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Given Intel's recent troubles, I'm trying to decide how risky it is to invest in their platform. Especially discrete GPUs for Linux gaming Fortunately, having

Given Intel's recent troubles, I'm trying to decide how risky it is to invest in their platform. Especially discrete GPUs for Linux gaming Fortunately, having their Linux drivers be (mostly?) open source makes a purchase seem less risky.

babypuncher 2y ago
I can't speak from experience with their GPUs on Linux, but I know on Windows most of their problems stem from supporting pre-DX12 Direct3D titles. Nvidia and AMD have spent many years polishing up their Direct3D support and putting in driver-side hacks that paper over badly programmed Direct3D games. These are obviously Windows-specific issues that don't come up at all in Linux, where all that Direct3D headache is taken care of by DXVK. Amusingly a big part of Intel's efforts to improve D3D performance on Windows has been to use DXVK for many titles.
beAbU 2y ago
Intel isn't going anywhere for at least a couple of hardware genrations. Buying a GPU is also not "investing" in anything. In 2 years' time you can replace it whith whatever is best value for money at that time.
- CoastalCoder 2y ago
  > Buying a GPU is also not "investing" in anything. It is in the (minor) sense that I'd rely on Intel for warranty support, driver updates (if closed source), and firmware fixes. But I agree with your main point that the worst-case downside isn't that big of a deal.
  - throwaway48476 2y ago
    There's no way you're going to maintain and develop the intel linux driver as a solo dev.
    - CoastalCoder 2y ago
      > There's no way you're going to maintain and develop the intel linux driver as a solo dev. I agree entirely. My point was that even if Intel disappeared tomorrow, there's a good chance that Linux developer community would take over maintenance of those drivers. In contrast to, e.g., 10-years-ago nvidia, where IIUC it was very difficult for outsiders to obtain the documentation needed to write proper drivers for their GPUs.

babypuncher 2y ago

I can't speak from experience with their GPUs on Linux, but I know on Windows most of their problems stem from supporting pre-DX12 Direct3D titles. Nvidia and AMD have spent many years polishing up their Direct3D support and putting in driver-side hacks that paper over badly programmed Direct3D games. These are obviously Windows-specific issues that don't come up at all in Linux, where all that Direct3D headache is taken care of by DXVK. Amusingly a big part of Intel's efforts to improve D3D performance on Windows has been to use DXVK for many titles.

beAbU 2y ago

Intel isn't going anywhere for at least a couple of hardware genrations. Buying a GPU is also not "investing" in anything. In 2 years' time you can replace it whith whatever is best value for money at that time.

CoastalCoder 2y ago
> Buying a GPU is also not "investing" in anything. It is in the (minor) sense that I'd rely on Intel for warranty support, driver updates (if closed source), and firmware fixes. But I agree with your main point that the worst-case downside isn't that big of a deal.
- throwaway48476 2y ago
  There's no way you're going to maintain and develop the intel linux driver as a solo dev.
  - CoastalCoder 2y ago
    > There's no way you're going to maintain and develop the intel linux driver as a solo dev. I agree entirely. My point was that even if Intel disappeared tomorrow, there's a good chance that Linux developer community would take over maintenance of those drivers. In contrast to, e.g., 10-years-ago nvidia, where IIUC it was very difficult for outsiders to obtain the documentation needed to write proper drivers for their GPUs.