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

[AresKrieger]

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.

AMD's linux drivers have never been great so I don't expect much, but yes they won't be this bad.

[Guest Kloaked]

Is there an .ini file you can edit?

 

I know there's a command to remove it like usual with most games, but you know how games get when you have to do that kind of stuff. Weird stuff starts happening.

[Godlygamer23]

I know there's a command to remove it like usual with most games, but you know how games get when you have to do that kind of stuff. Weird stuff starts happening.

Then there's nothing that says they didn't remove the FPS cap to achieve higher results. They would've had to, or they're giving us guesses.

[jaggysnake57]

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.

Am I the only one who spots several cards hovering around the 120 130 fps mark? Maybe it's the game?

[Troyanac]

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

WHQL has nothing to do with SteamOS or Linux...its a Windows thing

[don_svetlio]

Am I the only one who spots several cards hovering around the 120 130 fps mark? Maybe it's the game?

I'm having a hard time believing a 750 Ti is performing better than a Fury. However shitty drivers might be.

[don_svetlio]

WHQL has nothing to do with SteamOS or Linux...its a Windows thing

I know, was answering his question.

[Guest Kloaked]

Then there's nothing that says they didn't remove the FPS cap to achieve higher results. They would've had to, or they're giving us guesses.

 

I dunno. I wasn't there for the guy's tests, I just know for that particular game there is a framerate cap.

 

Everything goes back to "normal" in the other titles.

 

Am I the only one who spots several cards hovering around the 120 130 fps mark? Maybe it's the game?

 

Yes.

[jaggysnake57]

I'm having a hard time believing a 750 Ti is performing better than a Fury. However shitty drivers might be.

Or the game has a cap and it's just a glitch or some shit that leads to false readings other games seam to fall in line

[Godlygamer23]

Off topic: Those poor cards resting on the glass table. That's not ESD.

[NAP51DMustang]

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

not like nvidia drivers are any better as evidenced by these charts. 750's, 970's, and other lower end cards competing with Titan X's (depending on game)? yeah

[Enderman]

not like nvidia drivers are any better as evidenced by these charts. 750's competing with Titans? yeah

I think something is bottlenecking everything at 120-130fps

 

you can see that in the benchmarks where the GPUs are below that, the new 900 series and titan X are clearly on top

 

but for some reason when they all reach 120+ fps its like a hard wall, probably to do with something other than the drivers

[Guest Kloaked]

I'm having a hard time believing a 750 Ti is performing better than a Fury. However shitty drivers might be.

 

If you look at the AMD scores in CS:GO, Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light, they are scaling like they should. Granted they can still perform a lot better, but they are indeed scaling like they should more or less.

 

Nvidia clearly has the better drivers, should this be true. That's the only explanation, if these charts are true. Nothing that can't be fixed, again, if these charts are true.

 

 

not like nvidia drivers are any better as evidenced by these charts. 750's, 970's, and other lower end cards competing with Titan X's (depending on game)? yeah

 

Nvidia's drivers are being bad? With how you're saying that, you're acting like Nvidia should nerf the performance of the lower tiered cards, which is retarded.

 

You should think about this for a minute.

[Mooshi]

Judging by those scores, I'll be sticking to Win10. In no sane universe should a 960 ever best an R9 Fury. 

[Guest Kloaked]

Judging by those scores, I'll be sticking to Win10. In no sane universe should a 960 ever best an R9 Fury. 

 

It'll be fixed, if those charts are even accurate.

[Darkman]

These results, are LITERALLY SCATTERED EVERYWHERE.

[don_svetlio]

It'll be fixed, if those charts are even accurate.

It's zMeul - I'd be surprised if one of those charts isn't "home-made".

[Mooshi]

It'll be fixed, if those charts are even accurate.

 

Even if chart is accurate, it says a lot about the driver priority on Linux. To all the Fury owners who are hyped about Steam OS, I feel bad.

[Godlygamer23]

It's zMeul - I'd be surprised if one of those charts isn't "home-made".

I'm pretty sure he didn't do anything to the charts.

[Guest Kloaked]

It's zMeul - I'd be surprised if one of those charts isn't "home-made".

 

They're all from the article. I went ahead and looked through it and I'm not seeing anything malicious thus far.

