cross-posted from: https://lemmy.nowsci.com/post/7576006

Hey all,

In the market for a GPU, would like to use Bazzite, mostly a Steam user with some SteamVR (rare), and have run into nvidia issues with Bazzite and a 3070 previously.

With the recent news on nVidia’s beta drivers and Plasma’s sync support in beta, I’m newly on the fence about switching to AMD given nvidia having a better performance to cost ratio, the power usage (big one for a compact living room system), and the fact that they have the potential for HDMI2.1 support which AMD doesn’t have a solution to yet.

What are community thoughts? I’ll probably hold out for some reports on the new drivers regardless, but wanted to check in with the hive mind.

Thanks!

  • @Fizz@lemmy.nz
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    2523 days ago

    Since when do nvidia have a better performance to cost ratio? Have you been look at that gpubenchmark site that basically shills nvidia gpus and shits on and?

  • kbal
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    23 days ago

    Recent news brings some hope that nvidia might also be okay in the future. For now, 100% AMD if you’ve got the choice.

  • @electricprism@lemmy.ml
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    23 days ago

    HDMI is proprietary, so keep in mind that if anyone is ahead it’s because HDMI cock blocked AMD.

    That said, Display Port is superior as it’s not proprietary so the sooner we move away from HDMI the better for all.

    Other factors you may consider are – can you wait to see? Does it make sense to buy for features that haven’t been delivered yet and might not be as advertised? Only you can answer for you.

    • fmstratOPA
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      222 days ago

      I’m on a borrowed GPU on my desktop, so can’t wait too long unfortunately.

  • nvidia having a better performance to cost ratio

    Every time I’ve checked, AMD has way better raster performance to cost ratio. If you want RTX though (does it work properly on Linux?), NVIDIA is the best option.

    My AMD card doesn’t use a ton of power. I’m rocking a 6650XT, which has pretty good performance (rivals consoles), was pretty cheap ($200-ish IIRC), and works for everything I’ve needed it for. It’s probably a bit sketchy for VR, but VR on Linux has bad enough support that it’s probably not going to matter either way. The HDMI 2.1 thing doesn’t bother me at all because I just use DP on my PC (doesn’t solve the living room system use case though).

    I used NVIDIA for 5-ish years and it was fine, just not great. I’d have a driver breakage about 1-2x/year, which was easy enough to fix, but the more annoying thing was lack of Wayland support. Maybe it works now, but will it work for whatever comes out some years from now? I’m confident AMD will support Linux, I’m not confident that NVIDIA will.

    So my choice is AMD because:

    • fantastic price/performance, provided you’re looking at mid-range - top end seems to use a lot more power
    • fantastic Linux support - haven’t had a single issue with drivers since switching from NVIDIA, and I’m loving Wayland
    • does everything I need it to do

    But you do you. I’ve heard NVIDIA works fine as well, you just might run into a few issues here and there. For top-end performance, they have the crown, and nothing is close on RTX. I personally don’t need top-end performance, and the other issues are more important to me.

  • @mudle@lemmy.mlM
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    723 days ago

    I would say wait to buy an AMD card (but you do you). Wayland Explicit Sync is out in the 555 driver, and NVK is cooking.

  • @pelotron@midwest.social
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    423 days ago

    I’m running an AMD 7800 XT on Bazzite right now and it’s been my best Linux experience so far. I play stuff like Cyberpunk, Helldivers, Chivalry 2, etc all the time.

  • While gaming performance with the nVidia drivers is often better (I’m talking about FPS alone, not taking into account the card price), the interaction with the desktop environments is way better for AMD, because their drivers are fully maintained as part of open source projects. What I mean are the tools to configure display resolution, and if you are using multiple monitors, their relative positioning. Everything just works. This alone is reason enough for me to strongly recommend AMD over nVidia.

  • @narc0tic_bird@lemm.ee
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    323 days ago

    NVIDIA is getting better but AMD (and Intel Arc for that matter) is still more straightforward. No proprietary driver required as hardware support is right in the kernel, no need for any kernel modules and it’s pretty much plug-and-play. You can swap your AMD card for an Intel Arc card, do absolutely zero package/driver installs and it will boot right back to your desktop. It’s easier compared to Windows, while dealing with NVIDIA is harder.

  • @Fizz@lemmy.nz
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    123 days ago

    I feel like this is gonna be the year of the nvidia linux gamer. Nvidia is noticing us.