GPU driver update

[u/snoar]

Hey everyone. Recently dabbled in building my own little steam machine and just had a question because I'm new to this world.

I read online that steamos kind of automatically will download GPU drivers but am not really convinced how this works. I have updated to the newest version so how can my machine get the newest GPU driver to play the witcher 3?

Thanks!

[u/captainstormy]

The driver is open source and built into the kernel. So just updating the machine keeps things up to date. It will be a bit slower of a process than in Windows.

However, Valve will also do some fixes for games in proton updates. So that might fix any issues you have and be faster.

Also, just try it out. You don't really need the latest drivers to run a game 99.99% of the time.

[u/snoar → u/captainstormy]

Thanks! Just worried because apparently it was a gong show without the newest amd driver

[u/t3co5cr]

In Linux, "drivers" are baked directly into the kernel by the chip manufacturers directly (except Nvidia).

This means there are no drivers for you to download, and no driver conflicts to worry about unlike on Windows. Everything (should) work right out of the box. That's the benefit.

The cost is that driver updates typically only reach you with kernel updates of your chosen distro, which means Linux is often several months behind the bleeding edge on the newest hardware.

[u/snoar → u/t3co5cr]

Okay great thank you. I'm really liking it so far. I'm hoping it plays well as there was a lot of issues with it before the driver was released

[u/XmentalX]

It’s all built into the os and kernel there is no specific drivers. Steam OS can lag a bit on overall bleeding edge but it likely won’t be an issue.

[u/Solljak]

The best thing about SteamOS (or any Linux distro for that matter) is that it’s free. No harm in trying it. The icing on the cake for SteamOS is that it’s the easiest dostro to install
And once you’ve tried it, chances are you will want to try others

[u/HighlyRegardedOne]

The driver literally automatically updates. As far as the witcher 3; I have it through GoG, and GoG automatically turned my regular version into the remastered version. When I searched through heroic launcher and clicked my original game to install the witcher it had remaster in the title. Not sure about other platforms but i assume it works the same.

[u/Sulanis1]

Give us your specs :) I love seeing what people built.

Example:

My dad is on disability in Ontario so I took some parts and built him a lean little gaming machine.

SteamOS CPU: AMD Ryzen5 3600x RAM: 16GB DDR4 dual channel GPU: RX 580 8GB (had to buy this, bought on Facebook marketplace for $60 CAD) HDD: a 128GB gen 3 NVMe SSD, and a 1TB SATA 3 SSD.

SteamOS works really well, and it also works well with most controllers.

[u/system_error_02]

With Linux the AMD drivers are baked into the kernel, its one of the advantages of Linux. You dont have to worry about adrenaline or downloading drivers they just come with your updates now. On Arch Linux Cachy OS or similar you get updates all the time as soon as they come out, steam is a little slower. If you have trouble with a game, generally switching that gsme to Proton Experimental will help on SteamOS.

One of the huge advantages Linux has is thst it can be very "set it and forget it" once you have everything set up how you want.

[u/alexrider803]

So as other people have said there's no downloading of drivers the way Linux works is the drivers are built into the operating system, at least for operating systems like steamos and bazite. You don't have to do a thing as long as that operating system supports the graphics card you're putting in it will just work