hosted version of Mesa RADV; Vulkan applications also have a RADV route.
  • Nagi’s kernel driver, bc250kmd.sys, connects the stack to the GPU through Windows WDDM.
• Games run directly on Windows—not Linux in a virtual machine or Proton as a game-running environment. The challenge is integrating familiar graphics components with Windows-specific driver interfaces, memory management, scheduling, and display handling.

Installation and current support

The demonstrated installation involves installing Windows 11 on the BC-250, downloading the setup program from the project’s GitHub release, and installing the driver and firmware. The installer enables Windows test-signing mode, so the narrator recommends using a separate test installation. Nagi Control App can be used to check driver and GPU settings.

The project has demonstrated desktop acceleration, DirectX 11 and 12, Vulkan, and some ray-tracing cases. However, support for an API does not guarantee that every game using it will work: some games launch, while others fail or crash. Documented limitations include OpenGL, synchronization, and GPU hang recovery.

Performance tests and impressions

The narrator’s approximate results show Nagi substantially behind Linux on the tested BC-250:

• Unigine Superposition: About 3,000 points with Nagi versus 5,000 on Linux—roughly 40% lower.
• FurMark: Slightly under 5,000 versus about 8,000—more than 37% lower.
• FurMark Vulkan at 1080p: Roughly 90 FPS versus 140 FPS—about 36% fewer frames.

These are the narrator’s own results, not official benchmarks, and the video does not attribute the entire performance gap to one driver component. A few games launched and sometimes performed reasonably, but the narrator observed unusual stuttering and texture issues. GPU clock and compute-unit controls are available, though their behavior under load—and CPU overclocking and boost behavior—remain uncertain.

Overall assessment: Nagi is a significant early achievement that brings real Windows GPU acceleration to the BC-250, but compatibility, stability, and performance still need work. The narrator recommends sticking with Linux for now.

Reviews, guides, and demonstrations

• Installation demonstration: A sped-up walkthrough of setting up Nagi on Windows 11.
• Performance review: Tests in Unigine Superposition and FurMark, including Vulkan at 1080p.
• Compatibility testing: The narrator reports launching a few games and describes stuttering and texture problems.

Main speakers and sources

• Main speaker: The video’s narrator, presenting the installation and test results.
• Project source: D-Ogi, developer of Nagi; the project’s GitHub repository and documentation are referenced.