It has a great update cadence time frame, and good hardware support (indirectly backed by IBM). And games really well in Steam/Proton.
That’ll get you the most Windows like experience on Linux, for an average user who doesn’t like to tinker much and just wants it to work out of the box.
Just make sure to accept third party libraries / apps when you first install. It’s a single checkbox that you click.
given nvidia having a better performance to cost ratio,
In what part of the world? I haven’t found that to be true.
the power usage (big one for a compact living room system),
You might want to do some more homework in this area. I recall AMD having better performance/watt in the tests I read before buying, but it’s hard to declare a clear-cut winner, because it depends on the workloads you use and the specific cards you compare. AMD and Nvidia don’t have exactly equivalent models, so there’s going to be some mismatch in any comparison. In stock configurations, I think both brands were roughly in the same ballpark.
Departing from stock, some AMD users have been undervolting their cards, yielding significant power savings in exchange for slight performance loss. Since you’re planning a compact living room system, you might want to consider this. (I don’t know if Nvidia cards can do this at all, or whether their drivers allow it.)
Regardless of brand, you can also limit your frame rate to reduce power draw. I have saved 30-90 watts by doing this in various games. Not all of them benefit much from letting the GPU run as fast as it can.
and the fact that they have the potential for HDMI2.1 support which AMD doesn’t have a solution to yet.
AMD cards do support HDMI 2.1. Did you mean Fixed Rate Link features, like variable refresh rate, or uncompressed 4K@120Hz? You’re not going to get that natively with any open-source GPU driver, because the HDMI Forum refuses to allow it. Most people with VRR computer displays use DisplayPort, which doesn’t have that problem (and is better than HDMI in nearly every other way as well). If you really need those FRL features on a TV, I have read that a good DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapter will deliver them.
Another thing to consider: How much VRAM is on the AMD card vs. the Nvidia card you’re considering? I’ve found that even if a card with less VRAM does fine with most games when it’s released, it can become a painful constraint over time, leading to the cost (and waste) of an early upgrade even if the GPU itself is still fast enough for the next generation of games.
I switched from Nvidia to AMD, and have not been sorry.
Just wait and see how good those drivers are first.
AMD given nvidia having a better performance to cost ratio
When the fuck?
and the fact that they have the potential for HDMI2.1 support which AMD doesn’t have a solution to yet.
An open source solution exists for Intel, the way it works is just by a translation layer between HDMI & DisplayPort. I imagine AMD will do the same thing.
given nvidia having a better performance to cost ratio
I actually agree. The 6700 XT, for example, was supposed to compete with the 3070, but instead, it barely surpassed the 3060ti in real world tests.
But I agree with your main point, and I’d trade that slight drop in performance per dollar for a better experience on Linux. I’m planning my exit strategy from Windows, and I’m still working on accepting that my Nvidia card just won’t feel as nice (until NVK is more mature).
An Nvidia 3070 costs 420 and benchmarks at 22,403 (benchmark point per dollar 53.34) An AMD 6800 costs 360 and benchmarks at 22,309 (benchmark point per dollar 61.97)
So you get a 0.4% drop in performance for a 14.3% drop in price. That is significantly more performance per dollar.
Or if you go with a 3070ti ($500 23,661 -> 47.32) vs a 7800 XT ($500 23,998 -> 47.97) you get a 1.4% performance increase for free (not really that significant I know, but still it’s free performance)
My numbers were taken from a comparison of real world performance via gameplay (FPS comparisons), not artificial benchmark scores, but those prices are still really good.
6800 is better than a 3070 in both artificial benchmarks and real-world ones, and the fact that it’s cheaper means it’s certainly the better option for performance per dollar (somewhere between a 3070ti and a 3080).
They really should care, because that market is growing, and Steam Deck uses Linux. Not sure which GPU decks use but… It would be cool they cared just a little bit.
It’s a relatively small niche. NVIDIA won’t beat AMD at the embedded space because they just don’t have a CPU, so they can’t make something like the Deck has.
If we do see NVIDIA in the handheld space, it’ll be either a full SOC that only goes GeForce now, or they’ll team up with Intel for a prosumer device, which will probably run Windows.
