Many thanks for the replies, A major reason for posting for help is it does wonders for ones own reasoning and sugestions arising almost alwasy helps. A couple of points. The hardware is all higher end items, the pSu for instance being a Corsair AX760 and the power consumed is WELL within the limits of this PSU. The reason for the Radeon 7870 is I do a lot of development work on 3D animated graphics (I am developing a train simulator) and good mesa3d performance is mandatory. The problem is almost certainly something to do with the GPU as as stated the sound does keep playing so what is happenning is an xserver display lockup and the kernel is still running (Note it appears the X app concerned vlc is still running.. My own thinking is Craig has hit the nail firmly on the head, although I have run the 7870 extensively on i386 with little trouble (Note I have actaully struck this before, an AMD card giving problems under certain versions of linux). I believe the way forward also is for an Nvidia card. I have tried both AMD and Nvidia offerings and from all this experience the Nvidia's with the closed source driver is superior. I do compile my own kernels, this machine (I am writing this on the AMD64 installed machine) is 3.16.7 compiled last november so its due for an update. Note also I have tried updating the kernel, it did not help. I do like to support AMD as the are at least trying to do something for Linux, but I have found there closed src driver 2D performce to be completely ____PATHETIC____ to say the least, mind you its now two or more years since I tried it last. I give a look at digging up a reasonable Nvidia card, a real high end job is a waste of money though. Lindsay
On Sat, Sep 19, 2015 at 03:23:28PM +1000, zlinw@mcmedia.com.au wrote:
The problem is almost certainly something to do with the GPU as as stated the sound does keep playing so what is happenning is an xserver display lockup and the kernel is still running (Note it appears the X app concerned vlc is still running..
can you ssh in and kill the app or the X server?
My own thinking is Craig has hit the nail firmly on the head, although I have run the 7870 extensively on i386 with little trouble (Note I have actaully struck this before, an AMD card giving problems under certain versions of linux). I believe the way forward also is for an Nvidia card. I have tried both AMD and Nvidia offerings and from all this experience the Nvidia's with the closed source driver is superior.
before spending money on a new card, try the catalyst driver. it's as simple as 'apt-get install fglrx-driver' (for sid & testing, fglrx-glx for stable) and if it works, will save you hundreds of dollars. otherwise, see my comments on gtx-960 and gtx-970 below. also, try googling for things like 'linux 7870 crash' and similar - somone may have run into the same problem as you and figured out a fix or workaround.
I do compile my own kernels, this machine (I am writing this on the AMD64 installed machine) is 3.16.7 compiled last november so its due for an update. Note also I have tried updating the kernel, it did not help.
3.16.7 is ancient. there have been numerous fixes and updates to the radeon driver since then....it's worth trying a new kernel because just like trying fglrx it may save you hundreds of dollars if it works for you.
I give a look at digging up a reasonable Nvidia card, a real high end job is a waste of money though.
a GTX-960 for around $260-$290 is roughly comparable with a Radeon 7870. a GTX-970 for around $450-$500 is significantly better than a 7870. http://www.hwcompare.com/18439/geforce-gtx-960-vs-radeon-hd-7870/ http://www.hwcompare.com/18058/geforce-gtx-970-vs-radeon-hd-7870/ BTW, i did some research a few weeks ago when i was considering upgrading the GTX-560 on my win7 gaming box ...the Gigabyte WF30C GTX-970 seems the best value for money for 970 cards. i ended up deciding i didn't want to spend $479 if i didn't have to (my 560 wasn't displaying anything even after a cold reboot, so i thought it had died. fortunately after a few hours switched off at the wall, it came good again. i suspect it will probably have to be replaced eventually...or maybe playing Risen 3 put the card in a weird state) the 560 has been great - they were exceptionally good value for money at the time, so good that it hasn't been worth upgrading them. but i bought a 2560x1440 monitor a few months ago, and it's struggling in some games at full resolution. will probably have to get a gtx-970 eventually. craig -- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au>
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Craig Sanders -
zlinw＠mcmedia.com.au