Discussions and news about gaming on the GNU/Linux family of operating systems (including the Steam Deck). Potentially a $HOME away from home for disgruntled /r/linux_gaming denizens of the redditarian demesne.
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Original /r/linux_gaming pengwing by uoou.
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Fortunately, this fucking windows partition I only keep for VR with my shitty Oculus Rift CV1 reminds me how fucked up the alternative is. I can't fucking wait to get a Steam Frame and ditch it.
This is basically the reverse of how the regular gaming communities treat Linux. Take a best case for "your team", a worst case for the other, and then pretend it's always that way.
There's a lot of good ways to explain what makes Windows bad without being disingenuous :3
I'm not being cheeky. This is my actual experience as of this morning. I'm still fucking angry.
I assume you switched out your GPU for one of the same chip manufacturer? (AMD>AMD or NVIDIA>NVIDIA)
Then the linux scenario would very realistic, otherwise very much not.
AMD only in this house because fuck nvidia.
Finally i can say the same for me too :) I just didnt have a reason to upgrade from my perfectly good 1070 because i wasnt playing any heavy games. Now i have an inherited 6950xt which is a fuckin beast of a gpu :D
You are being slightly disingenuous though.
Like the Linux side is just steps, while the windows side had needless commentary that make the list longer.
I'm with you 96% though. Upgrading a GPU on Windows is a freaking nightmare. DDU being required is honestly insane.
On Linux it was painless. Though I do have my share of Linux problems.
Yup. I've had massive driver issues with lengthy troubleshooting on both Linux and Windows before. Even had to switch to a completely different distribution once, because it wouldn't play nice with my GPU.
If you pretend like everything always works seamlessly with Linux, you're bound to give people false expectations that will very likely be disappointed.
I found it relatable because just last night same thing happened in my windows boot, but all of a sudden it decided I had no wifi adapter, even though it worked fine in Linux and hadn't broken in Windows before. I see it indicating an error in device manager, found a "guide" that specifically called out that device manager error that suggests rebooting the router, because people writing websites troubleshooting guides are morons. The driver model has some weird behaviors that make device behavior more convoluted.
In Linux, generally it either loads and works or it doesn't and if it doesn't, you absolutely need a fixed driver or the hardware has a problem. In Windows it can absolutely not work and you go through some weird things, end up with exact same driver and version as before but suddenly it actually works..
Upgrading your GPU on Linux
-realise you can't afford a GPU and keep your old one
Upgrading your GPU on Windows
-realise you can't afford a GPU and keep your old one
Windows still complains.
This is upgrading your AMD GPU on Linux. If it were nvidia then it'd be just as long as the Windows part, from what my friends have said
Nah, literally just swapped nvidia gpus last week.
Pull one out, pop one in, resume gaming.
If you don't already have the nvidia driver or nouveau, you have to install that and make sure it isn't blacklisted. Reboot and done.
Lol every few months I get an update that causes something to fail in the nvidia driver. What? I have no idea, I've not bothered to diagnose, I just restore the last snapshot and wait until another driver or kernel update is out.
Can confirm, in fact there is a reasonable probability that you won't be able to setup the ~~shitty~~ official NVIDIA drivers and the new card will run slower than the old one :(
The blame really goes on Nvidia more than Linux. There's only so much you can do when the manufacturer won't support the card properly
I would say by my experience, in order from easiest to most difficult, it's AMD on Linux, then Nvidia on windows, Nvidia on Linux. I haven't had a recent enough experience with amd on windows, but from what I hear its like you either install drivers then it works or you gotta do some crazy shit like op did to unbork something.
I'd still rather deal with Nvidia on Linux than anything to do with modern windows if I have the choice, especially with the insane amount of anti-features+spyware they seem to be shipping it with these days.
The only thing reading something like this does for me is paint the linux community as completely inept and dishonest.
I swapped GPU in windows by downloading the new driver, shut down the pc, swap cards, boot pc that then loads a default windows driver, install the new driver I downloaded, done. If it asks for a reboot, that takes another 20 seconds.
Done.
This is, specifically, the workflow for changing graphics cards manufacturers on windows, e.g. nVidia to AMD. If you're just going from one AMD card to another, or vice versa, generally you can just toss it in and reboot a few times, yes.
