Linux GPU support available through various drivers and tools.
Linux GPU support available through various drivers and tools.
Choose AMD for simplicity and plug-and-play ease. Opt for Nvidia if you're tackling complex problems, but be aware it may not support Linux users well. Nvidia has a reputation for prioritizing gamers over general consumers, which has led to high prices. If you value stability and cost-effectiveness, AMD is the better choice. Miners tend to favor Nvidia, so sticking with AMD avoids potential issues.
It's not. It's as good as their windows counterpart, you just need to install the driver yourself (like you also have to do on windows). It won't make a difference. Go with a system with an updated kernel and it should work out of the box for any recent AMD gpu (as in, rx470/480 or newer) since the drivers are built into the driver. As long as you don't need to do any compute workload, you should be good to go. That video is really old, and AMD drivers were even worse than nvidia's back then. As you said yourself, nvidia GPUs work without problems nowadays. It has a driver config gui, it's ugly af and basic, but it's there, unlike AMD or Intel: Also anecdotally: I've used a gt840m, gtx 1050ti and 2060 Super without any issues on linux (and I'm currently waiting a 3060 on the mail), whilst my previous rx280 and rx480 gave me tons of headaches.
It's clear that AMD improved its Linux compatibility over time, especially after 2015. This progress likely influenced my decision to switch. Interestingly, the drivers for Windows still pose challenges. How recently did you own those AMD components? What issues were you experiencing? If you relied on the fglrx driver instead of the open-source Mesa version, that could be the cause. Today, AMD GPUs work seamlessly on Linux without any setup needed. For me, Nvidia presented significant problems—often requiring fixes for screen tearing and text display issues. I also had to manually adjust configuration files and sometimes update drivers after kernel releases. Recently, I replaced an outdated laptop with an AMD model; the older drivers failed with newer kernels. However, my AMD system remained stable. Overall, newer Nvidia GPUs become increasingly difficult to run on Linux, sometimes making performance unacceptably low. In short, Nvidia has been a persistent hurdle for me. But with AMD hardware, my KDE experience is much smoother and more responsive, particularly during gaming sessions.
I acknowledge this and suggest it for anyone focused solely on gaming, as it launches ready to use. Yet, for computational tasks AMD remains unreliable, and even their open source tools pose challenges. Their proprietary version functions, but you’re left facing the same limitations as Nvidia. Three years ago with my RX480, I faced numerous problems—HDMI audio, displayport output, poor performance, and kernel crashes. While AMDGPU development was active, my experience was still limited to basic use. Compiling ROCm took me over eight hours with errors, whereas Nvidia handled it smoothly. I didn’t encounter tearing issues or have to adjust xorg.conf; that’s expected for a kernel module. For any non-mainline drivers, legacy support is poor. My older APU (Llano) performed poorly, and even my 280X has minimal AMDGPU support. The newer Radeon driver is still problematic. In short, it’s not ideal unless you’re just looking to play games.