are AMD and nVidia ready for SteamOS launch? phoronix tested 22 video cards

[zMeul]

source: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=steamos-22-gpus&num=1

 

With Steam Machines set to begin shipping next month and SteamOS beginning to interest more gamers as an alternative to Windows for building a living room gaming PC, in this article I've carried out a twenty-two graphics card comparison with various NVIDIA GeForce and AMD Radeon GPUs while testing them on the Debian Linux-based SteamOS 2.0 "Brewmaster" operating system using a variety of Steam Linux games.

As it's been almost two years since running some SteamOS graphics benchmarks, it's certainly past due for running a new comparison with SteamOS in much better shape now for public appeal. I did a fresh install of SteamOS 2.0 Brewmaster on a test system (Core i7 5960X, Gigabyte X99, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 240GB OCZ SSD) and then proceeded to load the Phoronix Test Suite on it through the GNOME 3.14 based desktop environment that's hidden behind the default Big Picture Mode.

When pulling in some extra packages from the Debian Wheezy repository, it was possible to get the Phoronix Test Suite running fine on Brewmaster for offering automated benchmarks. In addition to looking at the raw performance results, the Phoronix Test Suite was simultaneously monitoring the GPU's core temperature as well (exposed via the respective driver interfaces) as the overall AC system power draw (via a USB-based WattsUp Power meter). With the power information, the overall system power consumption was recorded for each system + graphics card as well as the factored performance-per-Watt. As another metric, there's also performance-per-dollar benchmark results for the graphics cards tested that you can still easily purchase new; the prices used were obtained from Amazon.com in the US for the particular graphics card model tested and for the reference graphics cards tested their MSRP was used.

...

The NVIDIA graphics cards tested for this SteamOS comparison included many new and old GPUs. There's every current Maxwell GPU model, several Kepler GPUs, and even some older Fermi cards for those curious how their old systems will work on SteamOS with these Linux games.

- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 768MB

- eVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1024MB

- Zotac NVIDIA GeForce GT 610 1024MB

- MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 1024MB

- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2048MB

- eVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 1024MB

- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2048MB

- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2048MB

- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3072MB

- eVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 2048MB

- eVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 2048MB

- eVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4096MB

- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4096MB

- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6144MB

- NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN X 12288MB

...

So for the AMD side I was just left:

- Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6570 512MB

- Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6870 1024MB

- Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6950 2048MB

- XFX AMD Radeon HD 7950 3072MB

- XFX AMD Radeon R9 285 2048MB

- XFX AMD Radeon R9 290 4096MB

- Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 Fury 4096MB

now, the results

note: to be very clear, they tested only with proprietary drivers: Catalyst 15.9 and NVIDIA 352.30

 

 

---

the conclusion is this: AMD still has a lot of work when it comes to Linux drivers and looks like they are completely unprepared or outright ignoring SteamOS launch

how exactly things will turn out with Vulkan is still unknown, although intel made a pretty impressive demonstration: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/440149-intel-shows-glnext-vulkan-at-siggraph-2015/

in AMD's court, things are murky: especially with them cutting jobs from IT department: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/459883-more-bad-news-for-amd-theyll-cut-5-workforce/

as or right now, if you plan to buy or just build your own STEAM Machine running SteamOS, just stick with nVidia

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

Cool post

[don_svetlio]

What I find odd is a 680 being better than a Titan X.

[Bob Jim]

It's by Zmeul! Of course AMD does badly! But seriously 680 vs Titan X makes no sense, I wouldn't trust these too much.

[Nineshadow]

R9 Fury slower than a 460 in Bioshock Infinite.

God AMD, how could you even do that?

[Guest Kloaked]

as or right now, if you plan to buy or just build your own STEAM Machine running SteamOS, just stick with nVidia

 

Or just stick it out if you're red team. Pretty sure they'll work things out soon.

[don_svetlio]

It's by Zmeul! Of course AMD does badly! But seriously 680 vs Titan X makes no sense, I wouldn't trust these too much.

 

R9 Fury slower than a 460 in Bioshock Infinite.

God AMD, how could you even do that?

I remain skeptical - I don't recognize the source.

[Enderman]

What I find odd is a 680 being better than a Titan X.

It's by Zmeul! Of course AMD does badly! But seriously 680 vs Titan X makes no sense, I wouldn't trust these too much.

look at the error bars

 

 

R9 Fury slower than a 460 in Bioshock Infinite.

