MEMORY DOMAINS(9)

💖 memory domains 🌸

okay bestie, welcome to memory domains(9) from the Kernel API Manual — this is the page where the AMDGPU memory domain names get their little moment in the spotlight. No cap, each one has a job. Here’s the whole lineup, and yes, we’re keeping every single one. 💅

• AMDGPU_GEM_DOMAIN_CPU — system memory that is not GPU accessible. Memory in this pool could be swapped out to disk if there is pressure. 🫶
• AMDGPU_GEM_DOMAIN_GTT — GPU accessible system memory, mapped into the GPU’s virtual address space via gart. Gart memory linearizes non-contiguous pages of system memory, and it allows GPU access to system memory in a linearized fashion. ✨
• AMDGPU_GEM_DOMAIN_VRAM — local video memory. For APUs, it is memory carved out by the BIOS. 🎀
• AMDGPU_GEM_DOMAIN_GDS — global on-chip data storage used to share data across shader threads. 💖
• AMDGPU_GEM_DOMAIN_GWS — global wave sync, used to synchronize the execution of all the waves on a device. ⭐
• AMDGPU_GEM_DOMAIN_OA — ordered append, used by 3D or Compute engines for appending data. 🔥
• AMDGPU_GEM_DOMAIN_DOORBELL — doorbell. It is an MMIO region for signalling user mode queues. 🎀

🔗 SEE ALSO 🔗

• Kernel file: ./include/uapi/drm/amdgpu_drm.h

🫶 source/version + date tea: this page’s footer points at ./include/uapi/drm and is dated October 2026 — so that’s memory domains(9), signed, sealed, and slayed. 💖