R9-290X for $550US... Metro Last Light I'm ready!

[DanglingPointer]

Nobody is saying that the AMD drivers are perfect, but at least you can go to the constantly improving open source driver if something doesn't work. With nVidia, you have to stick to the binary blob which is also not perfect. Buy whatever card you want, but stop spreading FUD if you didn't use any of the AMD cards/drivers recently.

I totally agree!

I've got a 5870 right now and it works ok with the post-release-updates non-beta FGLRX drivers and plays all the source engine games at max settings on 1080p. So far the games which have struggled with it are the newer engine ones like both Wargames (European Escalation and Airland Battle).

Running the Phoronix Unigine suite it only struggles with Heaven (5870 is bad with heavy tessalation) but runs decently for all the others (Sanctuary, Tropics, and Valley).

And that is with an old 2009 AMD Cypress chip, it is the fastest cypress chip there is. I'm just looking at doing the same thing with either Nvidia or AMD; that is to get the fastest gpu chip and use it for 4-5yrs like I've done with the 5870.

Non of the above is on windows mate, they're all on Ubuntu.

AMD propriety drivers aren't as bad as they used to be, I agree though they're not as good and up to date as the Nvidia drivers; but the paradigm shift to Linux open source drivers is happening as we speak for AMD; wherein they are paying developers to update the open source ones to eventually get up to OpenGL 4.x standard. If I'm not mistaken they are trying to get OpenGL 3.x ironed out right now. When that passes beta/alpha and if I still have the 5870 then I would have no need of FGLRX as the 5870 can only handle up to OpenGL 3.2.

But like I said, the biggest determining factor for me is price and within a couple of weeks Nvidia will make a move and I'll be watching. My goal is to have the fastest single gpu card to last me as long as the 5870 has.

[sabhansali]

Do we have a release date yet for Metro Last Light on Linux?

[DanglingPointer]

Do we have a release date yet for Metro Last Light on Linux?

Not that I'm aware of. I'll post in this thread once it is out assuming I find out before everyone (which is unlikely).

I'm hoping next month though in time for Nvidia's and AMD's releases (290 non-x, 780 Ti and possible new Titan).
In the end we win as gpu prices have already started to drop across the board.

Also looking forward to Rome II Total War but that won't be out on Linux for a few months.

[DanglingPointer]

Metro Last Light is OUT!

You can get the discounted one which includes Metro 2033 and some DLC.
The Metro 2033 is for Windows though, so hopefully this is a sign that they will be porting that too!

Well looks like I'm going to have to buy a new graphics card this week!

Hmmm, I think I'm going to go for the discounted GTX 780 Classified...
Or I could get a R9-290X and watercool it.... arghh!
Or I could wait for the custom cooled R9-290X boards to come out by the end of this month... ?
grrrr
Hmmm, the R9-290 is out in two days... ?

Geez why don't they just release all the damn cards already so people can review them and I can make a purchase!

[R33D3M33R]

R9 290 is extremely powerful and at 400$ it just humiliates the insanely priced Titan and it's also a lot cheaper than comparable GTX 780 (100$). I would wait for a custom cooled R9 290 or wait for 770 Ti to be released which could be comparably priced.

[DanglingPointer]

R9 290 is extremely powerful and at 400$ it just humiliates the insanely priced Titan and it's also a lot cheaper than comparable GTX 780 (100$). I would wait for a custom cooled R9 290 or wait for 770 Ti to be released which could be comparably priced.

Having spent numerous hours on the game! It is awesome, great, deep, refreshing for being set in Moscow and not the US or some other cliché place,.... and all other superlative praises!

But one thing to emphasize about this game even in linux where it only goes to OpenGL 3.2 (scaled down eye-candy compared to Windows); it eats old AMD cards for breakfast and is still hungry!
After the Bolshoi level, I had to dial down my video-fidelity slider to the lowest and I don't think it is worth playing at that level!

On Steam, 4A advised that they are working with AMD to optimise performance in the next Catalyst release but didn't mention if it will be in the next Beta (which I'm hoping!)

I haven't bought a card yet as I'm waiting on two more factors to play out; namely:
1) Custom Cooled R9 290(X) cards and their reviews; in order to compare them against the Green camp's contenders; and obviously the prices
2) A demonstration of Mantle in this week's AMD Developer Summit. I believe Mantle will be revealed on the 13th. And what will Mantle mean for Linux? Steam has 65 MILLION customers with a sizeable chunk curious about SteamOS and Steam Machines.

I have decided, in the spirit of not ruining the game (ruining it by playing it in the lowest quality which is not what the game-developers would have intended to unleash their creativity); I will stop playing this game and replay again after I've decided on a new gpu card. The game plays a good unique immersive story; and the graphical fidelity needs to do justice to that game which sadly my 5870 with the current drivers can't provide.

So as it stands I continue to wait ever impatiently for the two items above to play out...

[MikeCyber]

Works beautifully with my Asus GTX 770 but would be interesting to hear if AMD has finally managed to create good drivers:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...tem&px=MTUxMDE

[DanglingPointer]

I finally fixed it! YaY!
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...8#post12845728

[DanglingPointer]

Well after deliberating long enough I only had two options after deciding I wanted to play safe and get a Mantle capable card...
1) Buy the R9-290X.
2) Wait till custom cooled R9-290X's comes out early next year.

Well I got annoyed today once again playing Metro LL with the 5870 so I drove to the local computer shop and got myself a Sapphire R9-290X!

I just finished throwing it on and making sure it is running on Uber mode. I ran a quick bench of Unigine Valley and Heaven (via Phoronix) and it was smooth as silk!!! I've never seen those smooth, only choppy on the 5870!

Well, looks like I won't be getting any sleep tonight as I'll be playing Metro LL!
But I'll ran a Unigine suite benchmark from Phoronix once I hit the sack and get the official results published.

I can't wait till next year with the avalanche of AAA Linux games from Steam and hopefully Mantle capable games as well at the latter half of 2014!

[sffvba[e0rt]

Well I got annoyed today once again playing Metro LL with the 5870 so I drove to the local computer shop and got myself a Sapphire R9-290X!

Awesome and congrats, looks like a very good card for a good price.