A Message From John Byrne Of AMD & A Survey

I had a lot of bad experiences with AMD already, but I like that attitude....
I will take the survey.... and I hope they can redeem themselves in the near future!

On Linux, the catalyst install is worse than the other alternative. It ranges from distros holding back xorg packages to keep the hobbling driver supported to actually having to do it yourself and run the .run files yourself.

A open source driver will never have this issue.

I took the survey despite not being an AMD user. I couldn't use my AMD Radeon R9 290X due to atrocious driver support, thus I cannot be counted as one.

gave it
5 stars for download (who can seriously fail at this)
4 stars for installation (it could be way easier, but that doesnt mean its not easy already)
2 stars for features (im afraid by that they mean an even more overloaded interface, and not actual abilitys of the driver)
1 star for stability (i put both my experience with bugs and poor performance in this)

wrote a nice little text about how poorly their binary drivers are for linux compared to nvidia and intel and how they should either full-heartedly support the developement of the opensource (radeon) driver or tremendously step up their proprietary (catalyst)

too little too late, i went to nvidia 2 months after i went linux. the difference was tremendous and i suspect it still is upon this day. i hope they step up there game on the linux driver, it will help future linux/AMD users, but also steammachines. for me personally, i will never go back to AMD

Similar to lave, I basically used it as a soapbox for the promoting free software radeon driver, since my Catalyst impressions are from awhile back now and may not be all that relevant. Still did my best for an honest star selection though.

Had to restrain myself from simply writing "the Catalyst driver is an utter pile of shit".

(Oh, GOL has a filter for "naughty words".)

btw look up the youtube comments so far.. every 2nd is a rant about their sad linux performance. either its you guys or something funny is going on :D

btw look up the youtube comments so far.. every 2nd is a rant about their sad linux performance. either its you guys or something funny is going on :D

It's a good sign. Hopefully with AMD getting the majority of responses from Linux users, something will click in its corporate head!

gave it
5 stars for download (who can seriously fail at this)
4 stars for installation (it could be way easier, but that doesnt mean its not easy already)

Well, 1 star for each of those from me. It's just wrong having to download and install a driver at all. It's wrong to even have to know about a driver.

Right now only Intel gets it right. Having used an Intel-graphics-only system besides an NVidia system for the past two years it is obvious that the NVidia system had a lot more problems which at times actually required me to boot from a rescue media and revert some updates in order to get the system to even boot again. No such probelems with Intel!

It is so sad that AMD does not just focus on the open driver. We all know that Valve loves open drivers. Together they could build the best possible Steam machine...

It is so sad that AMD does not just focus on the open driver. We all know that Valve loves open drivers. Together they could build the best possible Steam machine...

Does Valve really love open drivers?

Does Valve really love open drivers?

I wouldn't necessarily say that doesn't mean they don't prefer open drivers, they just know that people are going to use the best driver for the graphics cards that will be in their steam machine GAME "console". There will surely be AMD steam machines so they want to know they work right. It's my understanding that you run the open driver for AMD for gaming on linux and the blob if you're running Nvidia on linux.

I've been an AMD processor fanboy for as long as I can remember. The only intel cpu's I have had, have been in laptops. If I built it, it was/is running an AMD proc. For me their gpu's have never appealed to me. Yes, they tend to be cheaper than nvidia's offerings, but they normally produce more heat (heat = more power used, duh.) and usually perform "worse" than a comparable Nvidia. So you make up for the price in power bills and upgrading GPUs more often.

I know, I know, you can say the same thing about their processors as of late, and if they don't do something about that SOON, then I'll be forced to go the intel route for the first time ever when I decide to upgrade my mobo/cpu probably end of next year. The only reason I swapped my 1090t for an fx8350 was because it used the same socket and had an advantage when compiling large code projects (ie, Android), not because I thought it would help my gaming, which I don't think it did.

If AMD is watching, make better CPU's (NOT getting an APU for my workhorse, sorry) and bring down the HEAT output by ALOT on both CPUs and GPU's and maybe ill build an ALL AMD system one day. For now though, PLEASE get on the ball with your new CPU arch, you guys needed it "yesterday" and I don't wanna go intel next time.

Does Valve really love open drivers?

I wouldn't necessarily say that doesn't mean they don't prefer open drivers, they just know that people are going to use the best driver for the graphics cards that will be in their steam machine GAME "console". There will surely be AMD steam machines so they want to know they work right. It's my understanding that you run the open driver for AMD for gaming on linux and the blob if you're running Nvidia on linux.

Valve did this for AMD's proprietary driver, not its open source driver, hence my initial question. Your understanding is my understanding as well, and yet Valve is effectively pushing AMD's proprietary driver by doing this.

