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AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT Enables CUDA Workloads on Windows via ZLUDA and ROCm

A new reproducible stack lets developers run CUDA‑targeted Windows applications on AMD GPUs using ZLUDA and the AMD HIP/ROCm ecosystem. The project, released by Speedstu, validates the Radeon RX 9060 XT (gfx1200) with ZLUDA v6‑preview.69, HIP SDK 6.4, and LibTorch 2.3.0+cu118. A 2.2‑million‑parameter PPO network completed a full forward/inference cycle, learning, and optimizer step on the AMD…

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Key points

  • ZLUDA v6‑preview.69 + HIP SDK 6.4 lets CUDA apps run on AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT (gfx1200) in Windows
  • LibTorch 2.3.0+cu118 and a 2.2‑M‑parameter PPO network validated on the stack, achieving 65,536 timesteps
  • Upstream path is only 3 % slower than a custom overlay, achieving ~13,300 steps/s in benchmark

Performance tests show the public upstream path reaches a median of 13,278 steps per second, only 3.03 % slower than a custom overlay, making the upstream build the default. The stack supports core CUDA libraries such as cuBLAS, cuSPARSE, and cuFFT, but does not yet include cuDNN or MIOpen, limiting convolution‑heavy workloads.

The repository includes scripts for installation, staging, diagnostics, and GPU scanning, and it is MIT‑licensed. Users are encouraged to report compatibility results for other AMD GPUs, which are currently unverified.

The story so far

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Full story from github.com · via Hacker News primary source Open source ↗

CUDA for AMD on Windows

github.com · 13 September 2026

WORKING REPRODUCIBLE STACK IS NOW UPLOADED.

Run CUDA-targeted Windows applications on AMD GPUs through ZLUDA + ROCm/HIP.

A reproducible Windows CUDA compatibility setup built around ZLUDA + AMD HIP/ROCm. It is intended for CUDA-facing compute applications, including workloads that use CUDA-enabled LibTorch.

Important

Validated hardware is currently AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT (gfx1200) only. Other AMD GPUs are candidates, not guaranteed working devices. If you test another card, please open a GPU compatibility report, whether it works or fails.

The public, upstream-only path has been tested without any private/recovered DLLs:

  • ZLUDA v6-preview.69 from the official ZLUDA release
  • AMD HIP SDK 6.4
  • LibTorch 2.3.0 + cu118
  • RX 9060 XT / gfx1200
  • nvcuda , cuBLAS, cuBLASLt, cuSPARSE and cuFFT all passcuda_check
  • a real 2,216,347-parameter PPO network completed forward/inference, PPO learning and optimizer work on the CUDA-facing device
  • one clean validation iteration completed 65,536 timesteps using the runtime produced by this repository

That integration test used the same CUDA-facing LibTorch training workload that originally motivated this project. See docs/VALIDATION.md.

This does not mean every CUDA program or AI model works. CUDA API/library coverage is workload-dependent.

CUDA-targeted Windows application
              |
            ZLUDA
              |
 cuBLAS / cuSPARSE / cuFFT compatibility
              |
 rocBLAS / hipBLASLt / rocSPARSE / HIP
              |
           AMD GPU

Install a current AMD GPU driver and the AMD HIP SDK for Windows including HIP Libraries.

The validated reference uses HIP SDK 6.4. Newer versions may work but should be treated as unverified until reported.

AMD Windows HIP SDK guide: https://rocm.docs.amd.com/projects/install-on-windows/en/docs-6.4.2/index.html

git clone https://github.com/Speedstu/CUDA-for-AMD-Windows.git
cd CUDA-for-AMD-Windows
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\scripts\install.ps1

install.ps1 will:

  1. detect the AMD GPU and native gfxXXXX target;
  2. verify the AMD driver/HIP SDK and required math libraries;
  3. download the pinned official ZLUDA Windows build;
  4. download LibTorch 2.3.0+cu118 (about 2.66 GB);
  5. verify the downloaded SHA-256 hashes;
  6. generate .runtime\runtime-config.json and.runtime\gpu-report.json ;
  7. run ZLUDA's cuda_check.exe against the installed AMD stack.

