Hey this maybe a stupid question. I am considering on buying a GPU. I am in conflict between nvidia and AMD. I know AMD works better on linux in general but I am curious to follow the NVIDIA advancements as they go with the new open source kernel modules and stuff… I don’t know if it is worth it to pick team green over team red. Also typically performance will be better with NVIDIA on compute and stuff like that.
P.S.
Yes, this is related to the previous post I made here.
Unless you are a power user who is confident in your ability to troubleshoot weird/esoteric issues and bugs, just go AMD.
If there aren’t any specific features you need from Nvidia, like CUDA for CAD/Render workloads, AMD is going to have a higher chance of #JustWorking and will give you awesome gaming performance.
I’ve got a 6700XT paired with a 5800X3D running Nobara Linux for my main gaming rig. Love it to death, runs everything butter smooth.
For instance, Deep Rock Galactic maxed settings at 1080p, I don’t ever see it dip below about 160FPS, and most of the time it’s between 180-210, which feels amazing on my 240Hz monitor.
In defense of Nvidia, things are wayyy better than they were even 2-3 years ago, and the majority of folks, especially with older Nvidia GPUs, seem to have a pretty decent experience on Linux.
That being said, I would estimate that roughly 75% of the posts I see from users who are having really odd/random issues with Linux have an Nvidia GPU.
Upvoted because DRG was mentioned.
I’ve got a 3070. What can I expect when I install Mint?
It will install fine and will use the open source nouveau driver by default. After install, you can search the app for configuring drivers to install the proprietary driver from NVIDA from there via a GUI.
I think you have to manually install the Nvidia drivers. If you search “drivers” in the Cinnamon launcher, they have a system app to download and install them.
Only recent issue I’ve seen from AMD folks is VRR problems via HDMI. No idea if that affects Nvidia users, but I’d imagine it’s a small subset of AMD users experiencing that.
The VRR problems are specifically related to either monitors not supporting Freesync over HDMI or the user running a monitor expecting HDMI VRR to work on HDMI 2.1 specs (>4k@60hz or equivalent bandwidth negotiation requirements). I would concur a small subset of users is correct for the use-cases where this becomes a problem.
The problem with this question is that most NVIDIA owners will have experience based on a very different stack than you will experience.
NVIDIA and Wayland have had very big problems that have only recently been resolved. If you are using a very up-to-date distribution then you will have a great experience ( see other comments here about EndeavourOS for example ). If you have a distribution that does not have the latest, there will probably be issues.
AMD has been the clear go-to choice for Linux for years. It is still a safe bet. The safest bet based on history. That said, AMD does have issues as well and with the NVIDIA issues now resolved it is not as clear cut. NVIDIA may actually be the better choice.
AMD unless you’re actually running AI/ML applications that need a GPU. AMD is easier than NVidia on Linux in every way except for ML and video encoding (although I’m on a Polaris card that lost ROCm support [which I’m bitter about] and I think AMD cards have added a few video codecs since). In GPU compute, Nvidia holds a near-dictatorship, one which I don’t necessarily want to engage in. I haven’t ever used an Intel card, but I’ve heard it seems okay. Annecdotally, graphics support is usable but still improving for gaming. Although its AI ecosystem is immature, I think Intel provides special Tensorflow/Torch modules or something, so with a bit of hacking (but likely less than AMD) you might be able to finagle some stuff into running. Where I’ve heard these shine, though, is in video encoding/decoding. I’ve heard of people buying even the cheapest card and having a blast in FFMPEG.
Truth be told, I don’t mess with ML a lot, but Google Colab provides free GPU-accelerated Linux instances with Nvidia cards, so you could probably just go AMD or Intel and get best usability while just doing AI in Colab.
Can AMD still do stuff like Stable Diffusion, even if it’s slower or worse?
I’ve heard of people coercing even my graphics card, an RX 580. However, I avoid generative AI for ethical reasons and also because Microsoft is trying to shove it down my throat. I really hope that copyright law prevails and that companies will have to be much more careful with what they include in their datasets.
I went with Nvidia and I never really had any issues on Linux with it (I only use Linux).
AMD might be better on Linux out of the box in the sense that you can just install whatever distro and it’s going to work and with Nvidia some distros will require to install the drivers yourself or tinker one time in the terminal but it’s really not that big of a deal
But go with whatever you think is best for you.
I must say, I switched to a system with AMD and there’s no going back for me. If Linux is going to be your daily driver, it’s absolutely AMD.
99% depends on your budget too. I have a 7900XTX and it has been smooth on wayland
I don’t think the new open-source modules will help bring the features to Linux. NVIDIA isn’t interested in making their monopolist features reverse engineerable.
Are you mixing two concepts?
The Open Source kernel modules will work with the proprietary Linux drivers which have all the features.
There will also be Open Source drivers which do lack features. However, “Linux” still has the features via the proprietary drivers.
I meant the open-source drivers and the ability for the community (or AMD) to copy, add and improve the features.
AMD is not generally better, not on Linux not on Windows. The GPUs are more expensive (I heard) and have worse performance, and no CUDA support (likely NVIDIA threatened them so they told the ZLUDA dev to stop).
NVIDIA totally sucks, but my experiences with AMD CPU+GPU (Thinkpad T495, Vega mobile 8) were not really great with constant freezes after sleep).
Intel really has the best support. And maybe some ARM GPUs.
(I heard)
Anecdotes aren’t data. It’s not difficult to find comparative pricing information. I think you would generally find this is untrue, though it’s worth considering regional pricing.
no CUDA
EULA violation. This one is cut and dry. You could have made a better point about the state of ROCm (narrow product and platform support, poor documentation, library gaps in HIP).
intel has best support
Look at the state of ANV for Arc dGPU on Linux.
It could have changed, but last I checked, I think AMD cards actually tend cheaper or about the same as Nvidia for the same specs. I’m not a cultish defender of AMD, though, as ROCm support sucks honestly (biased though because I’m bitter about Polaris being dropped so quick).
Your Thinkpad problem sounds more like some sort of power profile problem rather than an AMD GPU issue, though it could just be with Vega. I have an AMD Cezzanne Thinkpad E16 with an AMD iGPU that works very nicely, probably one of the best-working Linux devices I’ve ever owned.
You can still technically use Vega and Polaris with ROCm, the official stance is that it’s no longer validated.
With that said, the setup and development experience is pretty dire and the docs do not seem to get updated in a timely manner.
What are you using it for. Just gaming?
I am using it for gaming on windows. I will dual boot with a different os on seperate drives. For linux, i want something stable that won’t crash on wayland.
For linux, i want something stable that won’t crash on wayland.
Then AMD it is.
You have to decide what is more important to you: Linux compatibility or ray tracing and CUDA? There are other differences, but those are the big ones.
Only difference is CUDA. AMD does better ray tracing from what I’ve seen, and FSR is more performant in most cases as well vs DLSS, though DLSS may have some quality tests which is subjective.
Intel
