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AMD CPU Use Among Linux Gamers Approaching 70% Marketshare
- Aardwolf 3y agoI built a new PC with AMD Zen 4 CPU end of last year, after using Intel for more than 10 years before that (last AMD I used before was an Athlon in the early 2000s! Intel Core 2 made me switch back to Intel then) I also use Linux exclusively, and play games on Steam using Proton (which works great for modern games. I do single player games though) However, no idea why there would be a correlation between Linux Gaming and AMD: I didn't switch to AMD because of Linux but because of AVX-512. I had no problems using Steam with the Intel CPU before that. But I find it wrong of Intel to not support AVX-512 in consumer CPUs (and having efficiency cores in my desktop PC is not something that excites me, and it's because of those that they dropped AVX-512), while AMD embraced it. If new Intel CPUs would have been simply like the i9-11900 but better (in a different way than the efficiency cores, more like faster, more performance cores, more SIMD etc...), I'd probably just have kept getting Intel ones out of habit.
- shocks 3y agoI picked all AMD for my box specifically because of their open source Linux contributions. I have friends who have done the same.
- formerly_proven 3y agoIf you're strictly going by FOSS contributions you'd end up with an Intel CPU and an Arc GPU though.
- xslvrxslwt 3y agoAbsolutely lol, those people are amazing just spitting bs everywhere
- shocks 3y agoArc wasn’t an option when I built mine.
- hospitalJail 3y agoI decided to go full Nvidia evil since it was best for AI art. I do my part not to give Apple money, but as Ford Prefect said about foie gras: “You can’t care about every damn thing.” EDIT: Ohh CPU not GPU. Oh well enjoy the joke
- throwaway2037 3y agoHi. When you say "all AMD for my box", does this mean CPU + GPU? Or more?
- shocks 3y agoCPU and GPU; 5800X and 5700XT.
- xethos 3y agoMakes sense - article mentions Windows is the opposite (with Intel's share increasing, and AMD's sitting at ~32%), and Windows users are much less likely to care about open source drivers and contributions.
- michaelmrose 3y agoThe intersection of technically apt people and value conscious gamers looking to squeeze more fps out of limited dollars picks the value brand with a rep for friendliness with open source.
- throwaway2037 3y agoI didn't switch to AMD because of Linux but because of AVX-512. Woah. While wou don't specifically say it was a "gaming PC", you did say that you game on it. What is your use case that AVX-512 became a deal-breaker?
- anonbanker 3y agolikely RPCS3 and other emulators.
- pohuing 3y agoOn the topic of efficiency cores: As someone with a 5900x I wish I had picked a more efficient cpu. Do consider idle and low usage power draw. My room turns into an oven even just watching YouTube.
- agentgumshoe 3y agoHave you enabled Eco mode? You can do so manually in the BIOS if you can't use the AMD software (e.g. https://www.pcworld.com/article/1352253/how-to-enable-eco-mode-with-ryzen-7000.html https://www.pcworld.com/article/1352253/how-to-enable-eco-mo...)
- jrockway 3y agoIt seems like AMD's power savings just doesn't compete with Intel. I'm a few generations out of date, but my computer setup idles at ~200W, whereas a few-generations-older Intel HEDT that it replaced idled near 50W. Not turning my computer off at night costs $14 a month! (BTW, monitors will get you. With my monitors on reading HN, I'm burning 400W!)
- xuki 3y agoHoly cow, that’s a lot of power just for idling. For comparison, a Mac Studio idle at 9-10W: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT213100 https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT213100
- pohuing 3y agoI've played with it before yeah. But I think ultimately it comes down to the io die never really clocking down, the wattage per core is insignificant as far as I can tell thanks to parking and entire ccd. Same story with my gpu which for some reason thinks running vram at 2ghz at idle is necessary. At least this heat prepared me for summer :D
- formerly_proven 3y agoTry physically disconnecting all but one monitor, AMD's broken power management with more than one monitor has been a meme for about 15 years now.
