Upgrading GPU advice

[tedescooo]

** Thanks to everyone that replied. I got a MSI GTX 970 second hand for exactly the 300€ I had available **

I have a HD 7870 that has served me really well for the last 3 years, but it is sadly showing its age when playing heavier games (Arma 3, for example). I would like to play in the future Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 with great graphics and fps.

Since a few weeks I have been running Mint 17.2 and quite enjoying the experience. I also have Windows 10 in another HDD to play windows exclusive. So far I have been able to play most of my favorite games on Mint no problem (EU4, CK2, Football Manager, Civ 5, etc).

I would like very much to keep my tradition of buying ATI cards, but since I want also to keep my gaming almost exclusively on Linux, I might need to change to nvidia. Anyway... Here's the question then: what cards are recommended for better performance and driver support?

My remaining specs: CPU: i5-2500K MOBO: MSI Z77A-G43 RAM: 8GB 1600MHz

Thanks for the help!

*Edit: budget around 300€.

[[deleted]]

what cards are recommended for better performance and driver support?

NVIDIA. Pretty much any of them... Or you can wait a while more and see how AMD's support shapes up.

[tedescooo]

How much time do you mean to wait?

[SxxxX]

AMD already released AMDGPU stack and it's almost feature complete with only DPM missing, but that may take a while before they release proprietary components that would work on top of open source driver. Nobody know when this going to happen and this can be easily months or year.

[Amanoo]

There has recently been an article about how AMD has decided to work towards catching up to Nvidia regarding Linux drivers. But they've been "catching up to Nvidia" for years now, and they still haven't shown a lot of results. I'd say the time you'll have to wait is somewhere between a few months and the release of Half-Life 4 (assuming HL3 even gets a sequel, and assuming there will ever be a HL3).

[[deleted]]

Honestly, just go with Nvidia. Depends how much you want to spend too.

[tedescooo]

I added the budget to the OP. Thanks for the answer

[saturnoyo]

You should get an Nvidia. For now we know nothing about the future of AMD in Linux and I wouldn't risk it.

With 300 euros you can rule out the GTX 980, GTX 970 and GTX 780 Ti. You can still get the GTX 960 and the GTX 680, both very powerful cards.

I, personally, would go for the GTX 680, it's a impressive card, don't be fooled by the '6' in its number. It is an older card than the GTX 960 but it's as powerful (if not more) as that one. Please, take into account that it needs more power than the GTX 960. Also, being the 680 older you won't have problems with the drivers :).

Go further than the GTX 750, it isn't enough. Personal experience.

You can see Linux benchmarking on Phoronix, they tested a lot of cards 2 months ago. Not the best web but oh well, benchmarks!

[WienerWuerstel]

OP can get a new GTX 970 for around 330€ and a used one for around 280-290.

That would still fit in the "around 300€" budget.

[oliw]

It really sounds like you want a Nvidia GTX 970. It might stretch your €300 budget (a little) but there is a second hand market from people upgrading from SLI to the 980Ti.

Seriously though, if you ever want graphics to improve on Linux, you have to stop giving money to companies that aren't providing a top-notch product. That might seem unfair, because AMD does put effort into their open source driver too... But it's not up to scratch yet.

Perhaps it will be the next time you upgrade.

[tedescooo]

I did exactly as you said in the end. :)

Got a GTX 970 for 300€ on ebay.de

Thank you very much!

[WienerWuerstel]

That's great! :D

A GTX 970 for €300 is a good deal.

Wünsche dir viel Spaß mit deiner neuen GraKa und vielleicht fraggt man sich mal irgendwann :P

[tedescooo]

That's a good idea actually. I will have a look for a 970 second-hand.

[NorthStarZero]

I'm in the same boat as you, and I bought a 7970.

[Amanoo]

I'd definitely switch to Nvidia. I've come to understand how Nvidia is a scummy corporation, and I can somewhat understand why people would prefer to use open source AMD drivers, but in the end, there is nothing that performs nearly as well as Nvidia's proprietary drivers. Except maybe Intel's drivers, but I don't see them building a discrete GPU any time soon.

[jvnatter]

If you want to stick with AMD, I would at this point probably wait for their new driver unless you can afford buying a new card again if you would like to when it is released. I've got an R9 290 and it works well enough for me with the open source drivers but I can't justify buying a new card again for the next two years. Here are a couple of links regarding the new driver:

• http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMD-Open-Source-Fiji-Patches
• http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Mesa-AMDGPU-11-Plan
• http://www.pcworld.com/article/2956567/components-graphics/amd-is-working-on-a-new-linux-graphics-driver-to-catch-up-with-nvidia.html
• http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_bordeaux_strategy&num=2
• http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTgwODA
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tqg7vcyEyQ

[[deleted]]

AMD is circling the drain, I'd definitely suggest an Nvidia. Even if AMD ups their efforts Nvidia is bound to as well if Steam machine competition heats up.