I have been an AMD CPU user as long as I've had a desktop. In 2007, I bought a Toshiba laptop with AMD/ATI CPU and graphics. One month later, that graphics chip (x1200) was declared "legacy" by AMD. To add insult to injury, Ubuntu 9.04 came with XOrg not working with the Catalyst drivers for that chip. The open-source "radeon" driver became the only one available. It has improved vastly since those days.

I was so burned up by the declaration of a chip I had just bought to be "legacy," I vowed to never buy an ATI card again.

My main problem with AMD CPUs are the power consumption numbers, and the accompanying heat. I have a desktop whose motherboard died, and I'm very seriously considering going Intel, whose graphics have hugely improved in the Haswell generation (and they weren't a slouch even in the Sandy Bridge generation, it must be noted). Power consumption is far, far less than AMD, and a four-core Intel i5 beats an eight-core AMD in most benchmarks. Yes, it costs more, but I'd like less heat in my case.

I used ATI/AMD many years ago (5+), my opinion wouldn't be much of help now :) It would be not good anyway.

Valve did this for AMD's proprietary driver, not its open source driver, hence my initial question. Your understanding is my understanding as well, and yet Valve is effectively pushing AMD's proprietary driver by doing this.

Yea I get it, But I still don't feel like they are PUSHING it, that's all I am saying. In the end, they want steam machines to "win". I want the same obviously. Anybody who is a linux gamer wants steam machines to win. They (valve) want SteamOS to work well on ANY driver you choose, so naturally at some point they are going to have to say "hey, we need to pay some attention to X driver" At that point they are looking at AMD's blob, next "week" it will be nvidia's blob they are cataloging bug reports for. As an Nvidia user there are PLENTY of issues to be addressed. When they are done with this they will go after the open source AMD or Nvidia bugs. Good luck to them with the nvidia OS driver lol. They are invested in it ALL working is what I am getting at.

In the "end" it will force all drivers no matter the OS or blob to be a better driver and produce the visuals we all want in games. Nobody wants to be last. So if it makes them prudunce better drivers then "problem solved". It's odd to say as a linux user, I love OSS and our platform, but I am going to use whatever graphics driver "works". If tomorrow the nouveau driver out perform the nvidia blobs then Ill switch to the OSS driver.

*EDIT
The win fanboys like to cry "it just works" with winblows. Linux needs to "just work" for it to really be a viable platform for anybody but us "tinkerers". Yea, you and I are ok with having to administer our systems. BUT People in general ARE dumb, they expect things to be handed to them and they reject things that are different. Windows and MacOS hold peoples hands... Most linux distros? not so much. It's sad, but it's true. We all love open source, we all love linux. The average "joe blow" doesn't know the difference. They just expect it to work. If linux is to become a viable alternative to winblows, it HAS to recognize this.. weather you and I like it ALL or not. Linux becoming more "user friendly" doesnt mean we lose the OS we love. There will always be "ubuntu" for the noobs and "Arch" for those of us who "know the deal".

I realised years ago that NVidia was much much better supported under Linux and I've stayed with them ever since. Sad to see things have only improved marginally.

The comments on that YouTube video are amazing...at least the 1-2 pages I read. This might actually have an effect..thanks for all the people writing in complaining, Linux users have spoken!

I'd have no issues running AMD cards if they were well supported...cheaper cards would be welcome.

Love that guy's accent, hope he makes top dog someday.

Anyway, downloading the driver is a 4, it's not in the Arch repos or it would be a 5, but it can only get in the Arch repos if it gets brought up to speed.
Ease of installing gets a 3, downgrading Xorg isn't always the easiest thing to do.
Stability gets a 4, I haven't had it crash yet, but I've heard of people who had, so that's a bit of a problem.
Features get a 3, I can do a lot with the control application, but no support for the latest Xorg is bad.

Dammit, I forgot to tell them to give Vi0L0 a monthly paycheck (Arch users running catalyst know and are grateful)

Love that guy's accent, hope he makes top dog someday.

Anyway, downloading the driver is a 4, it's not in the Arch repos or it would be a 5, but it can only get in the Arch repos if it gets brought up to speed.
Ease of installing gets a 3, downgrading Xorg isn't always the easiest thing to do.
Stability gets a 4, I haven't had it crash yet, but I've heard of people who had, so that's a bit of a problem.
Features get a 3, I can do a lot with the control application, but no support for the latest Xorg is bad.

Pretty close to what I rated.

Dammit, I forgot to tell them to give Vi0L0 a monthly paycheck (Arch users running catalyst know and are grateful)

^ this exactly. It's people like him that make Arch (AUR) so damned great though. Terrible pain in the ass keeping all the versions straight and watermark removal.