- samhuk 3y agoMinor correction: AMD CPUs do have something similar to efficiency cores, it's just that AMD doesn't clearly market it that way. They bin CCDs for performance (max attainable frequency, thermal efficiency, etc) and include a good one and a not-so-good one on a CPU. I got a 5950x a couple years ago and it's quite well known in the AMD space. Intel's "efficiency cores" are almost the exact same thing - cheaper lamer cores to keep core count higher.
- teg4n_ 3y agoI know they mention Steam Deck but I expect it’s heavily skewing the results. I wonder what percent of linux gamers are accounted for by the Steam Deck. I expect it’s rather large.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y agoThat was my first thought, too: "Steam Deck uses AMD; that probably could singlehandedly drive it"
- atq2119 3y agoFrom the same Phoronix title page today, Steam Deck accounts for 40% of Linux Steam users. This means the other 60% are split roughly evenly between AMD and Intel.
- Hamuko 3y agoWhat do you mean "skewing the results"?
- LeoPanthera 3y agoThey mean that most people don't think of Steam Deck users as "Linux Gamers". SteamOS is essentially an appliance OS. It's what comes with the Steam Deck. People don't choose it, it's the default.
- itsboring 3y agoThis feels like a double standard to me. If you exclude Steam Deck users because it comes with Linux by default, then you should also exclude all the people who bought laptops that come with Windows by default, no? They’re not Windows gamers, they’re just using what came with their computer.
- LeoPanthera 3y agoThat would be true if Windows could be described as an appliance OS designed only to play games, but it's not. SteamOS is.
- hyperhopper 3y agoI'm surprised it's not higher. Nvidia is actively hostile to Linux users. The worst part about gaming on Linux is dealing with Nvidia's drivers. To echo Linus Torvalds, and for good reason, fuck Nvidia
- sznio 3y ago>The worst part about gaming on Linux is dealing with Nvidia's drivers. And the worst part of gaming on AMD is dealing with AMD's drivers, no matter the platform.
- anonbanker 3y agoSteam Deck users don't seem to be complaining at all about their experience.
- Gordonjcp 3y ago[flagged]
- deadbunny 3y agoWhat? AMD develop their open source drivers and submit them to the kernel and they have their own set of Linux specific closed source drivers.
- pengaru 3y agoTo be fair, pre-amdgpu, nvidia's proprietary linux drivers were sadly an exceptional "supported" situation. Back then it was basically just Intel's integrated graphics that had first-class mainline support. The AMD linux support is a relatively recent shift historically speaking. Intel really should get a lot more recognition for its mainline Linux graphics support though. Without their contributions over past decades we might not even have a modern graphics stack at all in-kernel.
- Gordonjcp 3y agoYes, and the open-source ones are not accelerated, and the closed-source ones don't work.
- Gordonjcp 3y agoIt's a shame AMD doesn't really have working acceleration or GPU compute. I guess they're cheaper than NVidia for a reason, but it would be nice to have an alternative. Likewise, though, I guess all the video editing and VFX pipelines use Linux and NVidia for an equally good reason.
- cma 3y agoVulkan compute?
- Gordonjcp 3y agoNothing uses Vulkan.
- minimaul 3y agoTheir compute stack is still very lacking compared to CUDA, but it is improving. The OSS 3D acceleration for Radeon cards is functional, implements Vulkan and OpenGL competently, and is fast. It’s built primarily by AMD & Valve engineers (and contractors). Saying they do not have working acceleration is completely untrue.
- kitsunesoba 3y agoDespite the major ground that AMD has gained in the CPU space in the past few years, I think it's still somewhat seen as the less mainstream of the two x86 CPUs, and I suspect that a userbase who has opted into an alternative OS is more likely to seek out alternative hardware as well, at least as far as is practical. Gamers in general have more freedom of choice in hardware compared to other segments of Linux users (fewer specific technical needs), so perhaps that's what's being expressed here.
