I’m looking to replace my trusty old HD5800, I play videogames exclusively on linux and I play mostly Dota 2; I play on 1920x1200. At the moment I get 60 fps with dips on big fights and on big custom maps.
What would you recommend that’s fully open source, cheap, runs Dota 2 on high and (if possible) is low power?
Does a thing even exist?
There is no such thing a s a fully open source GPU. The closest you can get is with Intel and AMD; They both have reasonable open source drivers, but even there the GPU firmware is a proprietary blob.
If all you want is an open source driver stack the 480/580 are both great cards. I’ve used a 480 without any major problems for close to a year under archlinux.
That’s what I meant by fully open source. At the moment I have use the open source radeon kernel driver + the firmware.
I’m mostly concerned with radeon performance on linux.
I can get the 560 for cheap (USD150), the RX480 is USD470 in my country… maybe somewhat older cards? I had an HD7770 but it had atrocious performance (<20fps on dota2) on linux, but good performance on windows
Edit: Would it make sense to replace the old HD5850 (150W TDP) with an RX560 (75W TDP) ? Exclusively for gaming on linux at 1920x1200
Don’t! Anything before Fiji isn’t really supported by the new open drivers.
5850 seems pretty old and was never the top dog I guess. A 560 would allow you to run AMD GPU and accelerate video by a lot.
The 5850 is very old indeed, about 8 years old now. It’s using the OLD radeon driver (r600g)…that’s why I’m asking for recommendations.
I would make that jump. It isn’t a really powerful card but in combination with the new drivers it should give you a pretty decent performance jump and at the same time you can leave those old radeon drivers behind. But I have to say that 150,- is not cheap for a 560 in my mind. I would take another look around.
it’s literally the cheapest new card I can buy. I’m from argentina with its delightful 50% import tax… cards like mine (used, 8 years old) usually are sold at >100
Wow, ok. Yeah, I guess then just go for it.
Which HD58xx? HD 5870?
Either way the RX560 is about your best choice for your criteria and price. I know how availability of tech is in Countries like Argentina etc.
Closest comparison in todays terms
RX570 is a lot better, but also a lot harder to find and costs more.