https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=79696
--- Comment #11 from Alex Deucher agd5f@yahoo.com --- (In reply to comment #10)
(In reply to comment #9)
the X server won't be able to actually draw anything anymore. Would that really be an improvement?
I don't know, that's your call to make.
Other drivers like Intel's are capable of recovering from GPU hangs (sometimes?) by resetting the hardware or whatnot. I wasn't sure whether Radeon does or not.
Radeon attempts to reset the hw as well. It's not always successful.