What I wonder is, will AMD Opensource driver perform the same as AMD proprietary (if this still exists)?

Generally less issues with Nvi, for gamer, cracker..

I bought a 5700XT card about a year ago after getting the impression AMD's open source drivers were exceptional. But the card did not run under Slackware or any Linux I tried (I threw many at at). The issue then was (I think) that the drivers had not yet received support for the card, although the card itself had been out about 5 months.

I couldn't run AMD's "pro" divers since they were packaged only for Suse and Red Hat. It wasn't clear if that would have solved the issue anyway, and at that point I was getting frustrated so I returned the card for an NVidia 2070 Super.

Despite being proprietary, the Linux installer from NV has been very reliable (as was the SBo package), and it supported my new card (which came out the same time as the AMD).

So my experience is that you should confirm that support for any new AMD card has actually arrived in the presently shipping open source driver. And my opinion is that if your priority is getting the best performance from the latest GPU hotness, then the fact that AMD's drivers are open source should not be the only criterion.

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The reason for this is probably because some of AMD's (and board partner) cards are using blower fans while some have good coolers. Cards like my Sapphire Pulse usually don't go above 70, but those early blower-style cards will hit 100+ all the time

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At work last week I configured a new Debian workstation with an AMD 3200G APU. From Backports I installed the 5.8 kernel and related packages.

Works really nice. No hiccups, no video issues.

That is only one data point but I hope that helps.

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I have Nvidia. Your mileage may vary. While AMD works out of the box, so to speak, I had no end of trouble getting specific games working with it. (I've got a 1050ti, and it's pretty quiet and cool, unless I'm gaming. Then it goes up to about 41C) On the old computer, it was very noisy. New one, it's pretty quiet, but I think the new computer and/or kernel supports the power management better.

So should we throw out text editors to complete the holy war? (vim ftw.)

AMD proprietary still exists, but it isn't nearly as easy to install as Nvidia's. They have premade packages for a handful of OSes, and Slackware isn't one of them. With a lot of work, you can install the packages and tweak Slackware enough to work with them, but I lost the desire to do that years ago. The performance is quite similar between the two. Sometimes the proprietary will do better and other times the open source will do better.

@OP, Nvidia has no comparison with closed source drivers. They have supported Linux and Slackware for decades. However, they can be a bit behind to add support for newer kernels, which can leave users stuck on older kernels than desired or switch to the relatively low performing nouveau. It also requires building the kernel module for each kernel version you install (leads to a lot of building when running -current). They will also eventually stop supporting older cards (not an issue if you keep your card within the last few generations). Open source for Nvidia is pretty sad. Older cards perform ok with nouveau, but still not great. Newer cards are rarely supported well.

AMD offers proprietary drivers, but they are a pain to install on Slackware. However, their open source driver is actually pretty incredible. If you have a new enough kernel and mesa, you simply add the card and it just works. AMD has added huge amounts of code to the Linux kernel to better support their devices. Your only problem with AMD is if you install a card that is newer than your kernel or mesa, as you'll need to either try and get the proprietary driver installed or somehow get your mesa and/or kernel upgraded.

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Actually, at least Doom (2016) via proton, and several Feral Interactive ports (Alien Isolation, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Shadow of Mordor), the high temp/high frame rate and temperature I observed was a glitch in how I had freesync set up for amdgpu (samsung 4K freesync 60Hz LCD). Other than that, amdgpu has been great, performs well, but can be a bit tricky on games optimized for Nvidia. I see no need for AMDGPU-PRO unless you need OPENCL (I have a thread on LQ for a work around...).
Now the tricky part. Several sites state that you want to enable VSYNC="on" globally in driver/xorg but 'off' in games to have freesync (VRR) active. However, you shouldn't enable it for the desktop since this may cause some issues - depending on the window manager etc. In the above games, I've found that it's better to set VSYNC="on" or "adaptive" if adaptive is available. This keeps the GPU from trying to push too many frames in some scenes and menus. For Freesync or any VRR method to work, you MUST cap the game fps to the LCD monitor refresh rate - that is why we are now seeing high refresh rate LCD gaming monitors. Older linux game engines, Borderlands 2 for example, and maybe some newer ones, are fine with in-game VSYNC="off". Some games that don't recognize VRR (freesync etc) can freak out with VSYNC="off" when amdgpu has VRR enabled.

Also, overheating and visual artifacts can occur with the wrong Ambient Occlusion (SSAO etc). Set this to "off" or "normal | standard" as HDAO is an Nvidia specific algorithm. Same for Adaptive resolution DLSS.

As to which to choose:
AMDGPU PROS

• Full open source
• No reinstall needed on kernel upgrade
• Better Price/performance than Nvidia

AMDGPU CONS

• Need to upgrade kernel, mesa, xf86-amdgpu to get newest features

NVIDIA PROS

• Easy to install/upgrade for new features
• Many games optimized for Nvidia

NVIDIA CONS

• Not open source
• Kernel interface rebuild needed on kernel upgrade
• Lacks features from MS Windows version.
• Expensive

After 20 yrs with Nvidia, I switched to AMD (and thus Slackware-current with kernel 5.4.x) and am perfectly happy. YMMV.

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All the replies here pretty much mirror what I have been reading everywhere else. It's pretty much apples and oranges in linux now. Both are well supported. I will wait for the 6000 series to come out and compare them to the RTX 3000 series and buy the best price to performance card I can afford.

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Thanks to kingbeowulf for a clear and concise "shootout". I'd like to note some minor disagreement and clarification on nVidia Cons.

