Looks ok mate, but I'm gambling on the AMD set up having longer legs. The 290X beats a Titan if you're not into overclocking (which I won't be) but the Mantle API needs to be taken seriously. For compatible games like BF4, it shows 20% plus performance increases.

Not all games are designed with mantle in mind right now, but it is the architecture of the future AND remember. The AMD spin on HSA architecture (although not identical) is in every single PS4 and Xbone.

I cannot imagine the majority of developers deciding not to head that way to be honest, and the differences between 290 and 980 performance aren't great enough to persuade me otherwise. The AMD should give my machine longer legs, just as the consoles get better, the longer developers have with their hardware.

Thoughts from JayZTwoCents.

Thoughts from Linus.

The Titan is still an option, depending on how long it takes me to buy or get one of these built. I could probably save 300 quid over the X wing robot design, but I'm not sure I can be ars*d with building it myself.

I been looking at these Steam Machines this morning and I'm not sure this will happen the end of 2015 based on the fact you can not seem to even pre/order one and there are so many combinations its totally stupid.

Think i placed my order for Playstation 4 as soon as it was announced and then had to wait about 8 months or was it a year.

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

Thoughts from JayZTwoCents.

Thoughts from Linus.

The Titan is still an option, depending on how long it takes me to buy or get one of these built. I could probably save 300 quid over the X wing robot design, but I'm not sure I can be ars*d with building it myself.

Sure your not get to excited about nothing,personally i don't think it will happen this year and there is far to much confusion surround all these units and manufacturers .

They're not steam machines just pc's. I can add the Steam OS later if I want that functionality, but this will easily play P/Cars on ultra.

The real delay is likely to be developers fully embracing Linux based games. The hardware is just about console "form factor". I don't think there's anything stopping them from a hardware standpoint. They're all just waiting for the green light from Steam.

E3 might have some new dates, who knows?

Righty Oh Then Captain

mantle isnt the future, amd made it as a concept to push microsoft into improving directx and hence dx12 is coming.

DA:I which had mantle had issues for amd users using mantle, the issues were big enough which made those users revert to dx mode.

My view on cpu's has changed since I last posted as recent games (not including witcher 3 which is light on cpu) have been quite heavy on cpu requirements, and the new gta game pushes my cpu quite hard. DX12 will favour having more cpu cores vs having priority of per core performance (which intel wins easily currently).

However in the gpu world, amd remain behind nvidia and I dont see that changing in future unless samsung end up buying amd as is rumoured. The problem with amd is not just the hardware but also their drivers. Amd users much more frequently get issues with games than nvidia users, Dont make your decision based on what is put in the consoles.

The amd 290 cards are not bad cards (if you dont care about heat, noise and power consumption) but the drivers suffer.

Edited by Chrysalis (Sun 24-May-15 18:59:03)

My view on cpu's has changed since I last posted as recent games (not including witcher 3 which is light on cpu) have been quite heavy on cpu requirements, and the new gta game pushes my cpu quite hard. DX12 will favour having more cpu cores vs having priority of per core performance (which intel wins easily currently).

You've got more positions than the Karma Sutra. Isn't that what I just said and linked to on YouTube? Isn't that what the consoles are currently doing?

It's old news. Anybody who follows gaming discussion has known this for yonks. In broadband terms, it's the bus versus the motor bike speed comparison. It's just that elitists with pure grunt processors have been sticking their fingers in their ears. Of course I would never expect you to acknowledge anything that I say.

The 290x reference card is noisy. Many of the third party cards are not. The links I posted show how it beats a Titan in many games. The difference is marginal at best, but the price difference is redonkulous. I'll read up a bit more on drivers but I suspect you are overstating the case a little.

AMD have announced that Mantle will be supported indefinitely, but they can probably see that Dx12 is likely to find a foothold, just because. That is why they are recommending developers look to Dx12, which in any case is virtually a Mantle copy. Mantle was not simply a concept.

looks like you not done enough research, but you claim to know an aweful lot for someone who is not a pc gamer.

AMD were not happy with how inefficient directx was, so they created mantle, but they have said repeated times it was to push the industry forward rather than expecting it to ever become mainstream.

But anyway continue to ignore anything that doesnt match your view, go out and just buy the damn thing so we can see how you go.

The problems AMD has is twofold really.

As already mentioned their drivers are horrific vs nvidia, so even if the cards are technically equal on a hardware level, the nvidia will outperform the amd in most games, its a bit like when comparing consoles to PC's, console games are optimised more for those platforms so PC's usually need more grunt to get comparable performance to a console, it is what it is.

So for horsepower efficiency you could sort of look at it like this. consoles > nvidia pc > amd pc

Be aware sometimes the gap between amd and nvidia can be huge, as is on gta5 and witcher3.

Then you got the problem of how popular the hardware is, when amd release a new tech such as fuji e.g. they are now only putting it on their highest end cards and the lower ones are just rebrands of older tech, this is important because it means consumers say screw this I am buying nvidia. Result nvidia has the marketshare. Game developers who do you think they will prioritise on game development? the one that has market share.

Most of the amd 300 series cards are rebrands of 200 series cards which themselves were rebrands. This is one reason I said to you in another thread to get a x90 series AMD card when you yourself were going to buy a low end amd card thinking you could game with it on 4k resolutions.

Regarding the youtubers yes they often recommend AMD for budget builds, thats the one area AMD compete in well.

Of course regarding noise a 3rd party AMD card may have superior cooling which is also quieter, but thats the same with nvidia. So a 3rd party AMD card might match a stock nvidia card for noise, but a 3rd party nvidia card would still likely beat it, but to be fair to a lot of gamers they dont care about the noise so it might not be relevant to you, I said that as well. Remember as well to consider what you putting the card in, amd's card run hot, airflow cools them down, a tight fitting steam box wont have good air flow.

Also I guess you forgotten that amd is pretty bad in linux as well.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/4/...

If you call me dumb again tho, I leave you to it, go ahead and tell us how it works out, you certianly seem to be one of the very few people even interested in a steam box, I consider it to have a very small market.

Edited by Chrysalis (Mon 25-May-15 01:15:55)

If you call me dumb again tho, I leave you to it, go ahead and tell us how it works out, you certianly seem to be one of the very few people even interested in a steam box, I consider it to have a very small market.

And Plastic Steering Wheels