If you were in the market for new hardware and wanted the purchase to support initiatives such as this--what would you buy?
I don't really game any more but like to support the ecosystem.
I don't really game any more but like to support the ecosystem.
I had a 7770 for a year before I switched to Nvidia. Better all around.
Still AMD do sponsor open source driver development, I'm told, so it's up to how much you're willing to sacrifice for this.
I eventually ended up buying a radeonsi card and while the extra GPU oomph is nice, the lower stability is not.
Intel is ok too, but their hardware is not really targeted for gamers.
That being said, if you are fine with using proprietary drivers, currently nothing beats nVidia in terms of performance, features and stability of OpenGl drivers.
You would be supporting the ecosystem with any purchase, but if you are politically inclined on free software then the choice is AMD or Intel.
FWIW, I find the latest graphics units from Intel, e.g. HD 4600, rather okay. Even graphically nontrivial things like Crusader Kings II or KSP run decently, although usually far from the highest possible settings. But on the other hand, the drivers are rock-solid, delivered directly in Debian without any fiddling around as was/is necessary for the Nvidia drivers and I don’t need my own powerplant just to run a computer :)
The Maxwell-based 750ti is the card to buy then. It's tiny, draws a reasonable amount of power and I've yet to see a game that doesn't run well on high.