If you are a Linux user who prefers to use OpenGL graphics there is still a huge benefit to choosing NVIDIA over AMD. The tests Phoronix just completed show that the GTX680, 770 and 780 all perform significantly faster than the R9 290 with even the older GTX 550 Ti and 650 GPUs outperforming AMD's best in some benchmarks. That said AMD is making important improvements to their open source drivers as that is where they are lagging behind NVIDIA. The new RadeonSI Gallium3D for the HD7000 series shows significant performance improvements when paired with the new 3.13 kernel though still falling a bit behind the Catalyst driver they are now much closer to the performance of the proprietary driver. For older cards the performance increase is nowhere near as impressive but some certain benchmarks do show this Gallium3D driver to provide at least some improvements. Pity the Source engine isn't behaving properly during benchmarks which is why no tests were run on Valve's games but that should be solved in the near future.
"In new tests conducted last week with the latest AMD and NVIDIA binary graphics drivers, the high-end AMD GPUs still really aren't proving much competition to NVIDIA's Kepler graphics cards. Here's a new 12 graphics card comparison on Ubuntu."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Testing Out The Configurable TDP On AMD's Kaveri @ Phoronix
- Lenovo shares in trading halt ahead of 'disclosable transaction' @ The Register
- BT's breakneck broadband test hits unimaginable speeds over plain ol' fiber @ Engadget
- NETGEAR CES 2014 New Products Showcase @ Benchmark Reviews
- Symantec uncovers malware that uses Windows to infect Android devices @ The Inquirer
- Windows 8.1 update 'screenshots' leak: Metro apps popped into classic desktop taskbar @ The Register
- AMD starts year, checks watch, hurries out Warsaw Opterons @ The Register
- Luxa2 H5 Premium Car Phone Mount @ eTeknix
- Nvidia Grid – Is It The Future Of High Performance Computing? @ eTeknix
Nvidia’s Tegra K1 (ARM
Nvidia’s Tegra K1 (ARM refrence, as well as Custom denver ARM ISA based version) will be using the Full desktop versions of openGL, etc., on these K1 based offerings. I hope to see some full Linux distro based Tablets built around the K1, appear on the market, or some K1 based android tablets, that can be side loaded with a full linux distro. The ability to run some full desktop linux based graphics programs Gimp, Blender(?)[mesh modeling at least], Inkscape and others, on a tablet, would be my only motivation to own a tablet. Android is good for the content consumption side of mobile devices, but a full linux distro based tablet, running the graphics software that I use, would be a much more affordable solution than the more expensive windows based tablets.