Valve Will Release Steam Machines With Radeon GPUs

[AJSB]

Oh YEAH !!!
Can't wait to build my 1st mini-ITX with a Kaveri APU !!!
....and AsRock have already the right board with very nice specs !!!


I'm sure Valve will use the blob and not OSS driver....AMD have a bunch of months to get their s++t together...i bet that there's been also a good cooperation between AMD and Valve as for video drivers, the thing is that was "to far" behind Nvidia and so, these 300 prototypes are Nvidia-only.


This is also very good news to who want to buy/build (sub-)500 USD SteamBoxes with a very decent performance.

[Krysto]

Hopefully they'll take advantage of their Mantle API and HSA.

[brosis]

Looks like there will be no need for Mantle (on Non-Windows platforms): http://www.dsogaming.com/news/amd-ai...he-bottleneck/

If they expose Mantle-like shortcuts as OpenGL extensions, probability is high it will be only available in Catalyst. Damn.

I'm sure Valve will use the blob and not OSS driver....AMD have a bunch of months to get their s++t together...i bet that there's been also a good cooperation between AMD and Valve as for video drivers, the thing is that was "to far" behind Nvidia and so, these 300 prototypes are Nvidia-only.

You already have a blobicious fest with nvidia. Why happiness? They will more likely to put their s++t in opendriver within "bunch of months" than with catalyst.

[AJSB]

If they expose Mantle-like shortcuts as OpenGL extensions, probability is high it will be only available in Catalyst. Damn.


You already have a blobicious fest with nvidia. Why happiness? They will more likely to put their s++t in opendriver within "bunch of months" than with catalyst.

My happiness is not because of blob use...but because of confirmation of Steamboxes with AMD hardware is a target....i really like AMD hardware (at least APUs...never owned a video card from ATI) both for gaming performance, overall less power drain and affordable price solution.

My point about the use blobs is that they simply have to use (and improve) them.
There is simply no time to fully improve OSS drivers (even if we assume that there is not patents in way to do so ) till SB launch.

[theghost]

There will be a need for Mantle on Linux if Mantle actually catches on. People really don't want to port their engines to two different APIs. Mantle for Linux would make everyone's life easier. And besides, adding vendor extensions to your GL implementation isn't really a solution for anything.

Mantle has absolutely no advantage. It's an invention for the consoles (where AMD has the monopol atm) which is added with some Marketing bullshit (support from Battlefield Devs) to find a reason to use it on the desktop too. I really hope that no other company support the "open" Mantle API, because it's just another standard that nobody needs, especially on the Desktop side, where we have OpenGL as cross-plattform API already.

[squirrl]

Pass the Mantle on down the line

Until you try to load Ubuntu 14.04 or perhaps, just perhaps 16.04 and then you're stuck with the opensource driver which will quickly enlighten you that you can't play your Steam games anymore.

"Sorry your hardware isn't supported by the latest Catalyst"

) tootz

[intellivision]

Mantle has absolutely no advantage. It's an invention for the consoles (where AMD has the monopol atm) which is added with some Marketing bullshit (support from Battlefield Devs) to find a reason to use it on the desktop too. I really hope that no other company support the "open" Mantle API, because it's just another standard that nobody needs, especially on the Desktop side, where we have OpenGL as cross-plattform API already.

Have you seen OpenGL lately? Most convoluted standard I've ever seen.

[log0]

There will be a need for Mantle on Linux if Mantle actually catches on. People really don't want to port their engines to two different APIs. Mantle for Linux would make everyone's life easier. And besides, adding vendor extensions to your GL implementation isn't really a solution for anything.

Hmm, just in case you didn't know, Mantle is vendor specific and gpu architecture specific... so you will have to do the extra work anyways.

[borsook]

Until you try to load Ubuntu 14.04 or perhaps, just perhaps 16.04 and then you're stuck with the opensource driver which will quickly enlighten you that you can't play your Steam games anymore.

"Sorry your hardware isn't supported by the latest Catalyst"

) tootz

You do realize they have what they call Legacy driver? My radeon 3200, which is not supported by the new Catalyst drivers runs great on that.

[felipe]

Red Ring of the Dead

the ring of the dead on that steamboxes on the Ubuntu logo. No thanks, never more AMD/ATI on linux.