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[Rant]: RX 5700... a frustrating experience
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Shmerl Feb 16, 2020
Quoting: TuxeeI know. However, whoever is confronted with the question "how to game on Linux" will inevitably have to decide which distro to use.

My recommendation for gamers would be a rolling distro, or any periodic release based one which keeps kernel and Mesa up to date out of the box. So not Ubuntu.

Last edited by Shmerl on 16 February 2020 at 5:55 pm UTC
Tuxee Feb 16, 2020
Quoting: Shmerl
Quoting: TuxeeI know. However, whoever is confronted with the question "how to game on Linux" will inevitably have to decide which distro to use.

My recommendation for gamers would be a rolling distro, or any periodic release based one which keeps kernel and Mesa up to date out of the box. So not Ubuntu.

Ubuntu keeps kernel and Mesa "periodical" up to date. An 18.04 is now at kernel 5.3 (as was 19.10) and on Mesa 19.2 (which again is the same as 19.10). Yes, it's not bleeding edge and Ubuntu 20.04 will stick to kernel 5.4 - otherwise they'd get blasted for NOT using an LTS kernel. Apart from that you can alwaays install a mainline kernel.
Anyway, I do have several options at hand:

  • Use a rolling release distro - not good. I work as a web developer and I prefer my local setup to somehow resemble my server setup (and according to the stats two thirds of the patrons here use a non-rolling distro)

  • Use a rolling release distro beside my "distro for work" - what for? In this case I could just use Windows as my "gaming distro"

  • Keep the current setup as long as possible - feasible for the time being

  • Throw out the AMD card and get an NVidia again - why not? Considering how much time I've already spent on this topic these extra 350 Euros are a steal. Plus: I get properly working CUDA. And in the case something doesn't work as expected, I have the gratification to know who is to blame.


As noted above: It seems again, that not AMD is to blame but "the distribution" or "the user" (who can't pick the proper distro).
Pangaea Feb 16, 2020
Ubuntu and Mint are the most popular distros, however, and we should probably deal with the reality. And if we are to hope for a development in which more people switch to Linux, it will likely be to those distros, or other "stable" releases. Not bleeding edge stuff that can break any moment.

I saw the video this article linked above is based upon (or the other way around), and now even read a good lot of the comments in the comment section (it's not the usual madhouse, surprisingly). It's discouraging reading. I feel like in a minority here, but I keep repeating it nevertheless: not everybody are as comfortable with command line, config files and limitless tinkering as many on this domain. We just want to get hardware and software, and have the bloody thing work. That is precisely why I use Linux Mint. It simply works out of the box with minimum fuzz. Wouldn't know what to do to get all this talked about stuff working anyway, like self-compiled patches from github or one of the oh so many bug trackers. This is out of reach for probably 90%+ of people, and goes right back to the typical comment about Linux (we've heard it for years, tinker-tinker-tinker, only for nerds).

I'm very much a potential AMD customer, but all this stuff makes me very wary to invest. It's not a small amount of money, and the last thing I want is for the new computer to work worse than the one I currently have. It's such a darn shame too. The hardware seems to be really good, but for the n-th time the software/driver side is letting AMD down, and letting their customers down. When retailers interviewed say the return rate for AMD GPUs is 5 times higher than for Nvidia, something is seriously fucking wrong. It's not something that can easily be blamed on user error.

Yes, most of those numbers will be Windows users, but it's pretty clear it applies to Linux too, since we're still talking about "next kernel will solve it".

At this point it seems wise to postpone purchasing if you can, and go for Nvidia if you can't.
Shmerl Feb 16, 2020
Quoting: TuxeeApart from that you can alwaays install a mainline kernel.

You can always add some repo and install something, sure. But we were talking about out of the box experience, right? (At least you were complaining about that)? And as far as I can tell, Ubuntu / Mint do a poor a job at keeping gaming related stack up to date out of the box, unless you configure things explicitly.

Quoting: TuxeeThrow out the AMD card and get an NVidia again - why not?

Garbage blob experience. AMD might be behind in timely support (so downside - you need to wait until drivers stabilize), but they are light years ahead in support in general. I.e. they support all Linux use cases, not "what we sanctioned" that Nvidia do.

I wouldn't take blob vs AMD's delayed support. No way.

Last edited by Shmerl on 16 February 2020 at 7:59 pm UTC
sub Feb 17, 2020
Seriously, I bought a Sapphire 5700 XT Pulse running on an regularly updated Arch installation (+ Dual Boot Windows 10) and so far everything runs flawless with amazing performance.

I really wonder what's wrong with you system. :/
Shmerl Feb 17, 2020
Quoting: subSeriously, I bought a Sapphire 5700 XT Pulse running on an regularly updated Arch installation (+ Dual Boot Windows 10) and so far everything runs flawless with amazing performance.

I really wonder what's wrong with you system. :/

Rolling distro is the key. That's simply the best option for up to date hardware support.

Last edited by Shmerl on 17 February 2020 at 8:24 am UTC
Tuxee Feb 17, 2020
Quoting: subSeriously, I bought a Sapphire 5700 XT Pulse running on an regularly updated Arch installation (+ Dual Boot Windows 10) and so far everything runs flawless with amazing performance.

I really wonder what's wrong with you system. :/

Well, since the setup runs ok with Kernel 5.3 and the Kisak Mesa PPA it is hardly a hardware issue. My (or the) issue is - how to put that? - the overall air of "expect regressions in the future".

Quoting: ShmerlRolling distro is the key. That's simply the best option for up to date hardware support.

Erm... So Kernel 5.3 was ok, 5.4 total disaster (so sad), 5.5 nice again... Am I supposed to see the benefit of a rolling release here? The "always the newest kernel" doesn't sound like a bullet-proof recipe here.
To sum it up: It boils down to "rolling release" or "no AMD GPU". I already stated that a rolling release distro is a far from optimal solution for me. At the very same time I'm told, that NVidia is pure evil. I'm sure that Windows fans would gloat over such exchanges...
Shmerl Feb 17, 2020
5.3 was bad, 5.4 was semi-usable, 5.5 was mostly OK. 5.6 is stable. So I've seen quite gradual progression here. Rolling distro nails this.

Last edited by Shmerl on 17 February 2020 at 9:03 am UTC
TobyGornow Feb 17, 2020
Quoting: TuxeeErm... So Kernel 5.3 was ok, 5.4 total disaster (so sad), 5.5 nice again...

Already asked this a month ago or so but i'll post it again, did you or did you not upgrade, along with the Kernel, the firmware that came with Mint ? Because those are utterly outdated and navi 10 firmware have been updated a couple of time.

I'm running Mint 19.2 and everything is good / usable since 5.3-rcx (as far as I remember ok ) and updating to each release candidates since then.

Edit : https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/log/?qt=grep&q=navi10

Last edited by TobyGornow on 17 February 2020 at 9:40 am UTC
Shmerl Feb 17, 2020
I update firmware regularly, as soon as upstream gets it.
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