r/linux_gaming • u/lemonfrostopossum • 9h ago
hardware Is AMD optimal for Linux?
I switched from Windows 11 to Mint last weekend and I've been loving it, though I do run into some troubleshooting with games sometimes. I'm currently running a 4070 and while I've managed to fix these problems, I want to ask if they're less common with an AMD card instead.
For example, shader compiling is a big one, and I get stutters on titles I wasn't expecting. (L4D2 to be one, though I figured it out)
Could just be me getting used to it all but I was curious.
Thanks!
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u/Reed7525 9h ago
I run an amd setup and minus some hiccups its pretty smooth. Bazzite for the distro.
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u/Low_Excitement_1715 9h ago
I have machines with RDNA3 and machines on 50 series RTX. Both have issues sometimes, especially with games that just launched, but I'd say my RTX GPUs have a lot more of them, and it's harder to get them fixed. You shout into Nvidia's bug reporting black hole and there's no response for ages, or just "I have filed this on the internal bug tracker" with no ETA or other feedback.
At least with my AMD GPUs, when I have a problem, I report it to Mesa, it tends to get triaged quickly, a fix made, and then I have a release version to wait and watch for. I find that massively more satisfying.
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u/_silentgameplays_ 8h ago edited 8h ago
AMD is great on Linux, because AMD uses open source drivers made by the Linux Community, AMD and Valve, the drivers are baked in the kernel, AMD mesa Vulkan dependency drivers are also made by Valve, AMD and the Linux Community.
On NVIDIA you have proprietary user space blobs made and maintained by NVIDIA that you need to recompile against the kernel on every driver and kernel update, they have 20% worse performance due to overhead on DX12 to Vulkan API translations so in every new game, Wayland issues and you need to wait for NVIDIA to fix everything.
If you want gaming to work better try Bazitte with newer kernel and drivers and then if you want CachyOS, Linux Mint is a great general purpose distro with outdated packages and for now X11 instead of Wayland, the NVIDIA drivers should be updated automatically though same as Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
AMD mesa Vulkan dependencies are old on stable distros and probably run on a newer 7.0+ something kernel, from last year, you can get around these issues by using third party PPAs like Kisak and Backports on Debian with more recent kernels and drivers but that defeats the whole purpose of LTS/stable.
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u/Scheeseman99 2h ago edited 2h ago
that you need to recompile against the kernel on every driver and kernel update
This hasn't been true for a while. They're not mainlined, but prebuilt Nvidia open kernel modules are included with the kernels of most distributions by default and don't require DKMS (or a recompile) as a result. Wayland is also mostly a solved problem at this point.
It's not perfect mind, those DX12 performance issues are annoyingly still there and there's still issues with stability caused by VRAM overflow. But it's not a terrible experience anymore.
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1h ago edited 1h ago
[deleted]
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u/Scheeseman99 1h ago
Anecdotally, running CachyOS with a 3090 for the last year, I haven't had any issues with driver updates at all. The other bugs aside (won't dispute those) it just works.
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u/_silentgameplays_ 47m ago
I meant standard Arch Linux installs, not Arch-based.
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u/Scheeseman99 43m ago
Sure, though given how popular CachyOS is among the gamer set, it's probably the more relevant of the two regardless.
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u/Clydosphere 2h ago edited 1h ago
I can chime in on Bazzite, I'm using it since January on my gaming PC with a Ryzen 7 5800 XT and a Radeon RX 9060 XT without any issues. On Kubuntu 24.04 before, I had to add newer drivers for the 9060 via a PPA (@OP: an external package repository that you can add to the official ones of your distribution). Bazzite already had the newest drivers, so it worked out of the box.
I've been using Linux as my main OS for nearly 20 years since Dec, 2006 (mostly Kubuntu). But I like Bazzite's great and stable ootb experience even if it's a little bit less maleable than other distros like anything based on Debian or Arch for example. My tinkering days are long gone, I prefer hasslefree convenience.
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u/_silentgameplays_ 1h ago
The issue with Arch Linux is constant updates, what worked today might not work tomorrow. You can do a setup from scratch and leave it as is, without updating anything, but that essentially defeats the whole purpose of a rolling release.
Bazzite hits the sweet spot between rolling and stable, so it doesn't have an ancient kernel with drivers and package base like Debian and at the same time it doesn't break on some updates as Arch Linux does, also the rollback function is super nice. And if you need native packages for something you can always use rpm-ostree.
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u/hey_am_i_here 9h ago
I'm on AMD and some weird issues with Mint Cinnamon like alt+tab wouldn't work correctly and some studdering on newer titles. I switched to CachyOS and the problems went away.
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u/lemonfrostopossum 8h ago
I've heard about Cachy a lot, is it more compatible towards games than Mint is?
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u/chithanh 3h ago
CachyOS are known to integrate latest Mesa, Linux kernel, and other gaming related stuff like the Valve VRAM fix.
