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I have always bought graphics cards from NVIDIA and for the first time I would like to try something from AMD.
Today I've been using a GTX 1080 and I'm looking for a replacement card that will feel like a upgrade or at least just as good as my current card. Do you have any recommendations for a Linux user?
My CPU is a i7-6700K (with Intel HD Graphics 530) if that's of matter.
I'm also curious on how the install process of AMD drivers and the update is. With NVIDIA it's quite simple, on Ubuntu 16.04 at least, as you just plug in your card, add the ppa graphics-drivers, update, enable it from "Additional Drivers" and you're set. Is it just as simple with AMD?
As for installation: it should work out of the box in most distros with a recent kernel and Mesa version for most cards (my RX 480 needed no configuration at all on Arch).
The upcoming kernel 4.15 will have a the much-awaited DC/DAL code merged in from AMD, adding a few missing features for newer cards including the Vega series. Ubuntu tends to have slightly older kernels so you may want to install a newer one, but it's best to ask someone who actually uses Ubuntu how to do that. There's also a pair of PPAs for newer Mesa versions, but that's something you'll probably want to ask someone else about.
It's also a bad time for any GPU especially a AMD card, My RX64 has tripled in price! I don't envy anyone trying to buy/build a computer in today's climate.
Can't comment on *buntu type distros but on Antergos AMD cards are painless up to the Vega's as in, put card in and boot, The Vega's require either the AMD-staging kernel or just released 4.15 kernel.
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You're using Ubuntu? No work to install at all. Nothing to click, nothing to enter. The way that Intel and AMD handle Linux graphics drivers should be the gold standard.
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Except in case of Ubuntu LTE which ships outdated Mesa. There more steps are needed to keep things up to date.
As for driver support, AMD is quite painless here. Put the card in - done. Note that for Vega you currently have to install a new kernel on Ubuntu, but 18.04 will bring it by default. Manjaro already has it, Arch + Antergos should follow soon (if they don't have it yet). Basically, anything that has Kernel 4.15+ will be fine.
PS: You really thought bringing the open source Nvidia driver into the conversation would sound convincing?
I think you are getting a few things mixed up here. We have a very capable and fast FOSS OpenGL driver for GCN cards, and pre-GCN cards are still supported by the R600g driver, which still gets updates and is almost at OpenGL 4.5!
The thing is, the driver for those old cards moves at a slower pace, because those cards are dinosaurs in terms of gaming. Just to put it into perspective, before I bought my gaming PC and the AMD RX480 with it, I had a gaming laptop with an AMD Radeon HD 7830M. That is a part from 2012 - or six years ago now.
I remember using Mesa to play Star Trek Online using Wine and other games that we had during that time on that card, it was quite capable under Linux. But as a gamer, I wouldn't use this card today. Simply because it is now a few generations old, and the hardware doesn't have the required features to properly accelerate modern games.
Remember that GPUs are not general purpose CPUs, they don't work like that. They are highly specialized chips that contain hardware to accelerate games from it's time, newer games will use new tech that just isn't present (or present but slower) in the older card's chip. If your previous-gen GPU, say runs at the same memory/GPU speed your newer gen card works, your newer gen card will still beat it on modern games that use these features. And those games will run slower on your older gen GPU.
You simply can't say you got a high end Nvidia or AMD card years ago that is now a few generations old and still claim it is a high end card. It may have been high end for it's time, like my 7830M, and during that time I enjoyed the card.
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Where did you get that from? Mesa supports many old AMD cards.