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By Zayden R., August 12, 2026
Linux 7.2 will revert to the FIFO DRM scheduler due to performance regressions reported with the fair policy. Engineers should note the rollback as it impacts AMDGPU and other DRM drivers.
In a last-minute decision, the Linux 7.2 release is reverting to the FIFO Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) scheduler policy, stepping back from the fair policy introduced earlier. This change comes after a regression report highlighted significant performance issues, particularly affecting the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT. For engineers and developers working with AMDGPU and other DRM drivers, this rollback is crucial as it addresses unexpected performance degradation under the fair policy.
Tvrtko Ursulin of Igalia, who spearheaded the fair scheduler work for DRM, opted for this reversion after a user reported severe performance degradation. The report, submitted by Luke Wildhardt, detailed how the fair policy caused a dramatic drop in frame rates and system responsiveness during high GPU loads. Specifically, Wildhardt noted that the issue was reproducible with sustained GPU saturation, causing games like Project Silverfish to freeze or drop to 10 fps while the KDE Plasma Wayland session could lock up entirely.
The technical community eagerly awaited the benefits of the fair policy, designed to equitably distribute GPU resources among applications. However, the regression report, which surfaced just a week before the anticipated stable release of Linux 7.2, prompted Ursulin to prioritize system stability over new features. He introduced a set of 20 patches to revert the changes, ensuring that the Linux 7.2 release does not carry forward these performance hiccups.
This decision underscores the importance of rigorous testing and community feedback in the kernel development process. Engineers should prepare for this reversion by reviewing their systems' current configurations and testing any applications reliant on the DRM scheduler to ensure compatibility and performance. While the fair policy aimed to improve resource allocation, the FIFO policy's proven stability will provide a reliable fallback as developers work to address the identified issues.
As these patches make their way to the mainline Linux Git kernel tree, developers are reminded of the dynamic nature of open-source software development, where user feedback directly influences the evolution of the Linux kernel.
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