Manjaro - Switch from nVidia to Radeon

[Glennbo]

It looks to be an easy switch from what I've read, only needed the nVidia driver to be removed and deleting xorg.conf, then install the new Radeon and Manjaro will pick up the switch.

Has anybody here switched from an nVidia to a Radeon?

This is what I'm getting in a couple days.

http://www.yeston.net/product/details/234/272

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[lucas_LCS]

Wondering what is the reason for the change?
Were you having trouble with the NVidia card?

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[SmajjL]

Originally Posted by Glennbo

Has anybody here switched from an nVidia to a Radeon?

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Yeah, i did also go all AMD this year and i have been using the open source/Kernel without issues and i see the Phoronix news that AMD will get more improvements
5800X/X570/RX6900XT (still trying to game and refuse to grow up)

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by lucas_LCS

Wondering what is the reason for the change?
Were you having trouble with the NVidia card?

::

It was an ancient PCIe 2.0 GTS450 with 1GB from 2010. Scrolling web pages would stick then go occasionally, and the one game I play sometimes, Dirt Rally, would only run smooth with extreme low quality rendering.

Now web pages don't act sticky when scrolling, and my game runs with every rendering option set to Ultra High. The new AMD Radeon card is PCIe 3.0 with 4GB GDDR5, and doesn't require manufactures drivers coz Linux natively supports AMD Radeon cards. The new card is a single space wide and can go low profile if need be. Here it is looking through the window on the side of my case. It's the pink card below the CPU and to the left of the red DDR4.

Took all of five minutes to swap it out and these are the commands you need to issue for removing the nVidia drivers and switching to the open source Linux drivers before swapping out the cards. The first command tells you what to put in the second command for the < video-nvidia version > and the third command installs the basic Linux driver. Pop in the new card and it's off to the races!

sudo mhwd -li
sudo mhwd -r pci < video-nvidia version >

sudo mhwd -i pci video-linux

Edit: I should also mention that the old nvidia card was double width, consumed 106 watts of power, and required an additional 6-pin power connector where the new Radeon is a single width card, uses only 50 watts with no additional power connectors needed and puts the other card to shame.

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by SmajjL

Yeah, i did also go all AMD this year and i have been using the open source/Kernel without issues and i see the Phoronix news that AMD will get more improvements
5800X/X570/RX6900XT (still trying to game and refuse to grow up)

Going all AMD was part of my reasoning because AMD based video cards are native to Linux where nVidia cards require proprietary manufacturer drivers to function well. Dirt Rally is about the only game I play, but it's pretty demanding of the video card, and that was one of the other reasons I decided to upgrade.

Really kicking myself for not buying an RX5550 PCIe 4.0 before Covid and the chip shortage. I could have bought one of those for what I paid for the RX550 PCIe 3.0, but that was still a major upgrade from the card I was using.

[Glennbo]

Also, before swapping out the cards, I reconfigured compositing options back to stock and uninstalled Compton (Picom). I didn't want to take any chances that it was somehow bound to the specific nVidia driver or card, and I had planned to reinstall it, but . . .

The new card doesn't have any screen tearing issues with movement happening within full screen 1080p moving shots, like a helicopter shot that's panning around while chasing a fast car that's blazing down the road.

[SmajjL]

Originally Posted by Glennbo

Also, before swapping out the cards, I reconfigured compositing options back to stock and uninstalled Compton (Picom). I didn't want to take any chances that it was somehow bound to the specific nVidia driver or card, and I had planned to reinstall it, but . . .

The new card doesn't have any screen tearing issues with movement happening within full screen 1080p moving shots, like a helicopter shot that's panning around while chasing a fast car that's blazing down the road.

I thought all DEs had vsync/vblank/compositor-thingies ON by default? and i know XFCE have it somewhere as a choice.
KDE have it so easy with the choices and for some 1st person (competitive) shooters, i reeeeeeally need all that stuff to be OFF so the mouse and everything feels instant.

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by SmajjL

I thought all DEs had vsync/vblank/compositor-thingies ON by default? and i know XFCE have it somewhere as a choice.
KDE have it so easy with the choices and for some 1st person (competitive) shooters, i reeeeeeally need all that stuff to be OFF so the mouse and everything feels instant.

Yeah, but I had installed Picom (Compton), and disabled the default compositor which with my old nVidia card fixed screen tearing issues.

