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!
As have I. And everyone else I know. Nvidia sucks on Linux because they don’t care.
Uhhhh no? Think you got that the wrong way round.
Regardless, I would pay a lot more just to avoid the issues of Nvidia on Linux. It’s just not something I want to deal with.
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)
All of the numbers were taken from https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
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).
Here’s an old graph I still have saved:
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.
Deck uses AMD
Right. So if Nvidia would even have a chance at being dominant in that market if handhelds are starting to use Linux, they’d better start caring.
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 don’t know what you base everything you said on but it was a lot of text so it’s probably right. I feel like I’m out of my depth here. 😌👍
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.
Plus Nvidia already makes the soc for the Nintendo switch which is significantly more successful than the steam deck.
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.