MSI Radeon R7 370 4GB no-go issue

[akhali1]

Hello,

I put together a new gaming box and wanted it to be a SteamMachine. Well, some parts are new, some not so much. After installing SteamOS from a USB stick, I reboot, and the steam logo shows up on screen, but the boot never proceeds from there. The issue seems related to the video card, because when I plug the display into the onboard video, it works alright (but resolution is sucky, etc).

System stats:
ASRock Z97M Pro4
Intel Pentium G3258
16GB RAM
MSI Radeon R7 370 4GB
2TB WDEARS HDD

The video card is a new-ish model. Are there driver issues? Any ideas of something I can try? I'd hate to have to install Windows, can't live with onboard graphics alone ...

Thank you very much.

-akhali1

[BRAKE_N_ROLL]

check the bios and legacy devices. Make inabled

[BRAKE_N_ROLL]

ps. The bigger the drive the slower the machine

[ProfessorKaos64]

I have no idea what Branke N Roll is saying. This may be due to your AMD card, which on Linux is still not the best thing to use. SteamOS should be picking up the card, but is possible that model may have an issue. However, you can try Stephenson's Rocket, which will include older graphics drivers. You could also try to install SteamOS brewmaster over the default Alchemist out right now. I'd try the brewmaster version of Stephenson's Rocket.

http://stephensonsrocket.horse/

[akhali1]

Brake_N_Roll,

thanks for the advice, but I am not sure I figured out what to do. I can put together computer parts, but I am not an expert on UEFI. This is a link to my mobo's manual:

ftp://66.226.78.21/manual/Z97M%20Pro4.pdf

On page 93 (numbered 87) under the boot menu it has:

Launch Video OpROM Policy
Select UEFI only to run those that support UEFI option ROM only. Select Legacy
only to run those that support legacy option ROM only. Do not launch?


That's been set to "Legacy only" already. Is that what you were referring to? The only other "legacy" settings in the manual refer to USB and Thunderbolt. I don't think that has to do with the video card.

So I didn't change that setting, however, there is a slight change in system behavior. After the brief steam splash image, the monitor says the signal goes dead.

Regarding the PS, how does a big drive (in terms of bytes as opposed to inches) slow down a system? The HDD is definitely one of the older items I cobbled together, and I'd be happy to install an SSD, but one hasn't come along at the right price.

Thanks for any help.

-akhali1

[NeptNutz]

Read This: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1/618458030664167834/

You should probably grab a copy of Windows 7 or 8 retail (not OEM) while you still can. It's the best investment right now, imho.

If you are Linux die-hard, get a GTX 660 or above.

[akhali1]

Thanks for all the advice.

Stephenson's Rocket did install, but the system reboots every time I try to access the Steam library. Not that useful... will try the stock brewmaster tomorrow.

I have a Windows 7 OEM license I installed while I was stuck earlier. What's the difference between retail OEM? Anyway, it was a more difficult install in terms of drivers. I guess mobo and graphics card are newer than Windows 7. However, when I tried to get the Windows Performance Index, the system also reboots.

I am souring rapidly on the Radeon, and considering a Geforce instead ...

Also, the Internet has told me that combining an APU with a GPU doesn't really work that well compared to getting a better card (I'm not the expert there, just parroting the articles I read), otherwise I would have tried to build the system with AMD. Now that I have the Intel CPU, am I just better off with an NVIDIA under Linux?

Thanks

-akhali1

[NeptNutz]

Originally posted by akhali1:

I have a Windows 7 OEM license I installed while I was stuck earlier. What's the difference between retail OEM?

OEM loses support very quickly, whereas retail versions maintain support for a very long time, over different machines (one at a time of course).

Originally posted by akhali1:

Now that I have the Intel CPU, am I just better off with an NVIDIA under Linux?

Yes.

It's up to you. Though, honestly, $120 to play every game in Steam, for your hardware, is a pretty easy decision from where I'm standing.

[NeptNutz]

Originally posted by akhali1:

However, when I tried to get the Windows Performance Index, the system also reboots.

You might be in CMOS reset territory here.

Find the jumper!

[XÆЯO_Vince]

Yeah, Nvidia and Intel (for iGPUs) are a much better option for gaming on Linux right now. That said, AMD may improve as they are developing a brand new driver for Linux for future GPUs. The initial AMDGPU driver framework should land in Linux 4.3 but more work is needed beyond that to fully support Radeon power management and GPU re-clocking, but it's slowly coming together. Furthermore, AMD is in better shape with upcoming low-level APIs like Vulkan because supposidly they require far less "driver performance hacks", and the driver itself can be simpler and cleaner, whereas the game and engine developers have much more fine-level control over utilized GPU features.

[XÆЯO_Vince]

As for buying Windows... no real need for that if you don't already own it.

Although Windows is the best and easiest option to play Windows-only games, Linux can also support most Windows games with a variety of technologies. SteamOS out-of-the-box is equipped to support only one of these available technologies--In-Home Streaming. If you own another PC running Windows then streaming is all that you'll need to access your entire Steam library from your SteamOS machine. If you don't own another machine then you can try some of the other technologies but they require leaving behind the default SteamOS experience to set things up and aren't officially supported or endorsed by Valve.

[akhali1]

Hey, I appreciate everyone's help.

Turns out the main problem was a faulty power supply. Would give up when too much power is drawn. It's a 500W unit, though, should have plenty for the 53W CPU, 150W graphics, 2 DDR3 RAM modules and 7200RPM HD. Most power calculators estimate draw at 300W. Power supply was OCZ, and they (or FirePower) are not very helpful in figuring out what's going on. Also sold me a $30 set of replacement, and don't want to take them back now that I don't need them.

Fixed the problem by putting in a CoolerMaster 600W unit I happened to have. May need to get a smaller unit eventually.

Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions. Running Alchemist now, though, it (unscientifically) seems video is slightly slower than under Windows :( . I also dislike that I cannot filter my games by OS since the last update :(. Was very helpful to filter only SteamOS-compatible games on SteamOS.

Cheers

-akhali1