My new RX550 card seems fine with the default compositor, and screams like a bat out of hell rendering reflections, particles, Etc.

[lucas_LCS]

Upgrades are always fun.

Sorry for the off topic, but if I create a new linux install can I just copy my home folder to the new install instead of competely setting everything up again?
I thought I saw you did that, but can't find the thread it was in.

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[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by lucas_LCS

Upgrades are always fun.

Before Covid and the chip shortage, I had planned on upgrading to this card. It was $199.99, and I thought I'd wait and catch it at a lower price. Instead of getting cheaper, they went astronomical.

https://www.newegg.com/msi-radeon-rx...82E16814137497

Sorry for the off topic, but if I create a new linux install can I just copy my home folder to the new install instead of competely setting everything up again?
I thought I saw you did that, but can't find the thread it was in.

::

What you remember me saying I did was I copied my whole .wine folder from a Xubuntu drive to my fresh new Manjaro install. That made it so I had no setup at all to get Windows plugins working.

You could probably do the whole home folder if you are doing a fresh install of the same distro, but it might do unexpected stuff if you copied a home folder from Xubuntu to Manjaro. It might work too, I've never tried it and have only copied select folders when moving to a different version of Linux.

[lucas_LCS]

Originally Posted by Glennbo

What you remember me saying I did was I copied my whole .wine folder from a Xubuntu drive to my fresh new Manjaro install. That made it so I had no setup at all to get Windows plugins working.

You had to install the same version of Wine or Wine-Staging first, I take it?

Originally Posted by Glennbo

You could probably do the whole home folder if you are doing a fresh install of the same distro, but it might do unexpected stuff if you copied a home folder from Xubuntu to Manjaro. It might work too, I've never tried it and have only copied select folders when moving to a different version of Linux.

Good to know, but Manjaro seems like a good fit for me.

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[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by lucas_LCS

You had to install the same version of Wine or Wine-Staging first, I take it?

No, in fact I went from using winehq-staging in Xubuntu to using the stock wine-staging from the Manjaro repository. I didn't rerun Yabridge sync either. Once all the pieces were copied from Xubuntu to Manjaro, I fired up REAPER expecting it to bark about Windows plugins, but the one and only error I got was due to all my Superior Drummer 2 sample data being moved to my new NVMe so the previous path to an SSD was invalid. Once I pointed Superior to the new location for the samples, everything worked as before.

Good to know, but Manjaro seems like a good fit for me.

::

Manjaro is the happy place for me on my DAW machine.

[Tobbe]

About installing:

I have it like this

Partition 1 - /boot (small, not more than 4096mb or so)
Partition 2 - / (root) (maybe 50-75GB)
Partition 3 - /home (the rest of my harddrive)

So if I wanna reinstall I just format #1 and #2 and leave #3 intact, but I activate of course but no format just say it is my /home partition. I saw this on a old swedish linux forum ages ago and I used it since then...over 15 years at least now.

[JamesPeters]

Originally Posted by Glennbo

Yeah, but I had installed Picom (Compton), and disabled the default compositor which with my old nVidia card fixed screen tearing issues.

My new RX550 card seems fine with the default compositor, and screams like a bat out of hell rendering reflections, particles, Etc.

What Nvidia card were you using before? (edit: never mind, I just saw your reply about that from earlier.) The RX550 isn't exactly what I'd consider a high-end card. I have a fanless GT1030 with DDR5 for performance that's in the same ballpark and it's fine for my needs, but I'd hesitate to call that amazing either.

I had screen tear issues when I first started using Linux, and had to mess with compositors. It seems the default XFCE compositor is fine now though. I haven't had to add one since I switched to Manjaro, probably coincidentally as XFCE at the time was updated.

Also I'm using the proprietary Nvidia drivers with no problems. I suspect your old Nvidia card may have had some issue with the drivers.

I had tried an AMD card (XFX Radeon RX 570) which was more powerful than my Nvidia card, but the fans annoyed me. My PC is silent unless I'm pushing the CPU to an extreme, so adding noise is something I have problems accepting. Plus the AMD open source driver didn't seem to perform as well as the proprietary Nvidia driver at least at the time. So I was able to get better performance with the AMD card than my Nvidia card, but compared to how it worked in Windows it wasn't as good (the fans spun up a lot more) and the fanless Nvidia was still good enough for the occasional gaming I do while being silent. I expect open source Linux AMD GPU drivers have improved since then. I probably should've held onto that card and sold it for 5x what I paid for it lol. BTW it's probably more about crypto mining than it is about chip shortages. Ban crypto mining.

