Slackware 15: AMD or NVIDIA Video Card?
 

I am patiently waiting for the new Ryzen 5900X to be back in stock so I can finish up my new PC build. However I am going to carry over my NVIDIA GTX 970 into the new system until the new AMD cards come out and NVIDIA restocks their new RTX 3000 series cards. I have always had NVIDIA cards in my systems and used the proprietary drivers with no problems. But I am curious about AMD cards in Slackware, are the drivers opensource or proprietary, do you get the same amount of performance as you do in Windows? Essentially I just want your opinions and your experiences with AMD in Slackware so I can make a informed purchase in the coming months. I have always used NVIDIA because of their Linux support but would consider AMD if their drivers are as solid as NVIDIA's.

Thanks.

Assuming you have a new enough kernel, the amdgpu drivers are fully open source, and work REALLY well (surprisingly so, in fact). As far as performance, that I'm not aware of for certain, but I BELIEVE it's quoted as being something like 80-85% the performance in Windows. May be better now, it's been a really long time since I've bothered to look. I've never actually tested myself to see first-hand, but then, I don't use Windows, so that goes without saying I guess.

AMD's open-source drivers work very well.

I have always bought AMD (previously ATI) video cards. My most recent card is a Pitcairn from 2014. It took about a year for Glamor/Mesa to work, but since then AMD has put a lot of effort into the open-source drivers.

The open-source drivers have the significant advantages that they can't get in the way of a kernel upgrade, and support for old video cards won't go away as long as someone is interested in those cards.

I am not a gamer, but I see OpenGL applications rendering as fast as the card seems to be capable of (at 4K).
Ed

Do you guys ever have any problem with screen tearing with your AMD cards? Nvidia can be somewhat stubborn about this, enabeling vsync and full composite pipeline fixes this most of the time though.

I'm a long term amd gpu's user (R9 290x -> RX 480 -> RX 5700XT). Mostly use for gaming. From my experience since about 2014 I haven't had any problems with kernel driver amdgpu (which is free) + firmware (which is non-free). Yes, tearing on X under amdgpu is a well known problem, but it's as easy to fix as add to your X config file.

I also haven't compared windows and linux gaming performance for years, but with proton and vulkan I'm pretty sure linux performance is equal or even better.

Slackware 15: AMD or NVIDIA Video Card?

I for one, if I can, I will go for a discrete Intel graphics card. :D

I heard that they will invade the World in the first half of 2021.

That will be faster than Slackware 15.0 honest expectation for a release...

Interesting. Off the cuff, I would have said go with NVIDIA. This is based on some very bad experiences with AMD in the past. That was the distant past. I have heard some good things about AMD lately an the comments about reflect that. I might give AMD another shot with my next graphics card.

If I were you I'd wait for the AMD 6000 series which is about to come out and checkout the benchmarks on tomshardware! The one thing that concerns me about what I've read about the 5000 series is that the gpu's run hot.

The highest temp I've seen so far is 68C in closed case with soundproofing. GPU was loaded at 100% for over an hour (Gigabyte with 3 coolers).

KingBeowulf said, "however, the AMD GPU does ramp up 100+ C, and fans on max, on the in game menus and some map areas."
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/sl...7258987752928/

AMD said it was okay. I don't know. That is great that you have low temps with it.

Noisy? My NVIDIA is at 52C right now. Where I live heat can definitely be an issue.

With headphones I don't hear noise at all even when gpu is loaded at 100%.

I bought nothing but ATi/AMD for well over twenty years. About ten years ago I was in need of a new card and the local store only sold Nvidia based cards.
Best thing, computer video wise, that ever happened. It has been Nvidia every since.
The Nvidia drivers just work.
Ditto the noveau driver.

AMD

Let the video holy war begin!

Either will work with Slackware15. Disclaimer: I'm an AMD fan boy.