Thanks a lot for testing it, really nice to see a mandatory wait after release is not necessary anymore.
this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2025
134 points (97.2% liked)
Linux Gaming
16883 readers
345 users here now
Discussions and news about gaming on the GNU/Linux family of operating systems (including the Steam Deck). Potentially a $HOME away from home for disgruntled /r/linux_gaming denizens of the redditarian demesne.
This page can be subscribed to via RSS.
Original /r/linux_gaming pengwing by uoou.
Resources
WWW:
Discord:
IRC:
Matrix:
Telegram:
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
The drivers are generally available pretty quickly, however I find that stable distros do not ship them, which is understandable but unfortunate. Debian (my beloved) is egregiously bad at it.
I bought a Vega 56 on launch day (August 14th, 2017) and IIRC was able to use it in Linux immediately, albeit with proprietary drivers. At least with AMD, I don't think a mandatory wait has been a thing for quite a while now.
Sounds like a pretty solid release from AMD. Too bad GPU prices are still so crazy high 🫤
Yeah.
AMD prices look great compared to nvidias, but its still really damn high.
I miss the days when you could build a complete, kickass system for 800-1000, GPU included.
Wow... Given that the GPU was released just a few days ago, that's impressive for open-source drivers. Thanks for posting this.
Thanks for this post.
I'm currently on a 7800XT, which has been a fantastic card on Linux. I haven't had the power draw issues you had on RDNA3, and though I'm not planning to upgrade, I'm glad it seems like AMD is continuing with some solid releases.
Just FYI, use Monado for VR, SteamVR is a massive pile of trash on Linux.
Monado definitely has benefits with its asynchronous reprojection and being FOSS but overall I prefer SteamVR when it works cause it's just more seamless for gaming with its overlay. I've had a good experience with recent SteamVR versions where everything apart from Home usually just works, currently on the beta branch.
Highly recommend wlxoverlay for monado, for me SteamVR overlay never has a working desktop view so I can’t see my monitors.
It’s been broken for years and valve will never fix it: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamVR-for-Linux/issues/426
Thanks for the info!
I also managed to get a 9070 XT for MSRP on launch day by standing in line at Microcenter, but I haven't installed it yet because I stupidly picked the wrong one (Gigabyte Gaming OC -- it's nice that it has higher boost clocks/a 3rd power connector/longer warranty, but it's too thick to fit in my case and I would've been happier with 3xDisplayPorts) and I'm, probably naively, hoping for an opportunity to exchange it for a PowerColor Reaper.
Which make/model card did you get, BTW? With no reference design, it's possible that different cards might have different power draw etc. (even idle, let alone boost). For example, I saw this Youtube video talking about how the PowerColor Red Devil version has a dual bios selector switch that doesn't seem to do anything and doesn't overclock properly.
I got a Sapphire Pure, wasn't quite MSRP but with 799€ including 19% VAT still better than I expected in the months leading up to the launch - and it's just a beauty...
A friend is running a Red Devil on Linux and they have the same idle power draw so I assume it's just some kinks in the initial drivers but it's already looking pretty good in that regard, similar to my previous card (Vega 64). The video I saw, and yeah mine is behaving similarly, undervolting drastically increases clocks though stability testing on Linux is not fun so I haven't looked how far I could push it yet, but really excited for the undervolting potential. I've seen it's possible to get near stock performance with as low as 240W.
similar to my previous card (Vega 64)
Shout-out to the "only upgrade the video card after seven years" gang (my old card is a Vega 56).
Idle power is determined by your display setup. Is your friend a comparable arrangement to yours? Do you run a couple high res high refresh rate displays?
I'm a little surprised you're reaching the same idle draw as vega10 given its use of HBM2. Also worth noting that everything prior to RDNA 3 showed TGP instead of TBP. This was particularly annoying as it didn't account for other board power losses (like VRM), and didn't give monitoring software an accurate read :/
Thanks for this. Very useful info. Now, if only those darn things were available for a sensible price here.
Also running my 9070XT Red Devil on Linux with the exact same OS setup as you. Some games have performance within 10% of Windows. Like Space Marine 2 at 4K. However since the drivers aren't quite on par with Windows yet since it just launched. Some games perform a lot worse.
Monster Hunter Rise cannot draw more than 140-180W so performance is about 40-50% less than on Windows. The same power draw problem affects Space Marine 2 where on Windows it easily runs at 110+ fps at 1440p but Linux barely goes over 75 fps. Wattage never goes above 230W.
I am hopeful the power draw problem will be fixed in the future and the drivers getting a bit better in 6.15 and future mesa releases. A really strong launch showing on Linux for sure!
Thank you for the nice write-up!
I want to buy a new PC this year, but I will probably stick to my current 5700xt for the time being and get my hands on a 9070xt in a couple of years when they find their way to the used market.
This 5700xt is the first GPU I bought second hand, I repasted it 1 year after purchase and never gave me issue overall.
Thank you for sharing