God AMD, how could you even do that?

drivers

 

and based on the extremely slow rate that AMD makes their driver optimizations and releases, they're going to be far behind for quite a while

[Raudi_]

If anyone ever knew just how utter trash AMD's drivers are in Linux this wouldn't surprise them one bit. But they have come a long way from were they once were.

[Guest Kloaked]

What I find odd is a 680 being better than a Titan X.

 

It's not beating it. Look at the game.

[Mattyd7829]

where are the other AMD cards? Fury X? 295x2? 300 series? seems like bollocks to me

[Godlygamer23]

What I find odd is a 680 being better than a Titan X.

Or the 7950 being better than the Fury.

[don_svetlio]

look at the error bars

and just fyi these are biased graphs

they dont start at 0

the difference is no where near as big as it seems

 

drivers

 

and based on the extremely slow rate that AMD makes their driver optimizations and releases, they're going to be far behind for quite a while

They've released what? 2 drivers this month? That's only half of what Nvidia release so it's not terrible per say.

[Notional]

Yay another anti AMD post from @zMeul.

 

The answer is YES, AMD is ready for SteamOS, and it works perfectly fine.

 

The real question is whether they are ready for OpenGL, becuase THAT is the issue here. OpenGL is a redundant obsolete steaming pile of crap. It works fairly well on NVidia sure, but that is because NVidia not only helps the devs program specifically for NVidia's implementation of OpenGL, but also themselves replaces entire shaders with their own proprietary NVidia shaders.

AMD on the other hand sticks to the actual standard, but seeing as that is completely broken, the result is there after.

 

When Vulkan (aka OpenGL next) launches, the picture will look very different, not only in Vulkan games, but also in Linux.

 

That being said, Linux is still a useless gaming OS, with less than 1% users on Steam's own platform. Fact of the matter is that there are more than 16 times more people on Windows 10 with DX12 kompatible hardware, than there are Steam Linux users.

[don_svetlio]

Or the 7950 being better than the Fury.

 

where are the other AMD cards? Fury X? 295x2? 300 series? seems like bollocks to me

 

It's not beating it. Look at the game.

It's on top of it. A 750 and Titan X being almost the same? yeaaaaahhhhhhh.

[Enderman]

They've released what? 2 drivers this month? That's only half of what Nvidia release so it's not terrible per say.

are you talking about beta drivers or actual full releases with optimizations and compatibility fixes

[Guest Kloaked]

It's on top of it. A 750 and Titan X being almost the same? yeaaaaahhhhhhh.

 

Like I said, look at the game.

 

Bioshock Infinite has a 120fps cap.

[Godlygamer23]

It's not beating it. Look at the game.

The 680 achieves 128.37FPS, while the Titan X achieves 128.14FPS in BioShock Infinite @ 1080p.

[QueenDemetria]

What I find odd is a 680 being better than a Titan X.

The drivers from both green and red team are all sorts of fucky right now, I would really take any linux benchmark with a grain of salt since official drivers from both sides are absolutely terrible.

[don_svetlio]

are you talking about beta drivers or actual full releases with optimizations and compatibility fixes

Beta and WHQL for AMD are the same - they just skip the process due to cost and time constraints.

[Guest Kloaked]

The 680 achieves 128.37FPS, while the Titan X achieves 128.14FPS in BioShock Infinite @ 1080p.

 

Bioshock Infinite has a 120fps cap.

[Enderman]

Beta and WHQL for AMD are the same - they just skip the process due to cost and time constraints.

cost and time constraints is why AMD linux drivers are a POS

[Troyanac]

Beign in the whole Linux game, let me tell you this. These tests are all obsolete until Vulkan gets mainstream and NVIDIA and AMD get their shit together with the drivers.

Vulkan > DirectX > OpenGL

Yes, NVIDIA has better drivers now, but AMD has started Vulkan development first.

Lets just pray it does not become Obsolete like Mantle.

If all this shit fails, there is still KVM and Windows VM's.


Developers dont hate Linux and dont want to make games for it, developers LOVE Linux.
Developers HATE OpenGL, as it is a steaming pile of dog turd.

[Godlygamer23]

Bioshock Infinite has a 120fps cap.

Is there a .ini file you can edit?

[don_svetlio]

cost and time constraints is why AMD linux drivers are a POS

Linux support is sub-par, can't argue with that.