I see.  Actually I had NOT experienced that.  Unfortunately my main rig is in Windows limbo until I can acquire a nice 1TB SSD next month (which I have waited this long for because I REALLY don't want to buy it because being 1TB it will be SATA which is really an obsolete technology by now... sigh) so that I can do dual boot and have plenty of room for games.  Therefore I've had embarrassingly little recent experience with nVidia drivers in Linux.  And yes, that definitely sounds like it would piss me off, and in fact I'm glad we had this conversation, because it probably would not have occurred to me that there were pre-installed open source drivers conflicting with the nVidia drivers (that was not the case 6 years ago).  The package manager should allow you to remove the open source drivers though I suppose it might automatically re-install them every time it updates the kernel.  Which distribution are you using?

 

And yes, I can't really see any reason not to open source hardware drivers (even though I have no objection to using proprietary ones).  After all, they are provided as a free service and you need to actually buy their hardware to take advantage of it anyway.  I suppose they must think that they have some terribly clever optimizations that they don't want AMD to see, but that seems like a pretty frail argument to me.

I used Fedora for years, and have recently moved onto using Arch. The distros are getting better at handling this nVidia pain, and in fact Arch seems to do it better than many others - simply installing the nVidia package automatically blacklists nouveau and keeps the driver up-to-date with kernel upgrades, which is quite handy (although I did have an issue where nouveau didn't support my graphics card, which meant I had to remember to install nVidia when building the OS or else risk booting into a blank screen.....). Anyway, with luck, the hassles will soon be a thing of the past.

I finally set up dual boot with Ubuntu last weekend.  It was a somewhat nerve-wracking experience because of some nVidia driver issues.  Because the nvidia drivers involve kernel modules which are not recognized by secure boot, one must disable secure boot to use them.  Of course, I would much rather have had secure boot disabled to begin with, since it seems that it can't be anything other than a Microsoft conspiracy anyway, but I did not have the foresight to do this before installing Windows the first time, and now installing dual boot involves deleting one of the keys held by my BIOS.  There is zero documentation on the subject, so I just had to hope and pray that I was not deleting the Windows license key (fortunately my BIOS allows me to back up the deleted key on a USB drive).  Fortunately the key I deleted was NOT the Windows license key, and disabling dual boot fixed my Linux issues.  Thank god Windows didn't seem to even notice that I disabled secure boot.  I definitely blame Microsoft for this unpleasant experience more than nvidia, but it definitely makes me share the frustration that nvidia won't open source their drivers.

Fortunately everything right now is working fine.  I am annoyed at Logitech for not having any Linux software, as this effectively prevents me from playing any space-sims on Linux.

My config:

CPU intel i7 4770k (4ghz)
Ram 8gb DDR3 1600 mhz
motherboard: asrock z87 extreme 3
VGA: radeon rx 480 8gb XFX GTR Black
PSU: corsaire cs650m

Next upgrades for 2017:
A new monitor...probably samsung cf24 curved monitor with freesync
16gb ram
SSD HD for the operating system

Upgrade for 2018:

Another rx 480 in crossfire! Yeah that rocks!

Nice machine Natan

I am hoping to build a new gaming PC near Christmas with all the latest stuff with AMD Ryzen processor and new AMD Vega gfx card.

How do you like the the R480? I wanted to buy one to stick in my existing machine and give it to my son, does it play games well?

Hi, all!
SSD 500GB +Hard Drive 1TB
GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
AMD Athlon X4-880K
16GB DDR4
I saved money for a game PC for a long time, finally, I ordered it on the Amazon. At first, I thought to try to build a PC myself but quickly abandoned this idea - because there was neither time nor proper knowledge. I chose from several models but stopped at one of the cheapest. However, this "cheap" is not cheap at all, and seems to be very good)
Of course in my soul, I have fallen in love with StormForce Hurricane, but the price does not just bite but tries to eat you whole. I watched the comparison of gaming PCs https://www.bestadvisers.co.uk/best-gaming-pcs, and was pleasantly surprised that my performance is very similar to one of the most expensive PCs)

Nice machines all round folks! 🙂
Recently I upgraded my old PC with a AMD 8350 Piledriver CPU, a 8 GIG ASUS RX480, a 1TB Hybrid Drive, 16 GIGs of RAM and downgraded back to 64 bit Win 7. Very pleased with the results, rock solid in Fallout 4, Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen all running at max detail at 1080p. Darkone? An RX480 is a good choice for 1080p gaming in my view.

Darkone said:

Nice machine Natan

I am hoping to build a new gaming PC near Christmas with all the latest stuff with AMD Ryzen processor and new AMD Vega gfx card.

How do you like the the R480? I wanted to buy one to stick in my existing machine and give it to my son, does it play games well?

