AMD Radeon RX 480 On Linux

[ixxxo]

Michael, can you post some more details how you got AMDGPU PRO working with RX 480? I tried today on Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon (beta so far), but after driver 16.30 installed successfully, I am not able to render desktop environment properly (no text, no icons). Interestingly enough, Steam app and its pop-ups work flawlessly.

[bridgman]

Good to know. Still, I guess you missed or ignored my point: the current article's OpenCL section is broken/flawed.

I may have missed your original point as well (I didn't knowingly ignore it) - what do you think is broken/flawed about the current OpenCL testing other than the need for additional/different tests ?

[pszilard]

I have more OpenCL tests coming.

Good to know. Still, I guess you missed or ignored my point: the current article's OpenCL section is broken/flawed. Moreover, churning out benchmarks with text that repeats what the plots show is hardly "reporting", it's more akin to content mill activities.

I think the Linux community deserves _more_ quality over quantity. At least some in-depth stuff not just bar plots after bar plots often showing results of ill-conceived tests.

Don't get me wring, rhe technical work is appreciated, but very often I can learn as much (or more) from looking at the phoronix database alone as clicking through articles.

[pszilard]

A very useful OpenCL test that is immediately useful to many users would be bitcoin hash rate. I can't imagine it would be too hard to automate such a test in PTS.

I thought mining has been a net loss on GPUs for a while as soon as you factor in electricity costs. Has that changed?

[BrollyLSSJ]

I don't why people are suddenly worried about this. I remember seeing an old GTX960 review where it showed that the card also exceeded PCI power draw standards. I doubt many cards stay within spec. All of a sudden this turns into an issue.

The problem here is probably more that this card (RX460) is constantly using more than 75W on the PCIe socket, while some 960 and some 970 (mostly customs?) only had peaks of over 75W. Though it could maybe be a problem of the so called gaming motherboards (these with more bling bling for OC). Atleast that is, what I have read.

[Melcar]

I was very worried when I read the windows reviews, coz it seems that they haven't really improved the efficiency beyond what finfet brings to the table. But these linux results put me at slight ease. At least, in games and benchmarks where things are behaving as they should, the RX 480 seems to soar past the GTX 980 pretty easily. Sometimes, it's quite close to the 980Ti even. May be it's a sign that there is room for improvement on the side of Windows where the majority of the prospective buyers are? It's quite a good card for the price if looking at linux performance. The only issue that's bothering me even more than its performance is the fact that the card is drawing more power from the pcie bus. It's not really an issue AMD needs at this time.

I don't why people are suddenly worried about this. I remember seeing an old GTX960 review where it showed that the card also exceeded PCI power draw standards. I doubt many cards stay within spec. All of a sudden this turns into an issue.

[pheldens]

Michael, does the fan spin down to 0 rpm with normal desktop use?

[arunbupathy]

I was very worried when I read the windows reviews, coz it seems that they haven't really improved the efficiency beyond what finfet brings to the table. But these linux results put me at slight ease. At least, in games and benchmarks where things are behaving as they should, the RX 480 seems to soar past the GTX 980 pretty easily. Sometimes, it's quite close to the 980Ti even. May be it's a sign that there is room for improvement on the side of Windows where the majority of the prospective buyers are? It's quite a good card for the price if looking at linux performance. The only issue that's bothering me even more than its performance is the fact that the card is drawing more power from the pcie bus. It's not really an issue AMD needs at this time.

[Dedale]

Cheaper than in Europe.

[stiiixy]

Cheapest I've found thus far in Australia is AUD$370 for the 8GB version. Most are over 400.

I feel the Aussie tax being applied again. In layers. I'm tired of being called a millionaire (what ucking gamer's a millionaire and buying a 480!?)

=D

Yet again I need to import.