Building New System, and NVIDIA vs. AMD drivers?

**rockaday** · March 3rd, 2012

Hello,

I'm building a new rig primarily for Ubuntu office applications, software development and testing, and gaming. I plan to keep a dual boot with windows for now since I'm still new to Ubuntu. I have a tentative hardware list below, could you let me know if you spot any problems or have advice or suggestions on it?

I also have one specific question. I selected a NVIDIA card for my new build because I've read in some of the older threads here that NVIDIA had better drivers for Ubuntu than AMD Radeon did. Such as in this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1549629

However, I've seen on Windows that drivers from ATI used to be bad, but recent AMD Radeon drivers are quite good and they've moved beyond a lot of the old problems we used to see. Is this true for Ubuntu as well? Or is NVIDIA still the way to go even though their cards cost more?

Here's my draft list of parts -- any suggestions, or spot any problems?
Newegg Public Wish List with all parts: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Pu...umber=18786192
Itemized list:

Intel core-i5 2500k, overclocked
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115072

G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage RAM 4GBx2 DDR3-1600 / 9-9-9-24 / 1.25V
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231461

Noctua DH14 CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835608018

ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157271

Seasonic 650W 80+ Gold PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151088

Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125401

Patriot Pyro 120GB SATA3 SSD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220603

Cooler Master Storm Enforcer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119240

ASUS DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827135204

For storage drives, I have a couple WD SATA2 drives here I plan to reuse.

Thanks for your help!

Rockaday

**anewguy** · March 3rd, 2012

nVidia can have its' challenges, but AMD/ATI has gotten the most "bad attention" in the forums for a while - or so it would seem. Drivers can definitely be an issue with AMD/ATI, and supposedly more so than nVidia. That seems to be the consensus. I think the popular decision here would be nVidia.

I have 2 desktops, both with AMD/ATI adapters that the restricted drivers have installed fine and at least for me seem to work fine (I'm not a gamer, so I don't know how they work out for that).

Dave

**rockaday** · March 3rd, 2012

Originally Posted by anewguy

nVidia can have its' challenges, but AMD/ATI has gotten the most "bad attention" in the forums for a while - or so it would seem. Drivers can definitely be an issue with AMD/ATI, and supposedly more so than nVidia. That seems to be the consensus. I think the popular decision here would be nVidia.

I have 2 desktops, both with AMD/ATI adapters that the restricted drivers have installed fine and at least for me seem to work fine (I'm not a gamer, so I don't know how they work out for that).

Dave

Thanks Dave. I guess I'll stick with nVidia to be on the safe side. At least the card I found should be decent and isn't too expensive.

Rockaday

**BDNiner** · March 3rd, 2012

I haven't really had any issues with AMD drivers, I have a 6850. I also have a 9800GTX+ that is still going strong.

**anewguy** · March 3rd, 2012

Originally Posted by BDNiner

I haven't really had any issues with AMD drivers, I have a 6850. I also have a 9800GTX+ that is still going strong.

Yep - same with me with both of my desktops. I just thought that since AMD/ATI drivers have been a problem for a while, someone building a new system may want to avoid them. I still used AMD/ATI in my new system build I just finished last week - I just have a "thing" for ATI myself so I've stuck with them. The only card I had any problems with was an old, old, old version Radeon card a couple of years ago, and that was because the driver had been discontinued. I suspect such a card probably isn't supported in Windows anymore either.

Dave