so my old GPU died a few days ago and I was thinking which brand of GPU to get next. AMD or Nvidia? I’ve heard Nvidia drivers are very annoying with Linux but I’ve never had an AMD GPU before. Which would be better? I’ll sometimee switch to Windows to play specific games as well.
AMD all the way. Few weeks ago I finally made a switch from Nvida for the first time. I have no problems in gaming. All games that I play run same as on windows.
a question i have: I use pop!_OS and I installed it using the Nvidia ISO, will there be a problem if I switch to an AMD GPU?
I’ve decided to buy AMD but which one do I buy? I found a few used RX 6600 and RX 5700. Some of them have XT after them, and I don’t know what that means.
That all depends on what games you play. Do you want to play new AAA games or retro? Indie? What is your budget? XT is stronger version of regular 6600.
I guess spider-man miles morales would be the newest game I would play. I usually play older games.
Just chipping in to say I have a 3060 and I’m scared of every update breaking my drivers again - just don’t get a Nvidia, don’t do it to yourself
Short answer: AMD
Long answer: AMD used to be very bad, NVIDIA has always been the same, i.e. if you’re willing to use proprietary drivers it works, but it has some hiccups. A while back AMD open source their drivers so the game turned around, nowadays they’re very easy and compatible from what I’ve heard. I’ve used NVIDIA for over a decade, but my next card Winn be AMD for sure.
PS: if you’re still in doubt, the latest Linux kernel purposefully broke the NVIDIA proprietary driver because NVIDIA has been copyright infringing the Linux kernel by using functions that are considered so integral to the kernel that if you have to use them you work should be considered derivative and be bounded by GPL licence.
A while back AMD open source their drivers
No, they abandoned their proprietary driver and joined development of existing mesa driver. Basically as if Nvidia joined nouveau.
if you’re willing to use proprietary drivers it works, but it has some hiccups.
Pre-Pascal GPUs aren’t supported by closed source driver, so your only option there is nouveau.
He’s asking to buy a new one, so old cards not working is not really an issue. But are you sure about the Turing line (i.e. 20 series)? I thought the Maxwell (i.e. 7 series) was the oldest you can use on the proprietary drivers. In fact up until recently I had a 1080 that I used with the proprietary drivers.
if you’re willing to use proprietary drivers it works, but it has some hiccups
Do you know if nvidia still has issues with Wayland or are nvidia and MAD on par nowadays in that area?
The only way nVidia works well with Wayland is with nouveau
Their proprietary drivers still don’t work. They announced plans to make them work better, but they haven’t put in the work to merge them yet
Last I tried it didn’t worked, however last I told Reddit/Lemmy that NVIDIA didn’t worked on Wayland I was downvoted to hell and told it obviously worked and had worked for a long time. So in theory it works, but I was never able to get it to work and I have given up trying until I get an AMD card.
To add to the AMD part, RDNA3 drivers were actually quite bad at launch, I think they were mostly fixed only by April-May 2023. Now they work great. Also, if you’re interested in AI, stick with Nvidia. You can run most stuff on AMD cards, but it’s always an issue (The main one I’m having is that a lot of stuff depends on torch 2.0, while there’s only 2.1 for ROCm 5.5+)
Definitely AMD. The drivers are actually open source, much better with less bugs and there are no problems known to me. I currently have had a GTX 1070 for the last 5 years, until I’ve enough money for an AMD card. My setups, especially Wayland based, are riddled with bugs not present on my (Intel based) laptop - which means the only explanation is the NVidia card. The (admittedly: testing on Arch) drivers have broken two times in a year, not making the system unusable but definitely preventing gaming.
On top of that, the 4090 may be 25% better than the 7900 XTX - but it’s also 50+% more expensive than the 7900 XTX, which is a pattern which can be seen for every generation and version of GPUs by Nvidia/AMD. Nvidia’s equivalents to AMD’s cards are generally 25-50% more expensive, with worse performance but better Raytracing and of course DLSS support - oh wait, DLSS 1 and 2 are only for RTX 20 and up, while DLSS 4 is only for 40 Series GPUs. Which means no matter how good it looks, FSR will be the only alternative for almost all players, even those using NVidia cards like me.
Something different: Intel’s Arc GPUs would maybe be worth a shot. According to a PC World article, the A770 beats the 3060 even in it’s own habitat - Raytracing. It’s cheap and gets better with every driver update. It also seems like the Arc GPUs are compatible with Linux fine, though I’d suggest you look up the compatibility with the games you want to play.
I have a 1070 Ti, but I’m on Ubuntu and I haven’t had any issues at all for ~5 years. IMO the issue then is Arch, and how the drivers are handled. I also have only updated the driver once (450-server to 525-server), when Satisfactory switched to unreal engine 5.
I would still recommend AMD though, and I also plan on switching when I have the money for it.
I have a 1060 on Arch and had no problems whatsoever. It will get ugly once the 1060 is no longer supported by the mainline driver, though.
AMD, easily. Its literally plug and play. You can even pick some second hand options for cheap that are still solid for gaming such as the vega 56/64 and the RX 5700XT (which is I use). Intel isn’t bad so long as you’re not playing the newest stuff, my Arc a750 is solid in games like Fallout 4 and Elden Ring. Starfield is complete mess on it. Another thing with Intel is you’ll need a distro with a 6+ kernel to get the most out of it.