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by JamesPeters

What Nvidia card were you using before? (edit: never mind, I just saw your reply about that from earlier.) The RX550 isn't exactly what I'd consider a high-end card. I have a fanless GT1030 with DDR5 for performance that's in the same ballpark and it's fine for my needs, but I'd hesitate to call that amazing either.

The card I bought is by no means a high end gamer card. The card I removed required a six pin power connector and used twice the watts of the new card I installed. The previous nVidia card also occupied two spaces, where the Radeon I just installed has no additional power connectors and is a true single width card.

I had screen tear issues when I first started using Linux, and had to mess with compositors. It seems the default XFCE compositor is fine now though. I haven't had to add one since I switched to Manjaro, probably coincidentally as XFCE at the time was updated.

I had noticeable screen tearing with my nVidia card in Manjaro. Picom fixed it, but the new single lane no extra power card that Linux has drivers in the kernel for has no screen tearing even under the most extreme conditions, like a helicopter shot panning around on a fast moving car.

Also I'm using the proprietary Nvidia drivers with no problems. I suspect your old Nvidia card may have had some issue with the drivers.

I had tried an AMD card (XFX Radeon RX 570) which was more powerful than my Nvidia card, but the fans annoyed me. My PC is silent unless I'm pushing the CPU to an extreme, so adding noise is something I have problems accepting. Plus the AMD open source driver didn't seem to perform as well as the proprietary Nvidia driver at least at the time. So I was able to get better performance with the AMD card than my Nvidia card, but compared to how it worked in Windows it wasn't as good (the fans spun up a lot more) and the fanless Nvidia was still good enough for the occasional gaming I do while being silent. I expect open source Linux AMD GPU drivers have improved since then. I probably should've held onto that card and sold it for 5x what I paid for it lol. BTW it's probably more about crypto mining than it is about chip shortages. Ban crypto mining.

I am running the stock kernel driver, and have not installed any additional driver of any kind. My previous dual width nVidia card that required an additional six pin power connector (using double the watts of what I have now) would spin its fan up and down which annoyed the shit out of me. Just scrolling a web page would result in a potential video stick, followed by a burst of fan noise. My new card is dead silent even when playing Dirt Rally with every graphic setting on "Ultra". Before Covid19 I could have bought a PCIe 4.0 RX5550 for about $200, but as you can see those cards now start at around $450.

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?Submit=P...arch=1&Order=1

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[JamesPeters]

I had dealt with screen tear issues in games plus in videos playing in media players, browsers (Netflix, Youtube, etc.) and it was really noticeable and annoying to me. I got settings dialed in for the drivers, compositors, and the browser, which resolved the issues at the time. It was a give-and-take sort of approach trying to get things to work in every potential circumstance. Even with the Radeon card, I had to override some settings in the compositor and browsers. Now though, I'm using default settings for everything (with XFCE's own compositor) and it's all fine using all the same hardware (and back to using the GT1030). I know XFCE got some improvements in its compositor and I suspect other things got improved (browsers, etc.) too.

Your previous video card might have fallen into a category where it didn't quite jive with current drivers, or required some extra configuration. But replacing it was a good idea anyway for the other reasons you mentioned. My "half-assed" GT1030 works very well for something that's "not a gaming card", easily outperforming any onboard video I had for my previous Intel-based CPUs while still being silent.

Dirty Rally looks appealing to me in a way, but then also might inspire my obsessive tendencies due to the more technical aspects of the game. I'm looking forward to the next racing game that gives me a feeling of speed, realistic or not. That seems to be tough to find. It has to hit the right buttons in my brain so that it feels "fast" to me, which apparently is different from what most people think of as "fast" for these games. I modified the config of SuperTuxKart for extreme speed, and that was fun for a while, but not many people liked playing on the custom server with that config. As fun as that game could be, it's also really poor at GPU usage. I can make it run fine with my GPU bit it takes a lot more than it should (by comparison to other "kart" games with better graphics, running in emulation).