Kernel Interface rebuild really just means re-running the installer. It's EZ and takes all of 3 minutes.

No important features available in Windows are not available in Linux. Performance is actually better on Linux in most cases. Example: Even with such Benchmarks as Shadow of the Tomb Raider which must run with DXVK/Proton, compared to running on Windows 7 Steam, Linux benchmarks are ~14% better in Ultra on both. The subjective feel is far smoother. The older Linux port by Feral of Tomb Raider 2013 is even faster.

While AMD is indeed actively working hard at providing a better bang-for-buck so is Nvidia. The release of the latest 3000 series Ray Tracing cards (AMD is only just beginning to support ray tracing, an important boost that will only improve and increase) are such an increase in bang for buck that 2000 series owners are unloading them and 3000 series cards are being actually "scalped" - bought specifically for resale on sites like eBay at inflated prices because of demand vs/ supply.

To be clear I'm super happy that AMD is working so hard to improve both bang-for-buck and Linux compatibility. It forces Nvidia to up their game but I am very happy with Nvidia and have been for decades since they have always supported even truly obscure alternative operating systems like BeOS and OS/2. It is my understanding that there can be some confusion in applicable drivers for AMD while the only problems I routinely see for Nvidia on Linux are the Optimus nvidia/intel shared systems. If you want to know ahead of time whether an nvidia card will work the answer is clear and readily available on the nvidia site. There is zero gamble.

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I found that my RX 590 idd not work on Slackware 14.2 but did on current. The issue was that it did not, on a fresh install, have the firmware installed in /lib/firmware. So you need a new enough kernel plus firmware that supports your AMD card.

This is a good point. To clarify my post, I run Slackware current.

I've used nvidia TNT (1998-2000), GeForce 256 DDR (2000-2004), FX-5200 (2004-2010), and now a GT240 (2010-now). So, these are all old low-end cards. I've used them on Intel-based systems with ECC ram. The systems have always been very stable, with no video problems or crashes (it just never happens). I've always used the nvidia driver directly from the nvidia web site. When upgrading the kernel, I uninstall the nvidia driver just before I reboot, then reinstall it when the system restarts - it is not difficult at all, you just rerun the nvidia installer and tell it not to edit any config files. I have my X config files slightly customized, so I don't want the installer to change them. I have the X compositing disabled, so my X runs in the old way where it does not use the GPU much for regular desktop stuff.

When installing the nvidia driver, I've had a small issue: I have to keep backups of /usr/lib/libEGL.la and /usr/lib64/libEGL.la. After I install the driver, I have to restore these two files, because the installer does something to them. I do not know the cause of this problem, so if anyone knows please tell me.

In /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf I have the lines:
# Enable MSI interrupts
options nvidia NVreg_EnableMSI=1

In NVIDIA X Server Settings application, I have OpenGL settings "Allow Flipping", but I do not check "Sync to VBlank" because that slows things down.

Video playback in mplayer works well with the "-vo vdpau" output mode. This seems to enable some acceleration, and then common video formats run with little CPU usage. libvdpau is in slackware, so this works "out of the box". vdpauinfo is a tool at SBo to tell you what your card supports.

I hope to upgrade my nvidia card in the future. Something like a lower-end GeForce RTX 3050 or 3040 would be fine if these are released in the future! I'm not a big gamer, so a quiet and power-efficient card is preferable. With any luck, the new cards will be perfect for 4K screens at 120Hz refresh and good color etc. Have to wait to see.

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I went off AMD for a while when they stopped support for the chipset in the (then relatively new) laptop that I had. There was a brief hiatus of a couple of years, but then the open source drivers became available that solved my problems.

In the intervening period, I'd switched to NVidia for my desktop, but their drivers always seem to lag some way behind the kernels, and I found myself often having to use older kernels until NVidia caught up.

Caveat: I'm not a gamer! My main priority is video processing! For this, I've found the Intel chipsets generally more than adequate. If I have to install a discrete graphics card, my preference is for AMD, simply because the open source drivers are superb! I've never had much luck with the NVidia nouveau drivers, and, as I said, their proprietary ones always seem to be a bit behind the curve.

No such issues with either AMD or Intel, which just work "out of the box"!

--
Pete

This assumes Nvidia updated/supports the new kernel. They tend to lag a bit.

In terms of performance, at least at 1080p, I've not been disappointed. The RX 5700 XT can push a few games at 4K and higher eye candy, that the GTX1060, and was over $100 less than similar GTX2070/2080 (non-Ti, non-Super). As for features, I stand corrected. When I gave up Nvidia on SBo, there were a few items, such as DLSS, that had not yet hit the linux driver.

Very few game titles have ray tracing, and those that do, AFAIK, don't have linux ports. It was probably a good idea on AMDs part to push that to the next GPU generation and allow the kernel and Mesa to catch up. Price wise, unless you are desperate for 4K gaming with ray tracing (FOMO?) none of the top end GTX 2000/3000 cards are worth the price, even without scalping.

All that said, nothing particular wrong with Nvidia on Linux. I switched mostly due to price to get better performance (and drive a 4K Freesync monitor) when Slackware-Current hit kernel 5.4 and Mesa 20.1 to allow good support for AMD Navi GPUs. You can see some early GPU benchmark comparisons on my LQ blog from back in Feb 2020. So far I am pleased. Each GPU has its own "tips and tricks" for optimization. Nvidia has been on the top of the heap for so long that I cringe when I see the Nvidia logo pop up in the game startup. That usually means some of the GPU settings will use specific Nvidia algorithms and not generic OpenGL/Vulkan, and its not always obvious from the labels in the menu. All part of the fun.

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