- hero4hire 3y agoTotal marketshare was estimated at 1.5% for Linux gaming. The survey comes direct from Valve's Steam Survey. Potential bias aside the Steamdeck alone is estimated at 40%. Arch and Ubuntu ~8% each. Is there any other trustworthy metric of all "Linux Gamers" out there? I'm curious how much using the Steam Client effects or tilts results towards systems that easily run Steam. Self selection at it's finest. My logic side knows that with only a 1.5% rounding error to the total "PC" gaming isn't market significant. I should be happy with the trend. I own a Steamdeck. But it's like how my friends use their Nintendo systems. As an extension of my PC windows I was already personal project time with SteamOS and SteamLink. Point is, I wouldn't consider myself in the 1.5% even though I game wherever.
- ed25519FUUU 3y agoIf you include mobile games on ARM64 the the number of Linux gamers is significantly higher than x86.
- moffkalast 3y ago[flagged]
- karamanolev 3y agoAndroid is a very thick layer/shell around the actual Linux kernel, maybe some or a lot of patches, but still Linux. How much compiled Linux code does it run? Quite a lot. macOS, AFAIK, runs NO Linux (the kernel) source code.
- reassembled 3y agomacOS is not based on the Linux kernel, it's based on BSD.
- Toutouxc 3y agoAndroid uses Linux the kernel. macOS doesn’t use Linux the kernel.
- otterpro 3y agoI am using AMD Ryzen CPU because I don't need to use water-cooling, and I get a really decent performance out with 8 core/16 threads. Intel CPU runs way too hot, and I don't want to spend more money on AIO, when I don't need to. AMD CPU generally runs much cooler (except on the high-end and thread ripper stuff, but I don't have high-end).
- dbeley 3y agoYeah AMD has the edge on efficiency it's odd it's kind of an "underrated" feature nowadays. Using less power (thus less W to dissipate that will end up heating your room) for the same computing power? Who wouldn't want that?
- nicce 3y ago(Not to mention the electricity bill..)
- PartiallyTyped 3y agoSo far, my Linux 5800x was my second most stable machine after a Haswell Hackintosh (i5 4590), honestly, I am keen on returning to that, my intel machine has caused me immense trouble tbh.
- sneed_chucker 3y agoWhich distro?
- PartiallyTyped 3y agoPopOS was absolutely fantastic, and I can't recall any issues.
- Dalewyn 3y agoRunning an i7 12700K on a Noctua air cooler, knocks anything I throw at it out of the ballpark with 12 cores of 20 threads goodness. Unless you're running an overclocked i9 or something, claims of Intel's heat generation are greatly exaggerated in practice.
- GuB-42 3y agoNot very significant. Linux gamers represent 1.5% of the market share, 40% of them are steam deck users, which use AMD components. But the steam deck is closer to a game console, people don't really chose the hardware and OS, they buy a pre-built system, and who care what's inside if it can play games well. It is more hackable than a Nintendo, but hackers are, I think, a minority. If you remove the steam decks, AMD market share goes down to 50%, similar to their Windows counterparts.
- pengaru 3y ago> who care what's inside if it can play games well Intel might
- timschmidt 3y agoGamers in this category have a choice between Steam Deck and Windows alternatives like the Asus ROG Ally, GPD Win, and many others. One could see the success of Steam Deck as being directly related to it's choice of OS. As a consumer, I want a game device, not another copy of Windows to administer.
- tjpnz 3y agoIt was one of the deciding factors for me when choosing between the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally. I don't want to deal with Windows and all of the BS that cokes with it on a device meant for fun.
- sylware 3y agoMy gaming rig is 100% AMD. Have state of the art, AMD linux dev kernel, mesa RADV etc, GPU firmware. But still on x11 native due to the steam client. Basically, it is a video game console hardware (since they are all AMD too) I can hack into.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- shmerl 3y agoShouldn't it work with XWayland?
