AMD or Nvidia Graphics Card for Linux?

[JonasDeMoor]

Hi,


In the future (probably a few months), I am planning to build a PC myself. I have already chosen all hardware, but not the video card.

I am currently running Linux Mint Debian Edition 64-bit on a Acer laptop with ATI Radeon HD 3650 graphics and the proprietary drivers don't work well (lag when dragging windows/scrolling).


So here's my question: which brand of video card should I chose: Nvidia or AMD?

Current System Specs

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.00 GHz
• GPU: ATI Radeon Graphics 512 MB
• Model PC: Acer Aspire 8920G

PC is now about 4-5 years old.
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Future System Specs

• CPU: Intel Core i5/ AMD "Bulldozer" (8 cores)
• GPU: ?

Thank you in advance

[TenPlus1]

I'd recommend Nvidia all the time with Ubuntu and linux in general, not only because they are faster, but because the binary driver doesn't cause as much trouble as the ati one...

[QIII]

Umm...

Take a look at the NVIDIA problems on the forum. There are plenty. There are plenty of posts about NVIDIA driver issues, just as there are plenty of posts about ATI driver problems.

Faster in what way? NVIDIA and ATI trade spots on "fastest" each time one or the other comes out with a new product. Running tests on a number of different tasks and games, ATI wins in some cases, NVIDIA in others.

The advantage of NVIDIA is a richer set of hardware acceleration under Linux, but ATI does have Linux hardware acceleration.

They both produce good products and they both have their fair share of problems. If you want anything other than brand loyalty flame wars, I would suggest picking out a few of each that look interesting and go to Phoronix or another impartial site for reviews and performance comparisons. Find one that suits your needs in your price range and don't pay any attention to whether it's red or green.

As for the processor, the same goes. Read up on each. Read impartial reviews and technical explanations. Are you going for pure performance? Price/performace? Single threading? Multi threading? Will the applications you are likely to use take advantage of one better than the other? Gaming (in which case the GPU is probably more important)? Surfing? Word processing?

Everyone has opinions and they are entitled to them. Opinions are legitimate. But that is generally what you get on forums. And the opinion of one person does not necessarily apply to your case.

AMD/ATI versus NVIDIA. Intel versus AMD. It all depends on what YOU need, not what someone else opines.

[indianya]

AMD based on my experience.

[Perfect Storm]

Moved to Other OS/Distro Talk.

[darkapec]

I have had better luck with AMD also, but any "older" card will work fine on ubuntu eg 9800gt or similar.

I assume you are not trying to game? As there are not to many high performance games for ubuntu. If you are just looking for something to give you smooth video playback etc then I would go with a legacy type card (amd 4000 series) or (Nvidia 9000 series). Those generations of cards will have more then adequate support especially the Nvidia 9000 series. It will also handle most games and 1080p video.

[walker195]

AMD is mostly better but my nvidia graphics work great and in high def perfectly

[doorknob60]

Nvidia, I have both, and Nvidia has never given me any headaches. I still have some minor problems with AMD such as Wine not working very well, and they don't update their drivers as often so sometimes new kernels or Xorg versions can break the drivers, while Nvidia usually keeps up to date with those (but that's more a problem with rolling distros like Arch, it shouldn't be a problem with Ubuntu). As for open drivers, AMD has better ones, but for me Catalyst is still far better than the open drivers in my experiences, both in performance and heating/power saving. Overall, they both usually work pretty well, but I have nothing but good things to say about Nvidia's desktop GPUs.

[drawkcab]

If you're playing back x264 encoded .mkv files then I've found nvidia is better because you can enable vdpau.

Otherwise ati seems to work fine.

Research the current state of hybrid graphics cards before you buy one of those. Last I heard they're not supported well but I could be wrong.

[JonasDeMoor]

thank you all for the fast replies. I will probably go for a Intel core i5 with nvidia geforce gtx 550ti.

I will certainly go to phoronix and look at some reviews