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This is fun, Ars Technica a rather big general tech news website has done a review of Gigabyte's AMD powered mini gaming box and give it a demerit for its poor Linux support.
The unit uses a dual-graphics setup (so you can instantly see where this is going), but sadly even the one they tried that had a single graphics chip would not output any signal when SteamOS was installed on it. SteamOS still has ways to go.
Luckily Ubuntu 14.04 worked fine on it, they noted the open-source drivers picked up both graphics card, but only used the low powered one and the catalyst drivers only used the high powered one, not ideal by any measure and it makes having both a bit pointless.
They sum it up rather well I think:
The sad state of things, when you go to AMD that is. They also then note under "The bad" bullet point section that "Relatively poor Linux support" which is fun to see poor Linux support getting downvotes from major sites now.
As I have learnt personally over the years AMD just don't have good drivers. I was exclusively an AMD graphics card buyer for their prices for years before I got utterly fed-up of constant issues with their drivers, I am now on Nvidia and couldn't be happier with the drivers performance.
I also was an AMD Processor fan for multiple years on end until Intel constantly outperformed them, I am also now happily an Intel CPU buyer.
If you really are that strapped for cash yes AMD is there, but if you ever want performance Intel & Nvidia are just the way to go for gaming and I can't see that ever changing. AMD have decided to side-step driver issues pushing their new Mantle API which may not even get Linux support, shocking. It's hard to see why people are still fans of AMD, while yes they provide open source help with documents and a bit of coding it isn't enough to remain competitive.
Serious gamers won't buy on the prospect of one day having decent open source GPU drivers, they don't care. They want to buy something that will work without having to play catch-up with open source drivers. Like myself for example, there is no way I could rely on open source drivers I need to have all the latest games work and not be bogged down in driver politics.
Take Windows converts as another example, do you think they care about FOSS philosophies? Probably not, they want good performance and something that works right away for the latest games using the latest OpenGL. So, if they where testing out SteamOS on this box and someone told them about the FOSS drivers playing catch-up they wouldn't care, they would want hardware and drivers that work.
It seems an all-round poor box anyway from their testing from RAM slots dying to poor CPU performance.
Read the full 3 page spread here. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
The unit uses a dual-graphics setup (so you can instantly see where this is going), but sadly even the one they tried that had a single graphics chip would not output any signal when SteamOS was installed on it. SteamOS still has ways to go.
Luckily Ubuntu 14.04 worked fine on it, they noted the open-source drivers picked up both graphics card, but only used the low powered one and the catalyst drivers only used the high powered one, not ideal by any measure and it makes having both a bit pointless.
They sum it up rather well I think:
QuoteAt this point we can't really recommend the Brix Gaming as a Linux box, both because of lackluster driver support and because the box's strengths (good GPU performance) don't really complement Linux's strengths. For all of Valve's ambitions, Linux isn't an OS most people are going to want to game on, because there just aren't that many high-end games there. Assuming SteamOS does gain some momentum and starts to attract developers, Gigabyte and others will have had a generation or two to make better, faster hardware. In short, as much as we wanted it to be, this is not the Steam Machine you're looking for.
The sad state of things, when you go to AMD that is. They also then note under "The bad" bullet point section that "Relatively poor Linux support" which is fun to see poor Linux support getting downvotes from major sites now.
As I have learnt personally over the years AMD just don't have good drivers. I was exclusively an AMD graphics card buyer for their prices for years before I got utterly fed-up of constant issues with their drivers, I am now on Nvidia and couldn't be happier with the drivers performance.
I also was an AMD Processor fan for multiple years on end until Intel constantly outperformed them, I am also now happily an Intel CPU buyer.
If you really are that strapped for cash yes AMD is there, but if you ever want performance Intel & Nvidia are just the way to go for gaming and I can't see that ever changing. AMD have decided to side-step driver issues pushing their new Mantle API which may not even get Linux support, shocking. It's hard to see why people are still fans of AMD, while yes they provide open source help with documents and a bit of coding it isn't enough to remain competitive.
Serious gamers won't buy on the prospect of one day having decent open source GPU drivers, they don't care. They want to buy something that will work without having to play catch-up with open source drivers. Like myself for example, there is no way I could rely on open source drivers I need to have all the latest games work and not be bogged down in driver politics.
Take Windows converts as another example, do you think they care about FOSS philosophies? Probably not, they want good performance and something that works right away for the latest games using the latest OpenGL. So, if they where testing out SteamOS on this box and someone told them about the FOSS drivers playing catch-up they wouldn't care, they would want hardware and drivers that work.
It seems an all-round poor box anyway from their testing from RAM slots dying to poor CPU performance.
Read the full 3 page spread here. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Interesting and good to see that Linux is taken into consideration when reviewing hardware.
However, it seems rather unprofessional for the author of this article to express his personal opinion and satisfaction or lack thereof with a particular brand, which serves no objective purpose other than reinforcing his own buying decisions.
There are many users out there and some are rather happy with the drivers. I've used both brands and was satisfied with both to varying degree but I'd never state my personal and completely subjective opinion in an article that supposedly reports about something. I'd write an article about my opinion to avoid facts (from what is reported on) being mixed with me subjective opinion which I might see reinforced by what is reported on.
However, it seems rather unprofessional for the author of this article to express his personal opinion and satisfaction or lack thereof with a particular brand, which serves no objective purpose other than reinforcing his own buying decisions.