Sorry for my unswer after 5 months but i read this only today!
Anyway i'm finding very well with rx480...the card is cheap and very fast. I bought an xfx GTR one...it has a better dissipation system.
I played with a lot of different games...from assassin creed'd unity to rise of tomb rider, elite, shadow of mordor, etc etc...the games are smooth.
With vulkan in doom 4 it's simply perfect!
I always had nvidia cards until 2011...3 nvidia cards burned literally (2 8800 GT in sli and a 8800 GTS) in 2 years...then i bought an amd 6850 and i used it until september 2016! That card worked very well and it continues to work on another computer. After the 6850 positive experience i decided to buy another amd.
Today every console is amd based from cpu tu gpu...so i think there is a good evolution in AMD.
Anyway also nvidia are very good cards...both of the trends are good, it's only a matter of what you prefer.

p.s. How works quoting in post?

Thanks Natan

Now that AMD has come out with the RX580's and they are just a tad higher than a RX480 I will probably go with that for my son this Xmas. Thanks for your feedback on this because I was hoping these cards could play the games he likes to play at decent framerates for the next few years.

I am slowly putting together my PC buying a little bit at a time, I will buy my tempered glass case next month. When I build it all I will post some pics and list all the components.

On the quoting, copy the text you want to quote into your thread, highlight the code you want to quote with the mouse and click on the 'Format' button and click on 'quote' and that should do it for you like this:

> p.s. How works quoting in post?

Geraldine, won't you run into some issues soon with some games since they are now starting to make Windows10 only games, I thik I read the other day that some gfx cards are also starting to require only windows10 so for those who are Win7 your time is limited when it comes to hardware and software options.

I am on Windows10 now and its not bad, but I just need better gfx but my pc is over 4yrs old so I need a new one. But I will at least future proof myself, or try to 🙂

I am going to hold out for as long as I can D1. I used Win 10 for nearly a year and just couldn't take to it. :/ The ability to control updates being taken away from me as well as all the spyware guff it installs just put me right off it. I might upgrade to Windows 8.1 later but that's as far I will go until Micro$oft stop making mailware ridden software. It's an OS I want not a store front or something that is watching every move I make to "enhance" my shopping experience. Do you have any idea what they are doing with all that uploaded data they are getting? Cos I sure as hell don't.
Maybe Windows 11 or 12 will be the charm.
In the meantime if this "telemetry software" is a concern to any Win 10 users out there, consider these two utilities:
[Spybot Anti Beacon]( https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/ "Spybot Anti Beacon")
[O&O Shut up]( https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 "O&O Shut up")
I used both of these while I had Win 10 installed and it made it bearable...just, but the auto updates were what finally killed it for me. It's my PC so I want to control what the heck it does and when it updates. Why can't Micro$oft see that? Until they do I will hang on to the older OSs thank you very much. 😉

In the meantime, I've had rock solid performance from my Win 7 install, no issues and can still pick and choose what updates on it, perfect. I see Win 7 as the real successor to the mightly missed Win XP. Now that was an OS that Micro$soft did a great job on. I'd love to see them make an updated XP in fact for their next OS.

Also check this out...

As for the latest games coming out being only for Win 10, well I am a retro gamer at heart so it's not likely to effect me that much. Heck, if it gets that bad, I will simply dig out my old Amiga 1200! 😀

> some gfx cards are also starting to require only windows10

Not only GPUs, D1 - the latest intel CPUs (and mobos too, I think) **require** WX. I'm also sticking with Win7 Pro SP1, which I'm currently running clean (from the OEM DVD), completely unpatched, with the Windows Update service disabled in msconfig, so no sly updates/backporting of telemetry mierda! No updates at all, in fact. My machine runs fast and smooth - that's how an OS should work. WX is verging on malware, and that pajero SatNad will be one of the first against the wall when the revolution comes!

Buenas tardes, amigos!

Cody!!! Buena noches to you my friend. 🙂 I kinda knew that you too would be a Win 7 holdout and yes your right about the CPUs. The video above explains that and that is why I stopped short of getting a bang upto date CPU, but the AMD Piledriver I currently have is plenty powerful for what I use it for. I've had no issues at all with Win 7. The only thing I wished I had done was get the Pro version instead of Home Premium because I am limited to 16 GIGs of RAM. But again it's more than enough for me.
Fly safe out there Cody! o/
Oh! And Oolite still runs fine too on Win 7, which is nice. 😉

I too have 16GB of RAM in my i5 4670K GTX770 machine (4 years old now). Who'd have thought it twenty-odd years ago - my first home desktop had 4MB of RAM, and a tiny HDD (70MB, I think, of which MS Office - 32x3.5" floppies - took a large chunk).

My problem may occur if I ever need DX12 - ain't getting that backported to Win7, methinks! If Win7 became unusable, I'd seriously consider Linux - tried it once, a long time ago, and it didn't grab me!

I'm upgrading to a 144Hz G-Sync monitor soon - looking forward to that, I am!

