[SOLVED] AMD or NVIDIA on Mint?

[warriorofthelight]

Hi everyone,

I guess I'm not the only one with that question, but even after days of googling and reading, I still don't have a good idea on what to do.

Here's my situation: currently running LM17.3, wanting to move to 18. My old AMD HD 7770 failed and I want to get a new one. Don't really care if AMD or NVIDIA, just need it for OpenCL. Best would be if the card/driver is running on LM 17 and 18, because it takes some time to move to 18 and reinstall everything I have now.

The problem: I got a RX560 and installed LM18, installed the drivers (which is not as easy but finally it worked). Result: the card worked, BUT on my 2 screen setup, the fonts were not smoothed on one screen (the main one), but they were on the other.... ok I don't really want to get into this here. For me this just means there seems to be some issues with AMD + LM18, be it my fault (I don't think it is), driver bugs (probably) or whatever. I've also tried Ubuntu+Cinnamon (because AMD is specifically writing the driver for Ubuntu, not for Mint) but there are other things that don't work so well (e.g. there's an issue with the desktop icons that sometimes are no longer clickable...) and I really just like Mint more.

So, my question: does someone who knows what they are doing have experience with NVidia, or even a comparison with AMD on LM17/18 ? I'm very much open to getting a NVidia card, if that is the solution to my situation. I also don't mind if I stay with the AMD if there is a fix, but I am hesitant to start hunting that down... it was difficult enough to get the card/driver to run on LM18. I don't want to spend more days and in the end achieve nothing. I also don't care about open source vs. proprietary drivers. It just needs to work and support OpenCL.

Do you use a new NVidia card (10xx series) on LM17 and/or LM18? Any problems with the installer from NVidia? Any issues on one system or the other? Any hoops you need to jump through?

Thanks for your help!

[deepakdeshp]

https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/12
https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/amp.redd ... _20172018/

https://community.amd.com/thread/214094

[deepakdeshp]

viewtopic.php?f=46&t=122257

[Citizen229]

Your need for open cl is? Your DE is?

Nvidia has easier drivers at this time. They also have better performance per watt than AMD. AMD is cheaper out of pocket. But with bloated GPU prices, not sure that is even relevant at this time.

[warriorofthelight]

Thanks for the answers so far. The linked topics don't help much I'm afraid, as I have no boot issue (I know about nomodeset), and performance is not my concern. As long as it works reasonably, I don't care about a little more or less.

My need for OpenCL is only Leela, a Go engine that can run on CPU alone, but runs much faster and stronger on GPU with OpenCL support. Not sure what version but it doesn't need anything special, got it running on LM17 with the old AMD drivers. Unfortunately those drivers do not support the newer RX cards, and the driver that does (AMDGPU-PRO) doesn't run on LM17 and as I said, isn't running smoothly on LM18 at least for me...

@Citizen229: thanks for the hint. I get the feeling too that NVidia seems to be easier at this time. But when you google, everything from "on linux only use nvidia" to "amd is so much better on linux" comes up... so I guess this is changing all the time and depending on the distribution may be this or that at the moment.

[Hoser Rob]

... NVidia seems to be easier at this time. But when you google, everything from "on linux only use nvidia" to "amd is so much better on linux" comes up... so I guess this is changing all the time and depending on the distribution may be this or that at the moment.

Actually it's got nothing to to with changing times, the issue is that there's a lot of rubbish on the web, including some of the most popular blogs (pjotr's is good though). ANd Linux novices can't tell the gurus from the posers. This is an issue with most any subject on the web.

Nvidia has the best Linux support by far. Intel's is pretty good but not as good as many think it is. AMD's is not so great but may improve.

[Citizen229]

Is open CL not backwards compatable? The amd gpu pro divers should give open CL 2. Miners and folders use open cl2.

Yeah AMD has been an eyesore since they went and made a new driver stack.

[warriorofthelight]

Actually it's got nothing to to with changing times, the issue is that there's a lot of rubbish on the web, including some of the most popular blogs (pjotr's is good though). ANd Linux novices can't tell the gurus from the posers. This is an issue with most any subject on the web.

Agree on that. How should I know? Unless you have first hand knowledge of a topic, it's hard to tell. And if you do, you don't need to google... Everybody is so important nowadays

So I guess I just go along and buy something from NVidia and hope it runs on LM17+18. Thanks.