 

Also (1), I'm not saying Ryan Shrout (PCPer) is a perfect person, but he retweeted this on Twitter which is how zMeul probably found it - Ryan probably only shared it because he had similar findings at their own office, perhaps.

 

Also (2), it's obvious why zMeul even bothered to make this thread.

[don_svetlio]

I'm pretty sure he didn't do anything to the charts.

I was being sarcastic

[Egad]

Given the state of AMD's finances right now, I'm not exactly convinced we'll see them invest serious amounts in improving their Linux drivers.  The're bleeding cash right now and the reality is a very small segment of the gaming market is going to run out and simply abandon Windows for Linux/SteamOS.  It's cool that ~1,500 Steam games work in Linux, but they all work in Windows (aside from maybe some weird OS X exclusives?  Can you buy pre Halo Bungie games on Steam maybe?)

 

As others have said it's not surprising that AMD blows here given their general Linux support.  Hopefully AMD steps it up, but realistically it is in their best interest to wait and see if nVidia and Valve can make SteamOS a success.  If it's gaining market share they can go out and put in the time and money to make their Arctic Islands offerings work well.  

[Guest Kloaked]

Even if chart is accurate, it says a lot about the driver priority on Linux. To all the Fury owners who are hyped about Steam OS, I feel bad.

 

It's not like every gamer has moved to SteamOS. Only reason Nvidia has such good drivers is because they can spare the resources for it.

 

Once more people move over to SteamOS (even regardless if they do) I expect AMD to fix a majority of it.

 

Again, assuming these charts are true or accurate at all.

[Guest Kloaked]

Given the state of AMD's finances right now, I'm not exactly convinced we'll see them invest serious amounts in improving their Linux drivers.  The're bleeding cash right now and the reality is a very small segment of the gaming market is going to run out and simply abandon Linux.  It's cool that ~1,500 Steam games work in Linux, but they all work in Windows (aside from maybe some weird OS X exclusives?  Can you buy pre Halo Bungie games on Steam maybe?)

 

As others have said it's not surprising that AMD blows here given their general Linux support.  Hopefully AMD steps it up, but realistically it is in their best interest to wait and see if nVidia and Valve can make SteamOS a success.  If it's gaining market share they can go out and put in the time and money to make their Arctic Islands offerings work well.  

 

But I thought AMD was all about that open-sauce

 

Jab at all of the trolling way back when the AMD train was choochoo'ing here, about AMD being better than Nvidia because of XYZ and apparently being all for open-source.

[MageTank]

This thread leaves me feeling a little conflicted. I understand the purpose SteamOS will serve, but i question its importance in the grand scheme of things (and in doing so, the importance of this information as a whole). 

 

SteamOS is going to be great for the builders on a budget, that just want a gaming PC (it would save them money, not having to purchase a windows OS) but given that users have always been able to do that with pretty much all Linux Distro's (And given MS's very relaxed stance on pirated windows 10 installations) it makes me question if it will matter at all. Will Valve have the star power to make a big enough impact on this? I personally do not think so, given the bare-bones nature of the SteamOS, and the console-esque approach they are trying to take. Remember, console gamers have the plug and play mentality. They do not want to have to do extra things to make things work. The OS lacks streaming services (something these new "next gen" consoles prioritized over the last few years) which might pose a problem for the less tech savvy people to want to adopt this OS. 

 

Bringing up my point on windows 10, and how many pirated copies were activated as easily as legit ones, it makes me question if buying an OS even matters anymore, even on the windows side of things. Everyone that already had a windows 7 or higher PC got free upgrades to windows 10. Anyone that pirates those same versions are eligible for the same upgrade too. Hell, if you want, you can get windows 10 for free regardless as long as you don't mind being a guinea pig. So the OS cost argument can't be easily made these days.

 

I guess the point i am making is, does it matter if X company sucks at linux, when pretty much anyone can have windows readily available to them at any given time? What's the difference between using SteamOS, or just running Steam Big Picture Mode on Windows (Something Steam did with their steam boxes already)? 

 

In my opinion, SteamOS will probably only matter to people already using linux, and have been trying to game on linux. By that point, those people should already know how bad the drivers are, and this should not surprise them.