Quite liking it so far, though it’s a bit like stepping back 20 years with the fiddling to get some games working. Next step will probably be ditching the Nvidia card for something else.
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That portion will only grow over time.
Definitely ditch Nvidia. I bought an AMD one and it works with Linux without any hassle or tinkering.
Do Linux distributions unable to work with Nvidia cards? I had a laptop with an nvidia GPU on Ubuntu, didn’t seem to have issues, although I used the proprietary driver.
Nvidia works fine on Linux, I used it for ~10 years in both rolling and stable distros (Ubuntu, Arch, and openSUSE Tumbleweed). AMD just works better because the driver is FOSS and included with the kernel. Specifically, this means:
- no upgrade failures - if the kernel and nvidia driver sees out of sync, it’ll fail to boot to a GUI and you’ll need to fix it without the GUI; only really an issue on rolling release distros, and then only a couple times/year
- better support for new rendering features - for a long time, Nvidia just didn’t work with Wayland because they refused to implement the same interface as AMD; they have since backtracked, but AMD still probably works better with Wayland
- timely updates - AMD updates come with the new kernel, Nvidia comes when someone updates the package
If you already have Nvidia, don’t feel obligated to replace your GPU, but the next time you’re looking to upgrade, consider AMD.
AMD has been great on Linux.
I’m curious about Intel’s cards, though. They seem to be offering some solid competition now, but I haven’t heard anything about their Linux support.
IIRC, Intel just straight up settled on using DXVK in their drivers after realizing it’d take them ages to catch up to AMD and Nvidia.
Good to know. Will probably be a while before I replace it though as it’s a 3080. Will just play the games that work in the meantime (which is most of them so far).
Keep an eye on the NVK project.
Nvidia is the main reason I went with Pop!OS. it just works. heck I’m honestly surprised people are still having issues on other distros.
but now you have already got it working there’s no need to make plans to upgrade for a good long while. Things could change in the market many times before a 3080 isn’t good enough, shit it will probably burn out before that’s the case.
I went from an ATI Raedon to a 3060 Ti. Graphics cards don’t need to be upgraded very often and I think we’ve hit a tipping point where, like I said, the electronics will die long before the gaming performance is unacceptable.
People exaggerate issues with Nvidia. There’s certainly some substance to it, but having used Nvidia for ~10 years on Linux, it’s fine. The main caveats only really apply if you’re on a bleeding edge distro and want the latest features working.
Here are the issues I’ve had:
- kernel/driver mismatch - solved by manually reinstalling the package, loading from snapshot and trying again in a few days (happened 2-3x/year)
- Wayland support - keep using X11 if Nvidia is giving you issues on Wayland
That’s it. It largely works fine. You probably won’t get all of the features (not sure about the state of DLSS and RTX on Linux), but it’ll get the job done.
I’ve since switched to AMD and am happier, but if i found a good deal on an Nvidia card, I’d switch back.
Bazzite gets drivers quickly since it’s a rolling release with updates once a week. I’d assume Pop OS might feel better on Nvidia because it hasn’t switched to Wayland, yet.
Nvidia isn’t a bad experience on Bazzite or other Universal Blue OSs. But AMD is better.
You can run Wayland out of the box but there’s ironically non-graphical issues that have stopped me from giving it the time of day.
Never noticed any graphical issues in the time I was using it, but it wasn’t long.
Wayland on nvidia for me only has annoying glitches. Nothing serious.
Sure if I were getting a new card I’d consider amd. But the issues have only been a minor annoyance.
My issues were minor, too. I just wanted to make things as smooth as possible, and to also sell my 3070 while it still held some value. I ended up being able to transition to a 7800XT for only $200. Now, it really wasn’t much of an upgrade, but I’m happy to be off of Windows and Nvidia.
For the record, I find it’s harder to get all display features working (HDR, VRR, HDMI 2.1 support and so forth) than to get Nvidia drivers installed. Linux’s display issues aren’t just Nvidia compatibility. Particularly on Bazzite, where they have a specific install for Nvidia with the drivers baked in.
Nvidia isn’t very bad on Linux but I can agree about the installation of drivers manually is annoying
The drivers still need to get better. For instance, it still doesn’t support multi monitor VRR in Wayland.
ohh okay,I only have 1 monitor so oh well.
I had a similar arc this year. I did go through with switching from Nvidia to AMD. I started with Bazzite, but ended up on Aurora.
I’m very happy ditching Windows.
I liked the look of Aurora as well, ultimately decided that Bazzite was a better fit as I spend so much time gaming. Still learning how to get things set up the way I want, but at least Steam works out of the box.
I do a lot of gaming, too. But I wanted some of the developer features in aurora-dx. Very happy with it.
