From Nvidia to AMD: The Promised Land on Linux?
I thought I might have to sacrifice something near and dear to me, maybe a family heirloom…or a limb. Or just spend an entire PC budget on just one part. Yes, I’m talking GPUs, rare as a good reason for cryptocurrency, and exactly as valuable. This is the story of my conversion from Nvidia to AMD.
The plucky underdog won in this tale, as I managed to secure an AMD 6700 XT, at the base cost even (direct from AMD). True, I’d like the more powerful 6800 XT, but as the timeless saying goes, “A GPU buyer in a global pandemic with crazy high demand and a crypto boom can’t be picky.” Next will be upgrading the rest of my rig.
If you are in my shoes and looking for something new from AMD, I wish you the best of luck and patience, since it will take plenty of that. Still, there are some things you can do to improve your chances buying direct from AMD, summarized in this Reddit thread. That basically captured what I did: had a script to help with AMD’s site, remember when stock typically drops on AMD for your region, and maybe sit on a Discord or YouTube stream.
Goodbye Nvidia! I fell into the category of Linux gamers looking to move to AMD for an upgrade. One big reason being for more open, and still competitive, drivers (there is still binary firmware needed for full functionality and performance, but everything else exists in open source Mesa). So, how did it go moving from Nvidia, namely the stalwart GTX 970, to the latest from AMD?
