Hey guys, sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this (feel free to point me to a better community) but I’m in a weird “predicament” this summer: My AMD build plans are in shambles after receiving a free ROG Astral 5080.

Now I want to make the switch now with my current (Intel i7-13700K) hardware + this new card. I was only considering AMD before but it’s really hard to say no to a video card worth more than my entire budget lol

The slightly worse performance compared to Windows is still an upgrade from my 3070 so that’s fine - It’s initial/recurring troubleshooting I don’t really want to deal with. Most of the info I’ve found is from earlier this year and no one speaks highly of the beta drivers

Sorry if this is a stupid question but am I setting myself up for disappointment with this new plan? I have a few more related questions I’ll toss in the comments but that’s my main concern.

  • PushButton@lemmy.worldEnglish
    61·
    3 months ago

    I had multiple nvidia cards before. People were saying it is going to be fine, etc.

    Never again. I bought an AMD for the first time, and fuck-A it’s great.

    What about selling the NV to get an AMD?

    • glimse@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      Unfortunately not really an option, the card is “on loan” indefinitely. TLDR: friend runs a 3D lab and orders new PCs + spare cards every two years but those spares have never been used outside of his own PC. So I’ll have a spare until it’s time to upgrade (or if 5 GPUs in the lab die)

      What was so bad about it? Was this in the past year? I’m reading a LOT of conflicting stuff

      • PushButton@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        1070, 3060 and 3050ti.

        On the top of my head:

        • Wayland saga… (it’s fixed)
        • A few kernel version last summer made my 30x0 systems unstable (it’s fixed now, still)
        • The laptop comes with some other NV firmware, but at this day, the system randomly freeze
        • New available drivers would crash, so doing rollbacks was a thing I had to do here and there during the years

        Where AMD is boot and enjoy.

        But anyway, if you can’t get an AMD, the whole thing is moot.

        • glimse@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          Well shit. I’m committed but it looks like my worries weren’t unfounded.

          I can deal with worse performance but definitely not freezing/crashing…hopefully I’m not forced back to Windows

  • glimse@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    2·
    4 months ago

    Couple of followup questions…

    1. Do any distros perform better out-of-the-box with Nvidia?

    I didn’t expect to switch so soon so I’m just now deciding. I’m currently torn between Pop OS and Mint. I don’t think I want steamOS because gaming is only half of what I use my PC for - I’d rather a more desktop-oriented distro

    My only Linux experience is a few servers and laptops over the years but I’m comfortable following along with CLI tutorials

    1. Are my current game files useless or can I copy them over?

    90% of my games are on a secondary 2tb NVME. I have a home server I can back them up them up to before reformatting but I’m guessing I can’t just point Steam to that folder and have it rebuild my library, right?

    1. When it’s time to upgrade the rest of the machine, should I go AMD for the cpu?

    Conventional wisdom used to be pairing Intel with Nvidia and AMD with AMD. Is that still the case? Should I stick to Intel?

    • Cyborganism@lemmy.caEnglish
      3·
      4 months ago

      1. Ubuntu and derivatives. (I prefer Kubuntu, personally. It has even more support for things like HDR) I have a 3070 RTX and it’s working just fine in Kubuntu.

      2. Good question! I would definitely back up the files first and reformat in EXT4 or BTRFS or whatever. Then when you install the games in Steam with the compatibility layer, you can specify where to install the games. Then check where saved games/profiles are located and possibly overwrite the files?

      3. Yes. No doubt.

      • glimse@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        1·
        4 months ago

        Does Kubuntu come as “preconfigured” as the more gaming-focused distros? I’ve heard one of the benefits of those is that a lot of the GPU stuff (drivers, config) works out of the box

        Redownloading games isn’t a big deal, I just don’t want to take the time to make space and transfer it if it’s gonna freak out lol

        • Cyborganism@lemmy.caEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          It’s been so long since I installed mine that I forget.

          I remember there being an option to download and install additional drivers during the installation. Otherwise, it’s a very simple process. As you can see here:

          https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-install-nvidia-drivers-on-ubuntu-24-04

          On Ubuntu there’s literally an application for additional drivers. On Kubuntu, I think you have to used the command line because Canonical only prioritizes their Gnome desktop. Kubuntu is a community-driven flavour. However, once you know which driver is recommended, you can use the graĥical software installer to install it.

  • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    I tried Linux on my current build with a 9070XT and ended up on windows instead (still got linux on my laptop) Based on what I’ve been told you’re generally going to have issues with very new hardware unless you either get very lucky or go through a ton of troubleshooting. So Linux might work in a couple of months but for now it could be a headache.