The venerable Phoronix has reported that SteamOS has been updated to include a preview driver from AMD to fix issues and hopefully lay the ground work for a more stable driver. Apparently this driver isn't available anywhere else.
It fixes poor game performance and makes the return to desktop mode actually work, you will still get poor performance when the Steam overlay is active and screen tearing, still at least people on AMD may actually be able to use SteamOS now.
This is one of the single best reasons SteamOS will make Linux better on the whole, companies are getting their acts together to fix up their Linux support and things can only get better from here.
So maybe by the time the Steam Machines come out with AMD graphics in them, they may actually work.
What other companies do you know of that need to fix up their Linux support? Let us know in the comments! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
It fixes poor game performance and makes the return to desktop mode actually work, you will still get poor performance when the Steam overlay is active and screen tearing, still at least people on AMD may actually be able to use SteamOS now.
This is one of the single best reasons SteamOS will make Linux better on the whole, companies are getting their acts together to fix up their Linux support and things can only get better from here.
So maybe by the time the Steam Machines come out with AMD graphics in them, they may actually work.
What other companies do you know of that need to fix up their Linux support? Let us know in the comments! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Well I hope that it will get better. My performance on 7870 Is rubbish ! Only unreal engine games are working nice(for the most part). I'm about to upgrade my PC soon, so AMD better get its drivers fixed or its gonna be Intel + nVida box!
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AMD for sure, as far I can tell. But what I know, their drivers for windows are only litlle less rubbish than on Linux. They should release official open source drivers and world wold be better place.
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Firstly let me state I hope AMD does put more effort into the Linux driver but... I have a 7870 as well, I am not sure as to what you mean by rubbish but it plays counterstrike source @ 300 (capped) fps. Other than the micro stuttering (mostly in the beginning of levels) it destroys games like L4D2 @ ~200 with all the bells and whistles. MLL's tutorial level is terrible (just absolute crap) but the actual game play past that it's very playable even with the slider all the way up... Windows probably has better performance , I wouldn't know... Out of curiosity what driver version are you using?
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Metallinatus Jan 8, 2014
QuoteThis is one of the single best reasons SteamOS will make Linux better on the whole, companies are getting their acts together to fix up their Linux support and things can only get better from here.This^
Is the one thing I've been saying for months now.... SteamOS ain't gonna make everybody just drop Windows, but the simple fact it will bring us support like never before is enough to deserve praise from the Linux community!
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QuoteThis is one of the single best reasons SteamOS will make Linux better on the whole, companies are getting their acts together to fix up their Linux support and things can only get better from here.It would be true if AMD released the fixes to everyone.
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I just bought a r9 290X, I hope performance will increase so I can try/use SteamOS regularly.
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FutureSuture Jan 8, 2014
This is for the fglrx driver and not the radeon driver, correct? I intend to switch to AMD in the near future because of the ever improving radeon driver i.e. AMD's open source driver, something that Nvidia does not have.
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Quoting: Quote from FutureSutureThis is for the fglrx driver and not the radeon driver, correct? I intend to switch to AMD in the near future because of the ever improving radeon driver i.e. AMD's open source driver, something that Nvidia does not have.
What? Nvidia has an open source driver that is better than AMD's right now in terms of performance. Hell, Nvidia is even HELPING make the OS driver better.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7367/nvidia-pledges-help-on-open-source-linux-gpu-driver-development
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NOUVEAU IS NOT BETTER THAN RADEON IN TERMS OF PERFORMANCE! NOT EVEN CLOSE!
R600g now has full power management, support for VDPAU and HDMI, improving 3D performance and OpenGL compliance, and broad support for most compliant graphics cards in-kernel. RadeonSI is also nearing a state comparable to R600g, which should hopefully speed up the process of supporting new hardware in the future, while R300g already has been pushed to a such a state that it would be difficult to improve upon. Nouveau can not boast anywhere near that broad range of features and support, despite years of hard work in the dark while Nvidia looked on.
Furthermore, while Nvidia's recent moves are laudable and may help change things, AMD has been supporting the development of the free radeon drivers since 2007, and not just by releasing documentation, but by also hiring dedicated graphics engineers to work on the drivers in order to ensure proper hardware enablement and to help spearhead the development of new features.
The only vendor that can claim better support for the their free software drivers is Intel's OSTC. Saying anything else is just pure FUD.
R600g now has full power management, support for VDPAU and HDMI, improving 3D performance and OpenGL compliance, and broad support for most compliant graphics cards in-kernel. RadeonSI is also nearing a state comparable to R600g, which should hopefully speed up the process of supporting new hardware in the future, while R300g already has been pushed to a such a state that it would be difficult to improve upon. Nouveau can not boast anywhere near that broad range of features and support, despite years of hard work in the dark while Nvidia looked on.
Furthermore, while Nvidia's recent moves are laudable and may help change things, AMD has been supporting the development of the free radeon drivers since 2007, and not just by releasing documentation, but by also hiring dedicated graphics engineers to work on the drivers in order to ensure proper hardware enablement and to help spearhead the development of new features.
The only vendor that can claim better support for the their free software drivers is Intel's OSTC. Saying anything else is just pure FUD.
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