- sylware 3y agoI'll start to code my own wayland compositor once the steam client drops its legacy 32bits code which is hardcoded on x11 and GL (and they seem adamant at keeping it), and they have a wayland backend. I'll use Xwayland for the old games without a wayland backend... if any...
- shmerl 3y agoI just run GOG games (if they aren't native) in Wine+dxvk/vkd3d-proton. Windows games work fine in KDE Wayland session using XWayland. Wine itself is approaching Wayland support, so there won't be need for XWayland with it sometime this year hopefully.
- sylware 3y agoI am a #noproton guy, but getting better wayland support via proton from the steam client than the native client feels kind of weird. BTW, with a lean wine 8.11 build (only win64 core), and vkd3d, can I run cyberpunk 2077? Or horizon zero down?
- shmerl 3y agoCyberpunk 2077 runs fine (GOG version). I use latest Wine + esync patches from staging + dxvk + vkd3d-proton. You need dxvk for the dxgi library that vkd3d-proton depends on. esync is needed for better performance (it helps a lot).
- charcircuit 3y agoI would have expected it to be Qualcomm since most Linux gamers are using Linux on mobile devices. Edit: This is about the Steam store which is biased since most Linux gamers get games off of the Play store.
- klardotsh 3y agoAre we really doing this "well technically Android is Linux lololololol" nonsense in a thread that's very obviously referring to Linux on the Desktop? Next to nobody refers to Android as "Linux" in a general sense of the word, much like how next to nobody, outside of specific technical contexts, refers to birds as dinosaurs: while technically birds may be the sole remaining member of the dinosaur family, we call them "birds" day-to-day.
- ffgjgf1 3y ago> Linux on the Desktop Technically Desktop/Laptop + Handheld since close to half of Steam users on Linux run it on the Deck
- blueflow 3y agoWhat shit do i need to ship with my kernel so it qualifies as "Linux" to you?
- charcircuit 3y agoIt's not a technicality. Android uses the Linux kernel like any other Linux distribution. Games that target Android depend on the Android runtime and framework and games that target Steam on Linux depend on the Steam Linux runtime. Linux games can also target an arbitrary set of dependencies, but compatibility may not be very good. Just because Android has a stronger brand than Linux and doesn't feel the need to advertise to people that it uses the Linux kernel, that that doesn't make Android any less of a Linux distribution. Most consumers don't care about the kernel the operating system they have uses. Saying that nobody calls Android "Linux" is irrelevant.
- ffgjgf1 3y agoiOS is macOS too according to this definition since they share the same kernel and a bunch of other stuff (probably more than Android & GNU/Linux at this point)?
- TX81Z 3y agoThere are dozens of us, dozens I tell you!
- bjoli 3y agoI just built a Linux computer with a Ryzen 9 7900 paired with an intel a750 (couldn't resist the 200 dollar price tag). I boosted the power target to about 125 watts and it runs like a charm. The GPU also just friggin worked. Not "just worked" as in "forget about your Nvidia driver, compile a kernel and end up with a text only boot". I haven't done anything, and suddenly I can do av1 encoding or run 3 screens in 4k60 without a hitch.
- kplex 3y agoI'm due an upgrade to my gaming rig core soon, currently running an old 3950X with a 4090. AMDs crippling of new game releases by paying to have DLSSv3 support omitted (most recently Jedi Survivor, and looking like Starfield) has completely soured me on the company. I don't feel inclined to support that behaviour financially with my next rig.