There are many users out there and some are rather happy with the drivers. I've used both brands and was satisfied with both to varying degree but I'd never state my personal and completely subjective opinion in an article that supposedly reports about something. I'd write an article about my opinion to avoid facts (from what is reported on) being mixed with me subjective opinion which I might see reinforced by what is reported on.
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I actually found the article quite objective and putting Linux under a good light. But I read only the section about Linux so maybe I missed his personal opinion.
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Yeah sure it's unprofessional to have my opinion and thoughts in an editorial, good one.
Of course it is going to have it otherwise it would be a copy and paste of an ars article telling you to go there and how pointless that would be.
And of bloody course i'm going to back up my own buying decision, when the opposite is what happens with this bit of hardware - the poor support. My opinion and thoughts where entirely relevant to the matter at hand.
Of course it is going to have it otherwise it would be a copy and paste of an ars article telling you to go there and how pointless that would be.
And of bloody course i'm going to back up my own buying decision, when the opposite is what happens with this bit of hardware - the poor support. My opinion and thoughts where entirely relevant to the matter at hand.
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oh... Liam personal opinion, I thought the article on arstechnica! I expect to read Liam's opinion on GoL so I didn't even thought that it could have been a problem, I guess I agree with mirv and I see this more like an "opinion column" than "news".
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The desire to use FOSS drivers goes beyond political/philosophical, try to report a kernel bug in a tainted kernel, you can't and the reasons are technical. In fact, I don't think open source is more political/philosophical than closed source, that way of thinking is a manipulation to make the former look worse in today's unprincipled society.
I think the AMD CPUs have good value for the money, compared to Intel they are slow for single-threaded loads, fast for multi-threaded. I have an FX8350 CPU, cheaper than Intel, good enough for games and better multi-threaded performance. For most current games, multi-threaded performance isn't important but that may be changing soon with the new engines versions optimized for the new game consoles.
Read everything here as if it was editorials and you'll be fine. I understand you since I find these articles poorly reasoned for editorials, and too subjective (distracting from the main point) for news.
I think the AMD CPUs have good value for the money, compared to Intel they are slow for single-threaded loads, fast for multi-threaded. I have an FX8350 CPU, cheaper than Intel, good enough for games and better multi-threaded performance. For most current games, multi-threaded performance isn't important but that may be changing soon with the new engines versions optimized for the new game consoles.
Quoting: sherlockHowever, it seems rather unprofessional for the author of this article to express his personal opinion and satisfaction or lack thereof with a particular brand, which serves no objective purpose other than reinforcing his own buying decisions.
Read everything here as if it was editorials and you'll be fine. I understand you since I find these articles poorly reasoned for editorials, and too subjective (distracting from the main point) for news.
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Quoting: fedsooh... Liam personal opinion, I thought the article on arstechnica! I expect to read Liam's opinion on GoL so I didn't even thought that it could have been a problem, I guess I agree with mirv and I see this more like an "opinion column" than "news".
AMD fanboy detected.
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I have SteamOS installed just fine on my gigabyte brix pro.
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Quoting: AnonymousQuoting: fedsooh... Liam personal opinion, I thought the article on arstechnica! I expect to read Liam's opinion on GoL so I didn't even thought that it could have been a problem, I guess I agree with mirv and I see this more like an "opinion column" than "news".AMD fanboy detected.
lol, almost, I'm a Linux fanboy in ethernal conflict when talking about GPUs: Intel good FOSS drivers but behind Windows drivers, AMD usable FOSS drivers and acceptable proprietary drivers, Nvidia great proprietary drivers but no decent FOSS drivers...
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I still don't know where I stand with AMD. I love having a good FOSS driver that is quickly gaining features and preformance, and is actually included with the kernel but AMD themselves need to do more, catalyst is a dead end.
However my AMD processor is still good after 5-6 years, and Intel give me no incentive to shell out my piles of cash.
However my AMD processor is still good after 5-6 years, and Intel give me no incentive to shell out my piles of cash.
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Quoting: Half-ShotI still don't know where I stand with AMD. I love having a good FOSS driver that is quickly gaining features and preformance, and is actually included with the kernel but AMD themselves need to do more, catalyst is a dead end.
However my AMD processor is still good after 5-6 years, and Intel give me no incentive to shell out my piles of cash.
Catalyst may be a dead end in the long run, but it has served a short-term purpose for some of us. If AMD were able to get good FOSS drivers released with the hardware, I wouldn't bother with catalyst. As it is now, it takes a while for the free drivers to get good, and catalyst is the stop-gap that makes me willing to buy a new radeon card and game with it during the couple years that the free drivers take to become decent.
AMD driver support is definitely worse in the short term but a better long-term solution than nVidia. I've had to deal with old nVidia cards for work before, fighting with both legacy and reverse-engineered drivers, and don't want to mess with that on my own time. In contrast, I just gave my previous gaming machine to a family member, and it is at the point where catalyst was no longer needed for the fresh Mint install. With Intel still not being an option for gaming, I am grateful to have AMD as a choice that is "good enough" for the short term and is even better for the long term.
Speaking of Intel, when my current i7 was brand new last year, I gave a try at gaming with the onboard graphics and it still just wasn't working out (without even trying anything with unusually high graphics demands). Since Intel is the one with piles of cash (not AMD as others pointed out), I wonder if they will ever bother to invest enough to make on-board GPUs competitive with mid-range video cards.
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