1 |
For several decades, I was a loyal AMD customer. But the last time I |
2 |
upgraded my home desktop (2013), AMD just didn't seem to have anything |
3 |
that could complete with the Core-i3/5 CPUs with integrated graphics. |
4 |
The Intel HD-2500 GPU was plenty fast enough for everything I did back |
5 |
then, so I went with an i3-3220T (2 cores, 4 threads), and have been |
6 |
very happy with it (except for the security vulnerabilties). It even |
7 |
handled it fine when I started working from home and added a second |
8 |
monitor. |
9 |
|
10 |
But, after the last update to the Heli-X flight simulator, I did |
11 |
notice that I'm bouncing off the rev-limiter on the GPU. In order to |
12 |
get a reasonable frame rate and sort-of-smooth background panning I |
13 |
had to dial-down or turn off all the configurable graphics features |
14 |
(anti-aliasing, smoke, reflections, etc.). Even with all of the fancy |
15 |
stuff turned off, it still sometimes struggles and the frame rate |
16 |
drops to below 20. |
17 |
|
18 |
I thought about buying a video card. A $40-50 Radeon or NVidia card |
19 |
would be more than enough GPU. In the past I've been burned by ATI |
20 |
cards being abandoned within a year or two of purcase. Is AMD any |
21 |
better about support? Of course, dealing with closed-source NVidia |
22 |
drivers is also annoying. |
23 |
|
24 |
Also, the motherboard/CPU are almost 8 years old. Maybe it's time for |
25 |
a new AMD Ryzen with an integrated GPU. Even the low-end sub-$100 |
26 |
Ryzen 3 with Vega 8 GPU would be a big jump in performance from the |
27 |
current Intel HD 2500. For another $40, a Ryzen 5 with Vega 11 GPU |
28 |
would completely outclass what I have now. |
29 |
|
30 |
How are the AMD "Wraith Stealth" fans? I've been using the fan that |
31 |
came with the old Core-i3, and it gets a little annoying when it's |
32 |
time to compile chromium (or when flying planes/helicopters). |
33 |
|
34 |
Any issues with Gentoo and Xorg on AMD integrated Vega 8/11 GPUs? |
35 |
|
36 |
AFAICT, the drivers are all open source, and it ought to "just work" |
37 |
with recent kernels. |
38 |
|
39 |
Unfortunately, the capaciters on the existing motherboard are all |
40 |
solid and probably aren't going to pop any time soon. |