GPU manufacturers are fucking awful about actually uninstalling their bloatware shit on windows, and it often (potentially intentionally) interferes with other manufacturer's drivers (and sometimes their own, though that's less common these days.)
I agree that the original post is dishonest, but your solution is exactly the same as what they said with the exception that you knew it would be a problem so you downloaded the driver beforehand. Had you not known that would happen the series of misfortunes could have happened to you too.
This is disingenuous, if you had an AMD GPU on Linux and switched to an Nvidia card you would be using the nouveau drivers so you would need to install the proprietary drivers to get the best performance.
And lots of the same issues that are listed on the windows side could happen on Linux as well since they relate to connectivity.
sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia
Seriously though, this is still the same problem on windows. If you switch from AMD to Nvidia, it'll load a generic display driver until you install the Nvidia one either through windows updates (heavily outdated) or GeForce Now (heavy bloat).
At least Linux gives you Nouveau instead of throwing you into a 480p fallback output.
I swear that some linux users are some of the most incompetent PC users around.
If this is your experience, you are seriously fucking shit up lmao
I think in either direction, people forget how much becomes intuitive about their OS, and how quickly we can fall into "Works on my machine". I'm sure plenty of people have never had problems with their graphics drivers breaking things. But can you really say with full certainty that some random driver conflict couldn't possibly happen? What if they are swapping from AMD to Nvidia, does your confidence remain?
Everything is easy and intuitive when you know what is expected of you, and everything goes according to plan, but good luck if something gets fucky.
Frankly, this is EXACTLY the problem that I had, that made me switch to linux.
I had a MSI laptop with a 3060. At first, it was wonky on Windows but overall it worked with a few workarounds. So far so good.
After some times, an update to Windows (I believe) made it that I had to run DDU to uninstall the drivers then reinstall everything. It took me more than one afternoon. Then I still had to do the workarounds.
After a while, I had to uninstall the video drivers at every boot, then reinstall a specific version of one driver, then had to run Windows Update, uncheck one specific little tickbox for the video card to function. At. Every. Boot.
And then, not even that worked.
On Nobara, I just had to install the distro and boom ! It worked out of the box. With the only downside that the HDMI was capped at 1080p 30Hz (when Windows wouldn't even display over HDMI). I think the 30Hz part was a Wayland limitation at the time.
So no, it wasn't because I was bad at Windows. Bloody thing just did not work and made me go full linux.
It‘s literally built into windows update. Installs and updates.
I am a passionate Fedora Linux user but even I have to admit that Windows does Drivers way better. Drover updates uncoupled from the kernel, sometimes possible without rebooting, proprietary drivers installed no problem.
It‘s literally built into windows update. Installs and updates.
Not when you're changing GPU vendors. It can install the drivers, sure, but not remedy the obnoxious conflict between Nvidia drivers and AMD drivers when installed in the same system.
Don't make me dig out the screenshot when I did exactly that and fucked my Linux install to the point where x11 shat the bed on boot and I had to abandon Linux until a few months ago
What conflict? I haven’t had issues like that in probably 10+ years.
Hell my one laptop has all 3 major vendors drivers installed and working simultaneously. Intel iGPU, Nvidia dGPU and AMD eGPU.
Windows does Drivers way better.
...on Linux you very rarely need to do anything driver wise so I have to strongly disagree. I think I have installed drivers for 3 devices over the past few years. If Nvidia gave a shit about Linux, the only device that gave me issues wouldn't have given me issues.
Main issue is the inconsistent drivers naturally included in Windows update and just how many things demand you install a weird vendor specific driver, with the steward of what should be a generic Winfows driver sometimes breaking things for other vendors, and/or neglecting the Windows update vintage of their driver.
Architecturally, the Windows driver model should be saner, but for most random devices I have better luck with Linux in how drivers are maintained and supported over time.
I switched from Nvidia to AMD back when the 9070XT came out and none of that was necessary with my Windows 11 system. I just swapped the card, uninstalled the Nvidia stuff and installed the AMD drivers. Haven't had an issue.
I swear a decent chunk of these issues are "power users" following guides making changes they don't understand in areas that aren't meant to be modified directly, then months later having issues when something tries to read or modify those areas again.
