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Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
Wonder how many people are gonna switch from Intel to AMD after the IME stuff...
AMD usage is growing. Check trends.
Also, Vega launch was quite bad. Poor availability, delayed custom models, crazy prices and excessive power consumption. In short, AMD weren't ready. Things can get better in 2018 with Vega refresh. I wanted to get Vega, but with such monsters requiring 3 8-pin power connectors (750 W) and at that price, I'm not buying Vega until next iteration.
AMD have their own analogous feature. I've read somewhere they now let it to be disabled, but I'm not sure if it's completely disabled or just hidden. Needs more research.
Last edited by Shmerl on 26 December 2017 at 2:06 pm UTC
Easy to explain because more titles run on nvidia than amd (because some titles have nvidia optimizations, etc)
And other things case in global situation amd still dont offer same features than nvidia:
-In software: driver GUI, power limit features, dont depend lastest llvm, kernel (llvm and lastest kernel could be problematic in debian and more problematic in ubuntu based distros*)
-In hardware: better performance/tdp)
*Important because debian (SteamOS)/ubuntu based distros are official supported distributions
Widely supported in native and non native (wine ports in steam case topware interactive titles), intel and amd gpus are not supported or broken shaders dont fix, observer door and others
Wayland still too inmature, many problems: input, xwayland, compatibility, etc
Maybe when wayland stay polish could be relevant but for now dont matter because most apps runs with X
^_^
Last edited by mrdeathjr on 26 December 2017 at 3:29 pm UTC
Last month I sold my old 970 and got a Sapp 580. As Arch Linux usually update kernel sooner than NVIDIA I was needed to wait 2 or 3 days so the new driver would not fck Xorg's config.
So I just installed Ubuntu Server on my Gaming PC. Arch/Gentoo still my daily drivers on my x260!
I managed to get my hands on a reference Sapphire Vega 56, and that has 2 power connectors. The card itself draws from 300W to just shy of 400W under absolute maximum loads, according to various benchmarks I have seen. This is a lot, but not as insane as many people make it sound. Also it will use way way less under moderate loads.
I am very happy about the performance, and the quality of the open-source drivers. I put it into Thermaltake Core V1 ITX chassis, where it has its own air intake, and I am seeing temperatures from around 35°C at idle to around 65°C under load. The fan is audible under load, but not what I would call loud.
I think it is a great graphics card, and good technology, and was totally worth it for me.
Pricing and availability is total bullshit though. The launch was bad, and the current situation is even worse. My Vega 56 was 430€, but now they go for around 660€ and are constantly out of stock. This is the price of a GTX 1080 which is not a good deal no matter how you twist it. Assuming you can get one at all. This will be their downfall if nothing changes.
Though to be fair, the Opteron system that I had worked great for many years.
Yeah, I'm quite satisfied with Mesa and my current RX 480, but getting Vega could simply give games performance boost. I don't like reference models because of noise, that's why I prefer custom ones like Sapphire which put an effort into making them silent. But good to see that there are actually custom cooling solutions that can mitigate that even for reference cards.
Vega refresh should come out in the first half of 2018, so it's not a very long wait. It should decrease TDP significantly from what I've heard, and pricing should also improve. So I'll just wait until then.
Last edited by Shmerl on 26 December 2017 at 4:42 pm UTC
That's a non issue, since it's mostly caused by Mesa accelerated development in the recent few years when a lot more efforts were poured into it. Mesa is close to catching up on all major points, so development will slow down, and this distro disparity won't be so problematic in the future. Besides, gamers know to use latest Mesa and rolling distros if they care about best drivers (or know how to use latest Mesa independently from the system one).
Driver gap with Nvidia is mostly closed now, and Mesa is already competitive. Nvidia doesn't have any major advantage in this anymore.
Totally opposite in my experience. Nvidia doesn't really care about something like Wine, while Mesa developers actually help with related bugs. AMD is clearly the best option when Wine is concerned.
Last edited by Shmerl on 26 December 2017 at 4:50 pm UTC
Because it works most of the time and performs better than AMD.