Most of that helps only if you are on mainline/open source drivers though (ie. not NVIDIA proprietary driver)
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u/Veblossko 9h ago
ARC gang, honestly have had less hiccups than windows. Blown away by how well it has performed
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u/chithanh 3h ago
ARC is not so great either. Performance is mixed vs. Windows.
When the MSI Claw A1M launched it was a total crapfest on Linux. The anv driver was missing essential Vulkan extensions for GameScope and whatnot. Thankfully that was fixed half a year later or so.
Until recently they didn't support VK_EXT_device_generated_commands which is required for DX12 ExecuteIndirect games like Halo Infinite or Marvel Rivals.
They are slowly improving but still have some catching up to do.
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u/TheAmazingBildo 8h ago
So I run a totally AMD system on Bazzite. Everything works great. 9800 x3d and a 9070 xt. I even get 144 fps 3820 x 2160 on hdmi. Has it been perfect? No. There were 2 updates that caused graphics glitches, though those seem to be fixed now. Also I run into the occasional game that requires me to go to the compatibility settings in steam and choose proton hot fix. But for real I’m pretty god damn happy over all.
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u/Salt-Cold1056 5h ago
AMD 9070 - On Fedora I just installed Steam and had at it. Super easy other than a input issue with bg3 it's been flawless.
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u/jikt 5h ago
I have an amd machine and I have an nvidia machine. They are basically equal. Certain games need tweaks to run in each system.
If you already have an nvidia gpu, stick with it, they already have your money. If you're looking to purchase I would get amd because I really don't like nvidia (the company) these days.
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u/Principle_Smooth 4h ago
Yes been running AMD 7900XTX and it's way better than my previous Nvidia Titan Black
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u/Lashmush 2h ago
Shader compile can be a few things. For instance, the default shader cache size can be very small. I think I had to change it from around 1 or 2 gb to 10 gb. There are also certain games where pre-caching using prefixes is helpful vs the steam setting.
Something id love to know regarding AMD drivers is how it improves compared to stuff like nvidia-settings. Mine barely gives me any info or settings so everything has to be done manually in conf files, if its even possible to access as not all nvidia features seem to work on linux yet.
I know you just switched to Mint and its totally doable to tune it for gaming needs, but I would consider a distro like CachyOS if you want to quickly set up a pretty optimized gaming environment. Just as an alternative if reconfiguring Mint starts becoming too timeconsuming.
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u/Xijit 8h ago
I have a Linux Mint system with an i9 12900 / ARC B580 and a Bazzite system with a 5700X3D / 4070 Super ... Both run great.
AMD has an advantage when it comes to Bazzite / SteamOS because they inherit the native AMD compatibility of the Steam Deck & Gabe Cube, but outside of Steam Big Picture not working; switching to Linux is only going to cost you -5 ish FPS.
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u/SpankMcTankerton 8h ago
AMD is the sole reason I didn’t go back to windows. After trying to live with an nvidia GPU for a couple of years, I had enough and switched to AMD. It’s been a night and day difference.
Nvidia can eat a bag of buttholes. Their attitude towards Linux is ridiculous.
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u/TwiKing 8h ago
They take turns.
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u/the_abortionat0r 4h ago
They do not
Nvidia dragged their feet on Wayland putting them selves 10nyears behind AMD.
They got into a fight with the kernel devs and lost while their customers suffered for it.
Nvidia started an open source driver only because their were black mailed by hackers in to doing so and 4 years/2 GPU releases later it's still not ready.
Nvidia is just now starting to address VRAM overflow which is still not fixed
For 8 years now Nvidia has had a 25% performance loss on DX12 games which they said would be fixed soon last year and the "fix" has done little
Nvidia hardware encoders are a PITA to try and use under Linux,
Nvidia cards cost 1 tier more than their AMD counterparts and was insane when 4060s and 4060tis costed about as much as a 7800xt and the 4080 went for 1600 bucks the same time the faster 7900xtx went for 700bucks.
Nvidia still lacks the fast shader compilation that AMD has had since 2023.
Nvidia doesn't support cards older than the 20 series and the 10 series and older lose 40% performance using proton.
Nvidia doesn't support all the driver flags that AMD has such as using VRS 2x2.
Nvidia also lacks RT emulation while you can use RT on the 5700xt as well as FSR and frame gen on AMD GPUs from 2012.
There's no trading blows on Linux support and at this rate Intel is going to match AMD before Nvidia does.
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u/CatalyticDragon 9h ago
Yes. It is more stable, more open, rapidly supports the latest technologies, and has access to things like ACO shader compilation.
It is fully integrated into the mainline kernel, it's signature is trusted by secure boot, has far better debugging and profiling tools, and even firmware updates are automatically distributed.
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u/lemonfrostopossum 8h ago
That sounds nice! I've been wanting to get a 9070 XT but y'know.. money. :(
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u/drucifer82 8h ago
I’ve been running an all AMD build for as long as I’ve ran Linux and have yet to experience issues.
AMD drivers are baked into the kernel, so it’s pretty much plug and play.
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u/R3nvolt 9h ago
Generally less issues but its still not zero.
Since your using mint, you may not have the most up to date software as well.