I just use a plain LCD TV as a monitor these days. Another good reason for picking the RX480 as a graphics card as it performs very well at 1080p. If I went for a higher resolution my knackered old eyes couldn't tell the difference so what I have seems the best compromise, for me at least. 😉
That's a fine PC you have there Cody tho! 🙂

> That's a fine PC you have there Cody tho!

Aye, all contained within a very good case too - whisper quiet, excellent airflow, efficient dust filters. Gotta love [Fractal Design]( http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/arc-series/arc-midi-r2 "Fractal Design") and their 140mm fans. As for having knackered old eyes, I know all about that!

FINALLY I HAVE BUILT A NEW GAMING PC 🙂 Whoohooo I can play games again haha

I will post some pics tonight or this weekend (I have to clean off my desk too... haha ) .... but below is the the SSC Gaming rig

- Processor: Ryzen 1800x cooled with a Cosair H60 Water Cooler
- MB: MSI X370 Gaming Pro Carbon
- Memory: G.Skill Flare X DDR4 3200 16GB (its running at 3200mhz)
- Gfx: Gigabyte Radeon RX Vega 64XTX 8GB Water Cooled
- HDD: WD Black 256GB M.2 2280 (for OS) and Seagate Firecuda 2TB SATA3 (for gaming and storage)
- PWR: EVGA Supernova 850W G3
- Case: Corsair Tempered Glass 460X (this looks nice btw)
- Keyboard: G.Skill Ripjaws KM780R Cherry MX (still getting used to the key placement I mistype all the time)
- Mouse: G.Skill Ripjaws MX780
- Monitor: LG 34CB88-p 34" Curved Ultrawide 3440x1440 (this is a nice monitor)

Total build for all of this was just under $2400, which isn't bad when you see whats in the build and just the monitor and gfx card was half that cost. I wanted to get a 4k monitor, but freesync 4k curved monitors were just too high priced I wasn't gonna pay almost $1k for one.

I am happy, kind of a reward for all the shit I been through over the past 2yrs. I want to buy another 16GB of memory but thats the only thing I would change. This rig is solid and not one hiccup with this build thus far and it plays everything I throw at it.

I might try some overclocking but right now there is no need since it rocks everything, I played with the The Division during the free weekend last week and I maxed all settings and it was always over 60fps at 3440x1440 so I am loving it.

Maybe I will create some youtube videos now 😮

Some pics:

Way to go!!
I bought the parts to build mine. Ryzen 1700x cooled with a Noctua NHU12s, on an Asus ROG Strix X370. Same memory as your configuration (and extremely expensive to be honest!!) I kept my old AMD R9 290, since I cannot find a a decent prized RX Vega 56, anywhere in Europe (in those e-shop that can deliver to Greece at least). I am still using 1080p, for gaming. No need for me to upgrade to 4K.

Oh I agree CaptianKal, the memory is great and works amazing with Ryzen I would recommend but man the prices are high, I was able to pick it up for $188, its $233 right now. If I can get another set for lest than $190 I will try to get 16GB more.

I have zero complaints on the Ryzen processor it is an amazing performer. I paid just under $700 for that Vega64 water cooled card but I am also trying to future proof the machine, yeah I thought about 4k but really there isn't much difference between 2k and 4k, so I went with better performance long term with 3440x1440. Plus the majority of games don't support the big resolutions.

I went all out because I hope this thing can last 5-7yrs and still be a good rig. 🙂

I was able to pick it up for $188, its $233 right now.

You are in luck. Mine cost nearly 270 euros!!!!! Prices on GPU's and memory have skyrocketed!!! An rx 580 costs nearly 400 euros!!!

Why is the memory so damn expensive? Your not allowed to get usa prices by ordering through newegg?

Crypto miners have ruined the AMD card market because their cards are good at that stuff and they buy them up making less stock for the legit gamer to buy 🙁

It's always been that way, D1 - what costs a dollar in the States costs a pound in the UK, pretty much.
As for ordering components from the US, different taxes/duties apply so there's little or no saving.

I've started slowly collecting components for a new build, but it'll be partially old spec.

It must be Christmas or something! Just saw my favourite case on special offer at £59.99 - so I grabbed it.

It’s always been that way, D1 – what costs a dollar in the States costs a pound in the UK, pretty much.
As for ordering components from the US, different taxes/duties apply so there’s little or no saving.

Not to mention, that you pay additional import taxes, when you buy something outside of EU!!

Added some pics to my original post, some came out a little blurry.

I’ve started slowly collecting components for a new build, but it’ll be partially old spec.

That's what I did Cody, took me over 6mos too get everything I wanted. I picked things up on sale or with rebates and stuff like that. This whole setup would be over $3.2k if I didn't price shop. Heh I might be able to play Star Citizen now 🙂 Merry Christmas!

It took me over a year to gather the components for the machine I'm running now. The new build should take less time: the CPU is awaiting dispatch, as is the case, I've already got the mobo and soundcard, and I've got a new monitor too. Still to buy: PSU, RAM, SSD, GFX card and keyboard.