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Phoronix: AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz - Is It Worth It On Linux?
In its battle against NVIDIA's Kepler, yesterday AMD released the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz graphics card. Here's some thoughts from a Linux perspective...
http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTEyNTM
I can't wait.Quote:
The story will change once Steam for Linux is released with various Source Engine titles, but you're still weeks away from seeing any beta at least.
I was actually thinking of getting an AMD 7970 instead of a GTX 680 due to the recent benchmarks posted here, but now I'm not so sure.
Can any of you offer any advice? I'm going to use the card for mostly gaming, likely playing games through Wine (seeing that the only demanding native Linux game seems to be Oil Rush) and playing video (through HDMI to my TV).
Would there really be much difference between the two cards? And which would be most future proof in regards to Wayland?
I would go for GTX 670. Maybe not winning every benchmark but fast enough and games work with wine and you can use newer kernels (currently fglrx max is 3.3) and xservers (fgrlx does not run with debian 64 bit xserver 1.12).
You're probably right. I just can't shake the feeling that the 2GB RAM is going to bite me in a year or two (or three), depending on when ID Software puts out their next game ;) Hence the GTX 680.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kano
Which is rather pointless, given that most 7970 models (with quieter, more efficient coolers) already surpass the 1GHz clock speed. Even the ones that don't can be easily OC'd to 1GHz+.Quote:
...yesterday AMD released the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz graphics card.
The lower-end cards that have "GHz editions" I can somewhat understand, but a 7970 edition seems extremely pointless to me.
Performance should be about the same.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cybolic
I'd probably recommend NVidia in your case, because WINE support is generally still better, and VDPAU is definitely better.
Both cards will gain Wayland support eventually, and it will almost certainly come in this order: 1. 7970 OSS driver, 2. NVidia binary driver, 3. 7970 fglrx driver.
They are identical, with the 680 having a very slight edge at 1920x1200 and low/no antiassailing, at 2560x1600 and/or high AA they are even or the 7970 edges it out depending on if the title was sponsored by Nvidia or not. In ether case replace the cooling with something beefier and give it an OC, you won't be likely to damage the GPU unless you start boosting the voltage, so you're only concern would be how to deal with the heat without adding enough high performance(read as loud)fans to get your comp airborne, since the reference design cooler can get quite loud when it decides to rev high.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cybolic
As for future proofing, both are currently far more powerful then you'd need with any game availible natively via Gameolith or Desura need, but personally I'd go with an AMD part due to their commitment to OSS graphics drivers. Though currently Nvidia cards have better support in Wine due to all the years of the only real option being Nvidia hardware, but as we've seen that is starting to change now that more devs are picking up AMD GPUs.
Well you can play rage with wine + nvidia, but had issues with fglrx + hd 5670. i would definitely not buy amd hardware for linux, no and never. Especially not a highend card, maybe a 20€ one in case i dont have got onboard vga and search something cheap...
I'm convinced. GTX 680 4GB it'll be; especially since I won't have to fiddle with OC (I don't trust myself with that). Maybe I'll give AMD a new chance in 3-5 years.
Thanks Kano, smitty3268 and Kivada for the advice.