Graphics hardware for free software games

[ksenia]

What CPU with built-in graphics or graphics card do you use or do you recommend that runs well in GNU/Linux without proprietary drivers and can run 3D free software games smoothly with advanced graphic options (shadows, reflections)? Which one do you use personally and how does it serve you for libre gaming?

[Julius]

Both Intel and AMD has build in GPUs that fulfill these requirements (on GNU/Linux). The build in GPUs of AMD are a bit more performant in general.

For dedicated GPUs AMD has excellent FOSS drivers since 1-2 years for GNU/Linux (the Windows ones still kinda suck according to a friend of mine who insists on using Windows ).

I personally have not upgraded my PC for a while, and back then NVIDIA was the only feasible option for gaming under GNU/Linux. Their drivers work fine, but are closed source.

I will finally get a Pinebook Pro in the coming days however (with Manjaro Linux preinstalled) and that comes with a ARM Mali T860 MP4 GPU (using the FOSS Panfrost drivers). Not really an "upgrade" though

[dulsi]

Probably best to mention what games you intend to run. I have an Intel chip. I don't play a lot of 3D free software games. Those I have tried have no problems. I have found on some closed source games I needed to set the graphics down.

[GunChleoc]

I just tried 0AD on my Intel with maximum graphics settings and there was no problem - It's an i7 processor though, so I guess it can also depends on which Intel

[ksenia]

Thanks for the answers.

Probably best to mention what games you intend to run.

Among the ones I play, IIRC 0 A.D. and SuperTuxKart are the most demanding in graphics.

[freem]

The only thing I know on the topic is, the OpenGL implementation which comes from intel integrated GPUs does a lot of noise in valgrind (a runtime tool that allows to analyze a binary for various problems, including memory leaks). That noise makes it hard to identify real problems, and "magically" disappear when using even old NVidia hardware, with both non-free official and nouveau implementation. It also disappears when using software rendering. Performances are higher running under valgrind with the NV GPU than with integrated, but without valgrind, the integrated GPU is faster than the added GPU.
I would need to check it anew, but I think using valgrind, I had similar or close performances using software implementation and integrated GPU. The game I did those tests on was RedEclipse 1.6.
All those were done on a Debian 10 "buster", the dedicated GPU is a GeForce 8400GS, CPU and thus integrated GPU is "Intel(R) Pentium(R) Gold G5500 CPU @ 3.80GHz".
The testing with NVidia GPU was done with bumblebee, which added some felt latency in the game even when not using bumblebee.
Valgrind is a free software that runs a program under an emulated RISC-CPU, if I am not wrong, which explains the really low performances, but it is reputed for it's accuracy.

I hope those information helps.