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

[F1esDgSdUTYpm0iy]

The GPU doesn't heat up much (very silent too) in Linux, while in Windows is like a plane ready to take off... the reference cooler of my 290x is quite bad in that.

That is so interesting because for me, my HD6870 behaves the exact opposite way -- I can't get its cooler to stay quiet in Linux, no matter which kernel version I use and across all versions of the OSS drivers while in Windows, it is perfectly fine functioning under load without spinning to 100%. Which is in part why I've resorted to executing most of my online activities on the secondary PC, which has no discrete GPU and as a result is substantially more silent. The alternate solution would be to switch back to Windows but that is an option I'm not willing to consider at this time.

[Kano]

I tried several games with mesa, nice ones are Killing Floor (Unreal 2.5 mod), all Source engine based (Goldsrc of course too). Then there are Unity ports which run, but may need a modified config file for the res or just do not have achievements like Larry Reloaded (I had to play the Win variant to get those). Unreal 3 engine games differ a bit but mainly they work (even Borderlands 2 is UE3 based). Metro Last Light (not Redux!) basically can run with Intel but crashes a lot, no real fun. I miss the Intel benchmarks in this article as these drivers power 20 % of all Steam installs and the most used card is Intel HD 4000 (Ivy Bridge).

[log0]

I tried Insurgency in my 290x (Arch Linux), it runs over 60 in some maps, but in others (the ones with big open spaces) it can drop to less than 20. This is with everything maxed out.

Borderlands 2 has the same problem, but it only drops to 35-40 when a lot of stuff is going on. But most of the time is locked at 60fps. Again, all graphical settings maxed out at 1080p.

I suppose Mesa has high-cost draw calls, and the CPU can't keep up. The GPU doesn't heat up much (very silent too) in Linux, while in Windows is like a plane ready to take off... the reference cooler of my 290x is quite bad in that.

Run GALLIUM_HUD ( http://lists.freedesktop.org/archive...ch/036586.html ). Make a screenshot of the fps drops.

[kir?]

The article seems like a joke: linux is not a valid platform to play games. Everything involving graphics have problems on linux. In the background the situation is not proposable while in the foreground do you want to even play with open source drivers? Yeah you're doing it right! Use amd too and go fast! XD Good luck!

[Passso]

The article seems like a joke: linux is not a valid platform to play games. Everything involving graphics have problems on linux. In the background the situation is not proposable while in the foreground do you want to even play with open source drivers? Yeah you're doing it right! Use amd too and go fast! XD Good luck!

WARNING : Troll detected! Please reinstall yourself.

[F1esDgSdUTYpm0iy]

The article seems like a joke: linux is not a valid platform to play games.

Whereas it's obvious you're just trolling, I would like to respond to this remark -- For this particular machine I am using right now, without discrete GPU, Windows is the invalid platform for games. I tried, it won't let me play them properly. Too much overhead from the OS. Switched to Linux and Wine and suddenly, I'm able to play D3, HOTS and other (semi-)modern titles without too much of a hassle. On the OSS drivers no less.

[haagch]

Michael,
I think specifically the benchmark mode in metro redux is not good. Can you record CPU and GPU usage for the Metro Redux benchmark with mesa? I think they will both be very low. As others have said, in the actual game it performs a lot better. Can you make a short playtest on one of the PCs (R9 290 for example) and see if the actual game has better CPU and GPU usage than the benchmark mode? Maybe a screenshot with GALLIUM_HUD. These should be the interesting values:
GALLIUM_HUD="fps,cpu,GPU-load,num-bytes-moved,buffer-wait-time,num-compilations"

[Michael]

Michael,
I think specifically the benchmark mode in metro redux is not good. Can you record CPU and GPU usage for the Metro Redux benchmark with mesa? I think they will both be very low. As others have said, in the actual game it performs a lot better. Can you make a short playtest on one of the PCs (R9 290 for example) and see if the actual game has better CPU and GPU usage than the benchmark mode? Maybe a screenshot with GALLIUM_HUD. These should be the interesting values:
GALLIUM_HUD="fps,cpu,GPU-load,num-bytes-moved,buffer-wait-time,num-compilations"

Not unless it can all be automated.... But likely after my Intel article today/tomorrow will stop these Steam tests for a while as not enough support has been generated for the amount of time invested in these articles.

[Guest]

Not unless it can all be automated....

The relevant source code is in mesa-11.0.4/src/gallium/auxiliary/hud. It would be possible to add file output there.

[duby229]

The relevant source code is in mesa-11.0.4/src/gallium/auxiliary/hud. It would be possible to add file output there.

That would be awesome. It would effectively mean that as long as a game has a benchmark mode any data the gallium provides could be part of the data collection. That sounds like a fantastic idea.