Switching from Nvidia to AMD GPU

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Infused Mint
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Switching from Nvidia to AMD GPU

Post by Infused Mint »

Hello guys,
I am very happy to be a Mint user and I have now decided to finally make my hardware all AMD. I currently have an Nvidia GPU (GTX 1080ti) in my system and plan on switching it out for an RX 6800 XT. I run the latest version of Mint (21.1) and was wondering whether I can just switch out the cards without having to deep-uninstall the GPU driver like on Windows or if this will also be necessary on Linux Mint.

I don't want to reinstall my whole system in case anything goes wrong.

I am grateful for any useful advice and possibly even some tools in case I need them.

Thanks and have a great weekend!
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Re: Switching from Nvidia to AMD GPU

Post by MiZoG »

Linux will automatically detect the new gpu and load open-source kernel drivers.
Unless you had the habit of messing with X11 configuration files, you shouldn't have any reasons to worry about.
Of course you can purge the bloat left behind by the nvidia driver at your convenience afterwards.
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Re: Switching from Nvidia to AMD GPU

Post by Infused Mint »

Hey there and thanks for the quick reply! I haven't messed with the X11 configs actively, but I am using the XanMod kernel on my system. Might that be a problem in any way?
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Re: Switching from Nvidia to AMD GPU

Post by MiZoG »

Switching cards with Xanmod on Debian gave me once headaches but it was the other way round: I tried to replace an AMD card with an nvidia.
And Debian is kind of pickier with third-party kernels and nvidia proprietary drivers. Nouveau driver was nonetheless loaded without any problem.
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Re: Switching from Nvidia to AMD GPU

Post by SMG »

Infused Mint wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 3:21 amI am very happy to be a Mint user and I have now decided to finally make my hardware all AMD. I currently have an Nvidia GPU (GTX 1080ti) in my system and plan on switching it out for an RX 6800 XT. I run the latest version of Mint (21.1) and was wondering whether I can just switch out the cards without having to deep-uninstall the GPU driver like on Windows or if this will also be necessary on Linux Mint.
What is a "deep-uninstall"?

You should switch from using the proprietary Nvidia driver to the open-source driver before you change out the cards. Also, if you have saved any custom xorg.conf files then you will want to remove them. What is the output of

Code: Select all

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
If that file exists, then you have some customizations. Either rename or remove the file.

Then swap the GPUs and boot up your system.
Infused Mint wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 3:21 amI don't want to reinstall my whole system in case anything goes wrong.
That is the purpose of taking Timeshift snapshots. You do have your system backed up, don't you?
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Re: Switching from Nvidia to AMD GPU

Post by Infused Mint »

Hey there and thank you!

The comments help me out quite a lot. By deep-uninstall, I am referring to Windows and certain issues that changing a GPU brand can cause without removing every last bit of the previous GPU driver with the DisplayDriverUninstall application, for instance. ;-)

The output of the command you gave me was that there was no such file or directory found. I assume that means, there are no customizations.

And of course I keep my system backed up. The Timeshift tool is easy enough to use, so there is really no reason not to make use of it. :-)

Okay, I will switch back to the open source drivers and then switch out the cards afterwards. Thanks for the help! The Mint community is really wonderful! :-D
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Re: Switching from Nvidia to AMD GPU

Post by SMG »

Infused Mint wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 11:20 amBy deep-uninstall, I am referring to Windows and certain issues that changing a GPU brand can cause without removing every last bit of the previous GPU driver with the DisplayDriverUninstall application, for instance. ;-)
Switching to the open-source nouveau driver may not remove every last file from Nvidia, but the Linux kernel needs all the files in order to boot the Nvidia GPU and also needs to find Nvidia hardware on your system. Any random leftover files will not cause an issue.

If you ever made this change there will be error messages saying those files can not be found (because you removed the Nvidia driver), but it would not cause a functional problem. Modifying that file back to its original state (after you remove the Nvidia driver) would clear the messages.
Infused Mint wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 11:20 amThe output of the command you gave me was that there was no such file or directory found. I assume that means, there are no customizations.
That is what I would assume as well. :)

That AMD GPU has been out long enough that all the necessary firmware and driver files should already be on your system.
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Re: Switching from Nvidia to AMD GPU

Post by Infused Mint »

I have finally switched to the AMD card and the experience has been wonderful so far. I am glad I made step toward AMD.

I am now wondering how I can remove the old Nvidia driver and flatpak runtime packages because they keep showing up in the Update Manager window. I don't want to constantly update packages for a hardware component that is not part of the system anymore. The flatpak packages likely come from GreenWithEnvy which I used to control the fan curve on the Nvidia GPU.

Any help would be highly appreciated. :-)
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Re: Switching from Nvidia to AMD GPU

Post by SMG »

Infused Mint wrote: Mon Apr 10, 2023 3:40 am I have finally switched to the AMD card and the experience has been wonderful so far. I am glad I made step toward AMD.

I am now wondering how I can remove the old Nvidia driver and flatpak runtime packages because they keep showing up in the Update Manager window.
Did you switch to the open-source nouveau driver before you physically switched the GPU cards? If so, the Nvidia driver should not be one your system. If you did not do that, then we will likely have to manually remove the driver. To do that, run

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get purge *nvidia*
and then reboot the computer.

To remove unused flatpak runtimes/libraries, run

Code: Select all

flatpak uninstall --unused
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Re: Switching from Nvidia to AMD GPU

Post by Infused Mint »

Thanks, those commands worked like a charm! I switched over to the open source driver before physically switching GPUs and the terminal showed that it wasn't installed anymore, but there were some vestiges left that got removed using the commands.

Have a great week and thanks again! :-)
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Re: Switching from Nvidia to AMD GPU

Post by SMG »

Infused Mint wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2023 12:55 pm Thanks, those commands worked like a charm! I switched over to the open source driver before physically switching GPUs and the terminal showed that it wasn't installed anymore, but there were some vestiges left that got removed using the commands.
If you switched to nouveau and rebooted then I'm surprised that Nvidia driver showed in Driver Manager. Odd.

If your issues are resolved, please go to your first post in this topic, click the pencil icon, and add [SOLVED] to the beginning of the title so others know you are no longer seeking help on this issue.
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