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Are The Open-Source Graphics Drivers Good Enough For Steam Linux Gaming?

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  • Are The Open-Source Graphics Drivers Good Enough For Steam Linux Gaming?

    Phoronix: Are The Open-Source Graphics Drivers Good Enough For Steam Linux Gaming?

    Over the past week on Phoronix have been several featured articles looking at the performance of SteamOS with the proprietary AMD/NVIDIA graphics drivers: 22-Way Comparison Of NVIDIA/AMD Graphics Cards On SteamOS, 4K AMD/NVIDIA High-End GPU Comparison On SteamOS, and Is SteamOS Any Faster Than Ubuntu 15.10 Linux? One of the frequent questions that have come up since then is how the open-source driver performance compares to that of the binary blobs on SteamOS, so here are some of those benchmarks.

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    I don't disagree exactly, some points you make are spot on, other points are influenced by your needs that are unique to you alone. I know for a fact that steam has more games that can run on the OSS drivers than you benched. I personally would like to see a delineated list of games that can run on the OSS drivers. That way people can actually make informed decisions about which games they should buy. We all know the OSS drivers aren't done yet so a list of games that currently work is far more valuable. Of course that list would be a floating target so a community effort would have to be made to keep it updated.

    Something like mesamatrix except a list of games supported instead of a list of GL extensions.
    Last edited by duby229; 29 October 2015, 12:52 PM.

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    • #3
      As a staunch user of the open-source driver, this is the benchmark suite that most interests me on Phoronix. Even though I knew the outcome before I read the article because I try AAA on my machine, it's nice to keep tabs on the viability of the FOSS drivers, even if it's to confirm their unsuitability for now.

      I hope that some day soon, the open-source driver becomes viable, even if it just through brute-force (e.g. after the Fury gets reclocking support). Even if there's a fairly unfavourable price/performance ratio, I'd consider dropping some cash on any card that could play 1080p/60 high settings on the open-source driver. Not because I'm some tin-foil hat Stallman-esque nutjob, but just because I like to see the progression of these things. It really interests me.

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      • #4
        If you want to play Portal 2 using open source Radeon drivers you need to run this script.

        Code:
         
         #!/bin/bash DIR=$HOME/.local/share/Steam/  echo "Removing libstd" find $DIR -iname "libstd*" -exec rm -rf {} \;  echo "Removing libgcc" find $DIR -iname "libgcc*" -exec rm -rf {} \;  echo "All Done"

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        • #5
          R9 270X + RadeonSI here, Steam games work really well for me. Bought an AMD card to be able to game using OSS drivers, never had a problem, never looked back.

          So... Are the Open-Source Graphics Drivers Good Enough For Steam Linux Gaming? Yes.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by duby229 View Post
            ...I don't disagree exactly, some points you make are spot on, other points are influenced by your needs that are unique to you alone. I know for a fact that steam has more games that can run on the OSS drivers than you benched....
            When Michael posts benchmarks of weaker stuff (e.g. Xonotic), the forum erupts. 'What's the point?' they cry, 'Why don't you benchmark AAA Steam games?' they holler. That's what Michael as delivered, and the first post is basically 'Maybe you should try some less demanding indie games?'.

            Ha ha, I supposed you're damned if you do and damned if you don't

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            • #7
              Of course yes, if you buy graphics cards with good support and games that are known to work on them. But that requires some amount of education.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by kaprikawn View Post
                When Michael posts benchmarks of weaker stuff (e.g. Xonotic), the forum erupts. 'What's the point?' they cry, 'Why don't you benchmark AAA Steam games?' they holler. That's what Michael as delivered, and the first post is basically 'Maybe you should try some less demanding indie games?'.

                Ha ha, I supposed you're damned if you do and damned if you don't
                I didn't say anything at all about indie games. Sorry to hurt your imagination. I do prefer to see AAA games benchmarked, and there are AAA games that work on the OSS drivers.

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                • #9
                  I know from my experience Borderlands 2 runs great on my 290 on radeonsi. Its by far my most played AAA title (Civ 5 is also big, but it doesn't care much about FPS so you could play it with anything over 20 fps really) and since Mesa 10.3ish I've been able to get 60+ fps playing it.

                  Looking forward to also getting the Pre-Sequel soonish.

                  One important takeaway is that most of the port games from third parties run like crap no matter what driver you are using relative to Windows, since the reworked renderers are often just direct line translations of DirectX and thus have no optimizations and take little advantage of OpenGL features. Source engine games are the gold standard, Unity is usually alright but suffers from a lack of optimization focus as well (on top of Unity implicitly being a bit slower due to its portability) and UE3 games are completely dependent on the port quality.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by kaprikawn View Post
                    When Michael posts benchmarks of weaker stuff (e.g. Xonotic), the forum erupts. 'What's the point?' they cry, 'Why don't you benchmark AAA Steam games?' they holler. That's what Michael as delivered, and the first post is basically 'Maybe you should try some less demanding indie games?'.

                    Ha ha, I supposed you're damned if you do and damned if you don't
                    Michael's articles have really increased in interrest since he benchmarks "modern" games.

                    Who care if Xonotic runs at 360 or 420fps really?
                    => duby229 and dungeon when the OSS is onpar with catalyst



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