I used to be a Windows user before switching to Linux, and upgrading a GPU is incredibly simple on Windows. You don’t need Display Driver Uninstaller, but it is ideal to use it for the best performance and remediating future incompatibilities.
Process is almost identical for AMD or Arc GPUs.
I appreciate this is a meme, but if your computer behaves like that, it means it’s borked. I’d fix those other issues, too, and probably reinstall Windows. Most likely that user messed with things they shouldn’t have by following random guides and YouTube videos online. In my decades of using Windows, I never had those problems.
If you’re going from Nvidia to Nvidia for AMD to AMD and you’re on the latest drivers already you probably don’t even have to uninstall them. When I last upgraded my GPU I just took the old one out and put the new one in and it just worked.
There is also the fun part where Windows won't recognize your PC / accept your license after some upgrades...
Yup.
Build PC
Activate Windows
Motherboard develops a fault
Get a refund/replacement
Install it
Windows is no longer activated, because they tied it to the motherboard...
NVCleanstall helps with the Nvidia telemetry/useless feature bloat on Windows as well as keeping drivers up-to-date. It's absurd that a third-party program is necessary, but it's a useful program for anyone still dual-booting Windows.
Every os has issues man. Linux just swaps some issues for others.
I'd much rather deal with Linux issues than windows, but that's just me.
Upgrading your GPU on a Mac:
I don't miss Windows either. I really don't miss PC gaming. Though, if my last gaming computer didn't crap out on me, I would probably be running Linux on it now. Sometimes I wish my wife would have chosen a PC I could put Linux on. I offered a cheap PC, a mid-range Mac, and a gaming PC. She chose the Mac after we looked into the cheap PC and found it couldn't support our monitor (well, Windows 11 wouldn't on that CPU/Chipset, it would only do 1080p, not sure if Linux could support 1440p on the same hardware, we didn't think about that).
I never had a issue on Windows with swapping a GPU since before xp.
Just installed a 4070.. I did go to the website for the latest driver, but Windows supplied driver auto detected resolutions just fine. I was done in fifteen minutes including physically swapping card
I hate when people write lies like this, it makes Linux look bad.
Calling DDU shady is some BS. It's got WinRAR levels of rep. Been around for ages.
I actually had to use Windows to diagnose why my GPU wasn’t working on Linux after a zypper dup… :/
I also can't wait to never interact with Meta again when I get a Steam Frame.
I haven’t replaced a GPU on Linux, but my experience on windows has been to always uninstall and remove the graphics driver (forcing the Microsoft generic display driver) before replacing the GPU.
Then, it was just a matter of getting the drivers installed before I’m good to go. Granted, this was under Windows 10
lol sure. When I installed a new GPU while using mint, it never booted again. Even years later when I assumed they would finally have support for the card, same story. Had to move to Ubuntu instead
I rolled my eyes real hard at this.
As a Linux supporter, this is absolutely not the case and it's going to piss off every person who swaps to Linux thinking it'll be this easy, and then when they're hit with reality, switches back to Windows.
Sounds like the Linux user only ever used AMD cards.
You still need to download the drivers for nVidia. One of the top noob questions is "which one?" because there are several options without real explanation... At least on Ubuntu based distro, which a lot of new users will be sent to (i.e. Mint).
The experience with AMD cards seems to be the above; plug in and it just works immediately.
But don't even get me started on Intel cards. Jeezus Effing Kristus. I got mine working, but it's still a damned issue and a half. And you'll have to go driver hunting if you want to do anything artistic with them, which is an absolute rabbit hole on Ubuntu distros. But mercifully much more simple on Fedora and Co.
Out of curiosity what were the old and new GPUs?
That's a particularly lengthy effort, even for Windows, so I'm wondering if you switched from nvidia to AMD or something major like that. Only thing I would have done differently is uninstall the old graphics driver before switching the hardware - but that is perhaps a very old expectation, so I don't know that it'd be reasonable in your case
5700xt -> 9070xt
I just upgraded to an AMD card. My Windows partition required me to download and install the drivers, which gave me some features for controlling how games work. Linux didn’t require me to download anything but I don’t have the tools. Different experiences but neither is particularly better. I didn’t have technical problems with either.