If you do not need LibTorch:

.\scripts\install.ps1 -SkipLibTorch``.\scripts\run-zluda.ps1 -Program C:\path\to\app.exe The launcher stages the required ZLUDA compatibility DLLs beside the target application and sets the HIP/ROCm runtime paths for that run.

You can also stage without launching:

`.\scripts\stage-runtime.ps1 -TargetDir C:\path\to\your-app```` .\scripts\doctor.ps1 .\scripts\gpu-scan.ps1 .\scripts\test-runtime.ps1

The GPU scanner records the model, `gfx` architecture, driver and HIP information. It does not intentionally collect usernames, tokens or user files.

Example on the validated machine:

AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT -> gfx1200 -> RDNA4 -> validated-reference

The scanner recognizes other Windows HIP architecture families and marks them as **unverified candidates** rather than claiming support. Detection is not proof that a workload runs.

AMD's current Windows hardware table: https://rocm.docs.amd.com/projects/install-on-windows/en/latest/reference/system-requirements.html

Current upstream runtime check:

The stable Windows HIP SDK does not ship the full ROCm AI-library stack such as MIOpen, so convolution-heavy software that requires cuDNN can need a newer/nightly HIP stack or additional work. Dense/GEMM-heavy LibTorch training does not necessarily require cuDNN; the validated PPO workload completed without it.

A controlled 2026-09-13 A/B ran **10 iterations per runtime** on the same RX 9060 XT PPO workload. After discarding the first iteration of each trial as warmup, the public upstream path reached **13,278 median overall SPS** versus **12,876** for the recovered custom overlay. In this workload the custom overlay was about **3.03% slower**, so upstream remains the default.

Historical tuned runs used a different training configuration and reached roughly **70k–109k overall steps/s**. See `docs/BENCHMARKS.md` for methodology and raw data.

The original development environment also experimented with a custom cuBLAS/cuBLASLt/HIP overlay. It is **not required** for the validated public path and, based on the controlled A/B above, is not currently a performance win for the reference PPO workload.

The recovered DLLs remain fingerprinted in `manifests/recovered-artifacts.sha256`. They are not published as binary blobs because the original custom wrapper source/provenance is incomplete and the recovered HIP runtime contains third-party AMD binaries. See `docs/CUSTOM_OVERLAY.md`.

Please publish an issue. Failed tests are useful too.

.\scripts\gpu-scan.ps1 -OutputPath .\gpu-report.json .\scripts\test-runtime.ps1

Then open a GPU compatibility report and include the application, result and first useful error/output.

scripts/ install, diagnostics, scanner, staging and launcher manifests/ pinned versions, hashes and GPU architecture metadata docs/ validation, architecture, benchmarks and troubleshooting examples/ integration/reference snippets .runtime/ generated dependencies and reports; ignored by Git local-artifacts/ local archival files; ignored by Git

- Only RX 9060 XT / `gfx1200` is currently validated by this project.
- ZLUDA is not a complete CUDA implementation.
- Windows exposes only a subset of the full ROCm ecosystem.
- cuDNN/MIOpen is not available in the validated stable HIP SDK path.
- NCCL, TensorRT, unsupported PTX behavior and some custom CUDA extensions may fail.
- `ZLUDA_CC=8.6` is a CUDA-facing compatibility value, not the AMD GPU architecture.

Project-owned scripts and documentation are MIT licensed. ZLUDA, AMD ROCm/HIP, NVIDIA CUDA components and PyTorch/LibTorch retain their own upstream licenses. See `THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md`.

This text was published by github.com . It is reproduced here with attribution so you can read it in full; the rights remain with the publisher. Read it at the source ↗

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