SteamOS 2.0 Brewmaster uses the NVIDIA 352.30 binary driver currently, which we carried forward with our testing. For this testing we were left with BioShock Infinite, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, DiRT Showdown, Metro 2033 Redux, and Metro Last Light Redux. The Steam games tested were limited to those that run properly under Linux with both the AMD and NVIDIA graphics drivers plus can be fully driven automatically via the Phoronix Test Suite. If there's enough interest in seeing these same exact tests done for 4K in the same format, I'm happy to do so.
#NVIDIA GRAPHICS CARDS COMPARISON 1080P#
In this article, only 1080p tests were done given that it remains the most common resolution for TVs. This should be a very exciting and unique look at the NVIDIA/AMD SteamOS Linux gaming performance as well as looking at the most power, thermal efficient, and cost effective graphics cards. As another metric, there's also performance-per-dollar benchmark results for the graphics cards tested that you can still easily purchase new the prices used were obtained from in the US for the particular graphics card model tested and for the reference graphics cards tested their MSRP was used.
With the power information, the overall system power consumption was recorded for each system + graphics card as well as the factored performance-per-Watt. In addition to looking at the raw performance results, the Phoronix Test Suite was simultaneously monitoring the GPU's core temperature as well (exposed via the respective driver interfaces) as the overall AC system power draw (via a USB-based WattsUp Power meter). When pulling in some extra packages from the Debian Wheezy repository, it was possible to get the Phoronix Test Suite running fine on Brewmaster for offering automated benchmarks.
#NVIDIA GRAPHICS CARDS COMPARISON INSTALL#
I did a fresh install of SteamOS 2.0 Brewmaster on a test system (Core i7 5960X, Gigabyte X99, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 240GB OCZ SSD) and then proceeded to load the Phoronix Test Suite on it through the GNOME 3.14 based desktop environment that's hidden behind the default Big Picture Mode. With Steam Machines set to begin shipping next month and SteamOS beginning to interest more gamers as an alternative to Windows for building a living room gaming PC, in this article I've carried out a twenty-two graphics card comparison with various NVIDIA GeForce and AMD Radeon GPUs while testing them on the Debian Linux-based SteamOS 2.0 "Brewmaster" operating system using a variety of Steam Linux games.Īs it's been almost two years since running some SteamOS graphics benchmarks, it's certainly past due for running a new comparison with SteamOS in much better shape now for public appeal.