- Shekelphile 3y ago> I'm due an upgrade to my gaming rig core soon, currently running an old 3950X with a 4090. I have a 3900x and I'll probably just hold onto it forever. New CPUs are faster but are 25%+ more expensive core for core on top of motherboards being 2-3x more expensive than their pre-COVID pricing for less features (specifically I need a second CPU linked pcie slot for a network card, and no affordable AM5 motherboards seem to do 8x/8x lane splits like you could get with trivially affordable AM4 boards). > AMDs crippling of new game releases by paying to have DLSSv3 support omitted (most recently Jedi Survivor, and looking like Starfield) has completely soured me on the company. I don't feel inclined to support that behaviour financially with my next rig. This isn't a new trend sadly. It's insanely annoying to boot a game and see only AMD's subpar stuff baked in whereas when you boot a vendor agnostic or nvidia sponsored game you usually get nvidia's stuff alongside amd's. They did it with the RE4 remake recently too, very annoying to be stuck with FSR when the game advertised DLSS 3 support and had it in the pre-release demo.
- andrewstuart 3y agoAMD competes hard with Intel on CPUs. And yet it takes a lazy, uncompetitive position against Nvidia, happily delivering overpriced and garbage new GPUs such as the 7600 RX with only 8GB RAM and a 128 bit memory bus. Nvidia pretty much refuses to drop prices beyond a token tiny amount on any of its current generation GPUs, many of which are underwhelming and extremely overpriced and unappealing to consumers. This gives AMD a chance to rip Nvidia to shreds in the GPU market but AMD chooses not to. Very strange.
- nwallin 3y ago> And yet it takes a lazy, uncompetitive position against Nvidia, happily delivering overpriced and garbage new GPUs such as the 7600 RX with only 8GB RAM and a 128 bit memory bus. The AMD RX 7600 competes with NVidia RTX 4060. The suggested MSRP of the RX 7600 is $270, the suggested MSRP of the RTX 4060 is $300. Both have 8GB of GDDR6 RAM on a 128 bit memory bus. I don't necessarily disagree that AMD's current GPU lineup is overpriced, but so is NVidia's. It's probably because NVidia's current GPU lineup is so vastly, hilarious overpriced that AMD is getting away with it right now.
- shmerl 3y agoAMD GPUs are also on the rise, given poor Linux user experience with Nvidia.
- andrewstuart 3y agoAnyone willing to comment on their experience of AMD Linux GPU drivers? Are they good/bad/meh?
- pfych 3y agoI've only ever had one issue related to power delivery while running VR a few years ago. Would not provide enough juice to the GPU and would cause artefacts in the rendering. Other than that though I've had no major issues running relatively modern games over the last 2-3 years with my 5700xt.
- blibble 3y agomy use has been perfect in tree, no nvidia bullshit just works
- SXX 3y agoThis depends on your use cases. If you running stable distribution like Ubuntu LTS and use Blender (or any professional 3D software) Nvidia proprietary driver is still make sense to use. Also Nvidia is obviously your choice if you want to run any machine learning software. But if you want to run some bleeding edge distribution and play games on Linux then AMD open source driver will work great for you.
- nickserv 3y agoReally good for my gaming rig / general use. Mainly older games with good Wine support. Some light graphics: Krita, OBS, Gimp... With Wine-staging and Mesa / Vulkan stable PPA's, everything has been solid with good performance. No sweating during kernel updates ;-)
- lmm 3y agoThey're bad, unless you get lucky; on paper they have all the features you'd ever want, but in practice they're just flaky. Too many random crashes.
- l0b0 3y agoIntel >> AMD >> Nvidia for GPU driver stability and Linux compatibility (source: used all three on different machines for everything including gaming). Of course, if you require some specific GPU feature or amount of RAM, that probably overrides most stability concerns.
- CapricornNoble 3y agoLinux Gamer here. My primary machine, built around 2015 or so, runs Void Linux and an Intel CPU (an old i7-4770S + 1060 Ti 8GB). My next one, however, will definitely be an AMD Ryzen, probably 5600X. Will still stick with nVidia for GPU, likely a 4060 Ti 16GB.
- nickserv 3y agoJust got an AMD RX 6700 12gb for my Linux gaming rig. Couldn't be happier with the driver support, getting fairly regular Vulkan and Mesa updates along with Wine. I play mainly older games, either native or with good Wine support, and performance is really good. My heavily modded Skyrim (2 and 4k textures) is much, much, smoother now ;-) Since I'm not running CUDA stuff honestly it was the way to go, even if just for the peace of mind on driver support.
