Anyone have newer (R9 series) AMD Cards running in Linux?

Stratus_ss · Jul 20, 2014

I am starting to scout video cards and I have seen a lot of people suggest the R9 290. However I am still really gun shy when it comes to AMD/ATI cards after numerous horrible experiences I have had.

I have also read a bunch of threads saying that in order to install a system with an R9 290 in it, you actually have to use another card (i.e. on board) or else the install wont work.

Anyone have any experiences with AMD they would like to share pros or cons?

Farwalker2u · Jul 20, 2014

I have a computer in which I have installed a R9 290 (GIGABYTE GV-R929OC-4GD Radeon R9 290).
Normal installation, I did not need an additional GPU. I am using Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

Robert17 · Jul 20, 2014

Unit #1, my sig. No issues with my R9 at all. No special mounting. My prior two cards were NVidia (460GTX and 660Ti) and I had no issues with them either.

ATMINSIDE · Jul 20, 2014

Stratus, what distro do you use daily?
I can try installing it on my bench rig.

Silver_Pharaoh · Jul 20, 2014

Got a Sapphire Dual-x 270x.

Installing in Winders was easy, but I assume that Unix won't be as easy.
Personally, I've never had a bad experience with Radeons except my finicky old Radeon 6850, but no issues with the R9 series.

BugFreak · Jul 20, 2014

I didn't do anything special when I installed mine and don't remember even reading about that problem. Maybe it was an older driver or something because the first couple versions had all kinds of issues. If coming from nvidia, make sure to run sweeper or something to clean out the drivers properly.

As far as the card themselves, I love mine. My 290 runs just about everything at max with little effort. Unless you must have the top dog, I would save some cash and go for the 290 and o/c it. The cost difference from the 290 to 290X just isn't worth it imo.

Stratus_ss · Jul 20, 2014

Farwalker2u said:
I have a computer in which I have installed a R9 290 (GIGABYTE GV-R929OC-4GD Radeon R9 290).
Normal installation, I did not need an additional GPU. I am using Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

Robert17 said:
Unit #1, my sig. No issues with my R9 at all. No special mounting. My prior two cards were NVidia (460GTX and 660Ti) and I had no issues with them either.

BugFreak said:
I didn't do anything special when I installed mine and don't remember even reading about that problem. Maybe it was an older driver or something because the first couple versions had all kinds of issues. If coming from nvidia, make sure to run sweeper or something to clean out the drivers properly.

As far as the card themselves, I love mine. My 290 runs just about everything at max with little effort. Unless you must have the top dog, I would save some cash and go for the 290 and o/c it. The cost difference from the 290 to 290X just isn't worth it imo.

Thanks for all the responses. For the people above, are you all relating Windows experiences? I was specifically meaning the Linux family (thats why I posted in the AltOS Section :attn:

)

For the record I don't need the top dog at all. Just something that will do my games with multi-monitors

ATMINSIDE said:
Stratus, what distro do you use daily?
I can try installing it on my bench rig.

I tend to roll with either Antegros or Ubuntu Gnome edition.

I appreciate the help!

ATMINSIDE · Jul 20, 2014

Stratus_ss said:
I tend to roll with either Antegros or Ubuntu Gnome edition.

I appreciate the help!

I'll try out Ubuntu Gnome soon.

Also, I did a quick search. Found that you have to install with the iGPU, install the AMD GPU drivers, then switch to the AMD GPU.

Stratus_ss · Jul 20, 2014

ATMINSIDE said:
I'll try out Ubuntu Gnome soon.

Also, I did a quick search. Found that you have to install with the iGPU, install the AMD GPU drivers, then switch to the AMD GPU.

Ya I saw a few posts saying that even though i just searched for "R9 290 Ubuntu". Thats what kind of prompted my question. Dont really want to drop $$$ on a card thats going to give me headaches. I would rather spend the extra $100 and have no headache than save that cash

ATMINSIDE · Jul 20, 2014

Stratus_ss said:
Ya I saw a few posts saying that even though i just searched for "R9 290 Ubuntu". Thats what kind of prompted my question. Dont really want to drop $$$ on a card thats going to give me headaches. I would rather spend the extra $100 and have no headache than save that cash

Yeah, my further searching shows a lot of "I installed the driver, now it hangs on boot" questions/posts.

Shell · Jul 20, 2014

My 7770 and 7850 run Linux without problems, both the open and closed drivers get by fine for general use.

If you need reasonable 3D performance the beta FGLRX is a must, AMD's download can generate a package for most distros.

You MUST run a new kernel, 3.13+.

runningweird · Jul 20, 2014

I have 5 asus r9 270's running on bamt for mining cryptos, never run them for gaming.

Shell · Jul 20, 2014

runningweird said:
I have 5 asus r9 270's running on bamt for mining cryptos, never run them for gaming.

Ya OpenCL performance is great on Linux, 100%... now only if OpenGL was that good.

runningweird · Jul 20, 2014

windows is always the go to for gaming, unfortunately everything is easier on win 7, I love linux but the workarounds are a pain.

Stratus_ss · Jul 21, 2014

runningweird said:
windows is always the go to for gaming, unfortunately everything is easier on win 7, I love linux but the workarounds are a pain.

What work arounds? install steam, install game, play game.

I am content playing the 160 odd games I own for Linux. There are a few games I boot windows to play but its so infrequently as to become not worth mentioning.

Any rate I appreciate everyone's feedback

runningweird · Jul 21, 2014

Stratus_ss said:
What work arounds? install steam, install game, play game.

I am content playing the 160 odd games I own for Linux. There are a few games I boot windows to play but its so infrequently as to become not worth mentioning.

Any rate I appreciate everyone's feedback

you're right, I forgot that steam worked well - some of the games don't play nicely - TF2 is a pain for me in mint...

I don't really game anymore - not enough time ...I miss that free time :bang head

Tokae · Jul 22, 2014

I don't have experience with the r9 series, but I have done several 69xx and 58xx installs under mint KDE.. No issues and no 2nd card needed for those.

The newest drivers make games run really well!

I am proud of AMD's Linux improvements needless to say

Stratus_ss · Jul 24, 2014

Wanted to bump this again just because the feature set (amount of ram, and bus width) along with price make this attractive

Tyerker · Aug 13, 2014

runningweird said:
you're right, I forgot that steam worked well - some of the games don't play nicely - TF2 is a pain for me in mint...

I don't really game anymore - not enough time ...I miss that free time

You most likely need a few of the OpenGL components installed.
I think you need the x64 and x86 versions of a few of them, so they can emulate properly.
Also one of the few instances where I had to reboot after installing something to make it work.

I am also curious as to how the 280, 280X, and 290 work in Linux. My 560ti is running everything in Linux maxed out no problem, but it's really starting to show its age in Windows, so I'm considering an upgrade before too long.

petteyg359 · Sep 30, 2014

My 7970 (hardware identical to R9 280X afaik) works well enough with the kernel and xf86 drivers. Haven't gotten around to setting up fglrx because I need to get all the modesetting kernel and xorg modules stuff fixed. The joys of ~arch Gentoo

Anyone have newer (R9 series) AMD Cards running in Linux?

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