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.
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.
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.
99% depends on your budget too. I have a 7900XTX and it has been smooth on wayland
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 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.