- jaimex2 3y agoAMD CPUs are very compelling. Right now I run 100% Linux with a Ryzen 9 and RTX 3070. Everything works perfectly. My only gripe would be nVidia's driver isn't on parity with the Windows one, things like video upscaling haven't made it through yet. That said I haven't come across games I can't run. Steam / Proton just work, very rarely do I need to go in and tweak something. Highly recommend Heroic Launcher as well. Very polished Epic/GOG client, get the FlatPak version as that has max compatabilty.
- MisterTea 3y agoAMD Threadeipper with a Radeon Pro. It just works. I'm running Steam on Void Linux musl using flatpak. X11 with XFCE. I only had to switch to pipewire to get sound working reliably across all programs like things that used Jack or Alsa. Windows games mostly work with Proton - save for a few ironically, the original Crisis being one (maybe the remastered edition works). I've yet to setup any gaming controllers though I was recently given a really nice steering wheel and pedals setup for free and BeamNG.drive is calling out to it.
- slowmovintarget 3y agoI'm in the market for a new desktop (it's been nearly nine years since I purchased my gaming rig). My current plan is to leave Windows behind finally. I'll be getting a Linux rig of some sort. And it won't just be for gaming, it will be for running and training local LLMs, which is far more brutal on the hardware than any games I've seen; I can still play most titles on my 1440p screen with my current "potato." I've been running Microsoft operating systems for decades: Windows, and DOS before that since DOS 3.3. With all the attention sinks stuck into the new Windows (pops on the menu, pops from the dock, ads everywhere on my machine) it's time to leave it. The two viable alternatives are Mac OS and Linux. Work has me on Mac, but the hardware I want to run... Linux is the right choice. I'll game on the system I have. I have to wonder how many PC gamers will follow suit as they get older. Most of the systems I've been pricing out for Linux desktops are AMD Threadripper builds. Intel Xeons would be better for AI workloads, but they're way more expensive.
- skellyclock 3y agoYou might need a nvidia GPU for your LLM training case tbh.
- qudat 3y agoSteam and wine has definitely pushed Linux into “good enough” territory for Linux gaming. I, like you, switched from windows to Linux for gaming. This is the first year I haven’t owned a windows machine. End of an era. I don’t miss it at all.
- nicce 3y agoBasically the state is getting to be that almost every game exluding some, which require specific anti-cheat engines, will work. In some cases it is just a matter of enabling EAC linux support by game publishers. Future is here!
- Arubis 3y agoThat’s a pretty big “just”, tbh. It would absolutely require the sort of proprietary kernel drivers most distros (understandably!) consider anathema, and I’m not sure game publishers want to shoulder that burden entirely themselves.
- agentgumshoe 3y agoWell I did just switch, but I assume the linux market isn't quite that small :D
- broodbucket 3y agoJust chiming in to say that after 15 years of building PCs for gaming on Linux, the 5800X3D is probably the best product I've ever purchased. The price to performance of this thing is completely absurd for the type of games I play.
- twleo 3y agoUntil Intel let me use ECC RAM on Consumer-grade CPU, I will use AMD without second thought.
- sacnoradhq 3y agoFreeBSD and Solaris gamer AMD marketshare isn't far behind.
- fortran77 3y agoAre there Linux games other than rain, snake, and wumpus? And is AMD really better for these?
- wildrhythms 3y ago'Linux games' is a misnomer now that Proton exists and can capably run Windows games.
- iguana_lawyer 3y ago2003 will be the year of the Linux desktop
- Aeolun 3y agoFor a long time now I’ve picked AMD solely on the basis that they seem like better people than Intel or Nvidea. Sure it sometimes bites me in the ass when things only support the majority market share holders, but meh, don’t care about them anyway.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Josh1794 3y agoAKA loads of people have steam decks