{"id":43764,"date":"2018-08-27T06:00:11","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T10:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=43764"},"modified":"2018-08-27T05:22:28","modified_gmt":"2018-08-27T09:22:28","slug":"diecast-223-gpu-linux-vs-windows-net-neutrality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=43764","title":{"rendered":"Diecast #223: GPU, Linux vs. Windows, Net Neutrality"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the show I claimed we answered ALL mailbag questions. Technically we cut one because neither one of us had anything to say on the topic. Still, the ratio of useful \/ cut questions usually goes in the other direction so this was a pretty good week for the mailbag. As always, the address is in the header image.<\/p>\n


Direct download<\/a> (MP3)<\/small>Direct download<\/a> (ogg Vorbis)<\/small>Podcast RSS feed.<\/a><\/small><\/div>
\nHosts: Paul<\/a>, Shamus<\/a>. Episode edited by Issac<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Show notes:<\/p>\n

01:03 Graphics card naming <\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Diecast<\/p>\n

With Nvidia’s announcement of their new RTX 2000 cards and all their talk of Giga Rays it reminded me of a problem I used to have back when I worked in gaming retail. <\/p>\n

Due to the fact that most PC games had\/have limited use one time codes we had a no returns policy on PC games which is obviously a problem for people who do not know if a particular game will run on their hardware. Customers would often ask me if a particular game will run on their PC and I would try and answer to the best of my ability but sometimes it is not always easy to help. Sometimes their hardware would be older or newer and I would have to try guesstimate how it compared to the listed requirements or they would ask why 2 graphics cards were so different in price or performance when they had the same amount of VRAM, etc. <\/p>\n

My question at the end of all of this is could there be a better way to classify and quantify hardware performance so that people who are not experts can more easily figure out what they have and what they need?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Regards Eric<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

10:51 Linux vs. Windows<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Dear casters of die,<\/p>\n

recently Steam released Proton, their custom Wine implementation allowing
\nLinux users to run Windows games. Do you guys think this could cause a shift
\nin the market?<\/p>\n

As always, thanks for the great show!<\/p>\n

-Tim<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Looking into this after the show, I can see why I didn’t hear about this sooner. Proton isn’t really ready for casual adoption yet. You can tell because you don’t get it from Valve. Instead, you get it from GitHub<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On one hand, getting Windows games running on Linux is a HARD problem to solve. On the other hand, Valve has deep pockets and it is<\/em> solvable. It’s too soon to tell right now, but it will be very interesting to see how this works out in the long term. Maybe this will be another SteamBox style failure, or maybe this will be another paradigm shift like Steam itself. Either way, it’s a good thing for PC Gamers. Anything that keeps Microsoft from getting too complacent is good for us.<\/p>\n

19:20 Satisfactory <\/strong><\/p>\n

Given you’re Minecraft and Factorio fans, thoughts \/ impressions \/ hopes for Satisfactory?<\/p>\n

Regards<\/p>\n

G<\/p><\/blockquote>\n