The Linux market is growing, but it’s also quite small. NVIDIA mostly cares about AI these days, so they’re far more interested in the data center and probably won’t dedicate many resources to anything else, other than Windows gaming, which is a biggest.
It would be nice, but Linux gamers still have options. AMD is tried and true, and Intel has a good track record for Linux support, so either of those would be good options. Unfortunately, this means you’re better off in the bottom too middle of the market, as top of market is still dominated by NVIDIA.
I’m just saying there aren’t that many Linux users and Linux handhelds (e.g. Steam Deck) use AMD APUs, so NVIDIA probably doesn’t care all that much. That’s really it.
If we want NVIDIA to care more, Linux needs more people using it. A lot more. And they need to be using it on desktop or laptop hardware.
Sure, but that hardware is incapable of running PC games because it runs ARM, not x86. So if it’s going into a handheld, it will either be a locked down console like Nintendo, or run something with a compat layer like Windows (unlikely because it’ll leave a lot of performance on the table until games port).
So the Switch existing has no impact on Nvidia courting Linux users.
A lot of displays don’t support DP unfortunately. I have an LG C2 which is perfect for desktop use and one of the more affordable OLED screens out there, and it does not support DP. The PC monitor equivalent that uses the same panel is made by Asus, but that one has a $600 dollar mark up.
There are converters these days, albeit with some minor quirks. And they typically only use DP 1.4 anyway, although that’s enough for perceptually lossless 4k@120hz + HDR.
Do they support VRR though? Last I heard that was still an issue with these converters.
Yes, some of them do but it can be dependent on the firmware (some of them are flashable). I will add that my display supports both Freesync over HDMI and VRR, and it’s not always clear which it is actually using under the hood, so be aware of that. You’ll need a pretty recent kernel. Definitely at least 6.3 but prefer 6.6 or later.
My experience is the adapters have much better support under Linux as well, with them being almost useless on Windows (no HDR, no VRR, and potentially no 120Hz). But it’s been a while since I’ve tested.
Did you copy the wrong link? This was a random youtube video.
Good to hear that some adapters do work though. The lack of HDMI 2.1 basically prevented me from ever considering AMD, but if there are converters that work that certainly opens up my options.
Thanks! So VRR works out of the box for you or did you have to do tweaks to get it to work? The answers on the Amazon page are conflicting, with the manufacturer saying VRR is not supported but some users saying it does. Don’t know who to believe.
Should work out of the box with Plasma 5/6 (6 if you want HDR) and Sway.
VRR didn’t work with older firmware versions but there have been updates since so the manufacturer information may be out of date. If it doesn’t work, there are links in the gitlab thread for newer firmware (you’ll probably need Windows to update although I saw some vague references that it might be possible on Linux). The adapter is mostly useless on Windows for the record, although you can just swap to a direct HDMI connection in that case.
Oh and I’ll add there are some instances where you may need to power cycle your TV/monitor and/or switch console VTs, if you get a black screen or if HDR fails to toggle on/off.
And lastly, gamescope session didn’t work reliably last time I checked, but it’s been a while.
You didn’t list your distro, but I had the same issue on Pop!_OS. I fixed it by modifying the ALSA properties in /usr/share/wireplumber/main.lua.d/50-alsa-config.lua. I’d first try uncommenting headroom and changing it to 1024, then logging out and back in. If that doesn’t work, go 2048. If that still doesn’t work, then I’d maybe try adjusting period-size.
For me, a value in the ~1200 range for headroom fixed it completely. But it will entirely depend on your sound card/hardware. And note, these values will probably be overwritten with any wireplummer updates.
Also keep in mind, increasing headroom will increase audio latency, so try not to increase it too drastically.
I was running Bazzite on my Deck, which uses pipewire(-pulse?), and it had intermittent audio crackling. I swapped back to SteamOS some time ago, which I believe uses just PulseAudio, and the audio crackling is gone. I suspect either there’s something funky going on with the default config, or there’s something wrong with pipewire-pulse itself.
Either way, hopefully someone can corroborate or that can help point you in the right direction.
After I installed my new graphics card, I started having audio issues in games, crackling, stuttering, etc. Had been using X without issue prior to the upgrade. Switching to Wayland fixed it. Never figured out why. Was (still am) on Nobara 38 I believe.
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