I'm a bit frustrated, I just want to use my system, that's all. My system hangs, it's not usable, I'm constantly risking to lose my work because everything just stops responding.
In more than 10 years of Nvidia cards on Linux I have encoutered many bugs and glitches but never something so serious.

Thanks for the suggestion though, I'll try to disable every possible sensors related program and see what happens. Even though someone says it might be related to multi-monitor setups.

I've seen some patches for powerplay locking, but somehow they didn't make it to 5.4? I'll be trying 5.5-rc1 soon anyway, since looks like flip patch which is quite important, didn't make into 5.4 either.

It turns out to be a sensors related problem. Apparently you can't use any utility that periodically polls the sensors or the desktop freezes with powerplay messages sent to syslog.
The system is not completely frozen though, so if you're lucky you may manage to issue a poweroff command via the terminal to gracefully shut down.

Quoting: ShmerlAnd don't be dramatic about it. Nvidia is from far from perfect either. You simply exchange it to different type of issues.

No Shmerl, you can spin it any way you want and ofc Nvidia is not perfect, but the difference between AMD and them is night and day. A problem on Nvidia is very much the exception, whereas it’s the rule with AMD.

Quoting: damarrinNo Shmerl, you can spin it any way you want and ofc Nvidia is not perfect, but the difference between AMD and them is night and day.

Depends on the problem. Nvidia has a lot more money, but they only support limited Linux use cases. Fall outside use cases Nvidia care about, and you get zero support, despite all the money, no matter how you spin it. That's not an exception, it's a clear cut rule with them.

AMD has less money (so support takes longer), but they support all Linux use cases properly due to working with upstream. So I'd take AMD over Nvidia any day, but faster support would be of course appreciated.

Last edited by Shmerl on 1 December 2019 at 1:13 am UTC

Quoting: barottoIt turns out to be a sensors related problem. Apparently you can't use any utility that periodically polls the sensors or the desktop freezes with powerplay messages sent to syslog.

Yes, this bug has been an issue from the start, but it got somewhat better. Some fixes are still pending. If it will be still a problem in 5.5, it means something is still missing.

Last edited by Shmerl on 1 December 2019 at 1:12 am UTC

Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: damarrinNo Shmerl, you can spin it any way you want and ofc Nvidia is not perfect, but the difference between AMD and them is night and day.

Depends on the problem. Nvidia has a lot more money, but they only support limited Linux use cases. Fall outside use cases Nvidia care about, and you get zero support, despite all the money, no matter how you spin it. That's not an exception, it's a clear cut rule with them.

AMD has less money (so support takes longer), but they support all Linux use cases properly due to working with upstream. So I'd take AMD over Nvidia any day, but faster support would be of course appreciated.

Well, they let me play some games on Linux and that’s really the only use case I care about and any others are really off topic as per this site’s name. AMD don’t let people play games on Linux.

Quoting: damarrinWell, they let me play some games on Linux and that’s really the only use case I care about and any others are really off topic as per this site’s name. AMD don’t let people play games on Linux.

That's all you might care about, but that's not every Linux use case, including not every gaming one. Issues from broken PRIME to lack of Wayland and XWayland support plagued Nvidia for years, and despite all the money they didn't bother doing much about it. As I said, as soon as it's outside of their limited interest - it's a complete wasteland of support. Just because you didn't encounter that, doesn't mean it's not a problem.

Last edited by Shmerl on 1 December 2019 at 9:08 am UTC

Shmerl, let's not continue this fairly pointless back and forth. I don't think I can say anything that'll convince you, or that you can say anything that'll convince me. We're all Linux brothers, regardless of the CPU, GPU or distro we use. From things you've written in the past I can see you're a sensible chap, I'll let you live in your all-is-dandy-in-AMD-land insanity bubble if you let me live in my la-la-la-nvidia-la-la-la insanity bubble, how about that?

Last edited by damarrin on 1 December 2019 at 9:27 am UTC

I guess bottom line is:
- Go AMD for a perfectly integrated Linux solution, but either wait a year after release of a new hardware generation or be prepared to invest considerable time into living on the edge with kernel RC's, mesa master etc.
- Go Nvidia if you want to use newest hardware but be prepared to restrict your use cases to what NVidia supports, thus e.g. just classic X and be ready for the occasional breaking when updating your system.

Both options have their own advantages, non is perfect, so best answer here: it depends on personal preference ;)