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by JamesPeters

I had dealt with screen tear issues in games plus in videos playing in media players, browsers (Netflix, Youtube, etc.) and it was really noticeable and annoying to me. I got settings dialed in for the drivers, compositors, and the browser, which resolved the issues at the time. It was a give-and-take sort of approach trying to get things to work in every potential circumstance. Even with the Radeon card, I had to override some settings in the compositor and browsers. Now though, I'm using default settings for everything (with XFCE's own compositor) and it's all fine using all the same hardware (and back to using the GT1030). I know XFCE got some improvements in its compositor and I suspect other things got improved (browsers, etc.) too.

Sounds like the improvements made in the stock compositor is what made my new card work with no tearing and with Picom (Compton) uninstalled. I evidently timed it just right because I only recently switched to Manjaro and my old card definitely did better after installing Picom and setting a few things in its config file.

Your previous video card might have fallen into a category where it didn't quite jive with current drivers, or required some extra configuration. But replacing it was a good idea anyway for the other reasons you mentioned. My "half-assed" GT1030 works very well for something that's "not a gaming card", easily outperforming any onboard video I had for my previous Intel-based CPUs while still being silent.

My old card was a high end gaming card when it was produced in 2011. Double width, required additional 6 pin power, with a big fan and heat pipes.



The new card has a smaller fan, gets all its power from the slot it's plugged into and is single width.

Dirty Rally looks appealing to me in a way, but then also might inspire my obsessive tendencies due to the more technical aspects of the game. I'm looking forward to the next racing game that gives me a feeling of speed, realistic or not. That seems to be tough to find. It has to hit the right buttons in my brain so that it feels "fast" to me, which apparently is different from what most people think of as "fast" for these games. I modified the config of SuperTuxKart for extreme speed, and that was fun for a while, but not many people liked playing on the custom server with that config. As fun as that game could be, it's also really poor at GPU usage. I can make it run fine with my GPU bit it takes a lot more than it should (by comparison to other "kart" games with better graphics, running in emulation).

Dirt Rally is a very fast racing game. I used to play Need For Speed - Hot Pursuit, which is a Windows game that won't run when installed through Steam for Linux. My kid got me Dirt Rally to replace NFS, and it is definitely a fast moving game like NFS was.

[lucas_LCS]

Originally Posted by Glennbo

I used to play Need For Speed - Hot Pursuit, which is a Windows game that won't run when installed through Steam for Linux.

You don't have the original install CD, I take it?
Having to use Steam to play games I own is one of the reasons I stopped playing games.

I have all my NFS install disks, but lost the CD key keys for most of them somewhere along the way.
I just found the key to Hot Pursuit 2 yesterday, so i was pretty stoked about that.
I also have the demo for the NFS 3 Hot Pursuit.
I will install it to see if I can get it to run under wine and let you know.

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[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by lucas_LCS

You don't have the original install CD, I take it?

Yeah, when I was running Windows my kid bought me a four pack of EA Racing games from Steam. After trying all four of them in Linux, and all four of them failing to run, my kid got me Dirt Rally, also a Windows game from Steam, but it works great on Linux.

Having to use Steam to play games I own is one of the reasons I stopped playing games.

I don't really like the tether, but I keep Steam set to offline, and both Steam and Dirt Rally bark about it, but the game still runs.

I have all my NFS install disks, but lost the CD key keys for most of them somewhere along the way.
I just found the key to Hot Pursuit 2 yesterday, so i was pretty stoked about that.
I also have the demo for the NFS 3 Hot Pursuit.
I will install it to see if I can get it to run under wine and let you know.

::

Thanks. If it turns out some WINE overrides can make EA Racing games work, I have valid Steam licenses for Need For Speed - Hot Pursuit, Burnout Paradise, plus Shift 1 and Shift 2 that I can install.

[JamesPeters]

Originally Posted by Glennbo

I should also mention that the old nvidia card was double width, consumed 106 watts of power, and required an additional 6-pin power connector

Originally Posted by Glennbo

The card I removed required a six pin power connector and used twice the watts of the new card I installed. The previous nVidia card also occupied two spaces,

Originally Posted by Glennbo

My old card was a high end gaming card when it was produced in 2011. Double width, required additional 6 pin power,

I have a question to ask about that old graphics card that I'm really wondering about.

Did it take up two spaces and require an additional 6-pin power connector?

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by JamesPeters

I have a question to ask about that old graphics card that I'm really wondering about.

Did it take up two spaces and require an additional 6-pin power connector?

YES!!!

And the new card takes only one space, has no extra power connector needed, and only uses 50 watts!