Thanks nerdralph

I am not seeing much that you did in your blog that I have not tried, other than using the --px option when installing.  I wish you gave a little more detail, like every step, with commands (like I did in my first post).  Then I could duplicate exactly what you did and it may work for me. 

I am beginning to come to the conclusion that these cards just don't run correctly with the current linux drivers, and I will need to stick to windows.

It is really strange that I can run an almost identical card just fine (powercolor red devil rx580 8gb works just fine).  But the msi rx580 8gb does not.