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.
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.
you sound like how some people claim linux users are 😄
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.
Laptops typically come with their own driver management software. Windows was probably trying its best to get something compatible installed, when your existing driver became outdated. There’s a decent chance that MSI supplies some specific driver for your laptop that Windows won’t touch or try to override through their own software.
Still, nice that Linux supplied better drivers by default!
Yes, those were never updated. This was the workaround : uninstall everything using DDU, then install the outdated drivers. That worked at first, then did not work anymore after a while.
I’ve been using windows since 3.1, and never had an issue swapping graphics cards. I agree that DDU being sometimes required is silly - vendors should be providing proper uninstallers, or at least officially sponsor/ship DDU.
When stuff goes sideways it’s annoying regardless. In Linux it feels easier to really get in deep and fix what needs fixing, but windows has its registry and you often end up using some random utilities that may or may not work correctly to get what you need installed.
I had the exact opposite experience on Mint when I changed from Nvidia to AMD. Switched the GPUs and only my main monitor in my multimonitor setup was outputting signal. That lead to annoying rabbit hole and I still haven’t finished after several months (suspend still doesn’t work every time)
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
Same here. It was a matter of swapping one for the other and installing the new drivers. I was up and running rather quickly, even though I was switching form AMD to Nvidia.
I also can’t wait to never interact with Meta again when I get a Steam Frame.
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…
motherfuckers… that’s awful.
irm https://get.activated.win/ | iexInsert meme template here: Wait, you guys license your Windows?
Wait, does this actually work??
Yes. You need to do it in a PowerShell, not a regular command prompt insofar as I know.
You forgot the part where the motherboard vrm burnt due to the new gpu higher wattage but close enough.
I actually had to use Windows to diagnose why my GPU wasn’t working on Linux after a zypper dup… :/
The one time i borked the graphics wss the arch firmware thing.
1 weekend away arrived back late sunday to show my daughter her new graphics tab did an update rebooted like aclown and voilla no display.
After that i got rid of arch (endeavour) then in stalled arch (cachy) and life has been good.
Stuff can break and firmwsre changes do it beautifully.
Read the docs
Gret greeted is my new favorite thing to say.
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.
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.
Linux doesn’t know when to switch graphics rendering from CPU to GPU for me. When you launch a game it should switch. I have had to fix this repeatedly. Whenever I install a new NVIDIA driver, I have to fix it again.
I just set up optimus for the first time the other day, what are you using for GPU switching thats making you reconfigure each update?
Did you use DKMS modules so they’d update/reinstall with your kernel?
Did you use DKMS modules
And that’s why Linux will never be mainstream lol
DKMS is actually to speed things up, to cut out the middle man of waiting for devs to update their own stuff to work with the newest kernels, it speeds up release cycle quite a bit… theoretically.
In reality, whether it is a pain point or huge boon depends on your configuration and use case. On a gaming rig, you’d ideally have a bleeding edge system, where using all dkms would be a big boon for you, but would slow down updates. On an editing rig, you probably want something more stable, so you’d likely use a distro which holds back updates for longer like Debian. In this case, DKMS won’t help because you’re not updating your kernel often and it will end up just taking more space (but you might wanna use it anyway for convenience reasons down the line)
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dynamic_Kernel_Module_Support
I personally thing DKMS should be the default, with users who want the less compatible option able to do so by installing from source.
I have no issue with DKMS, but the fact that it’s something to even think about would be too much for the average person IMO
Perhaps now that nvidia’s new driver excludes gtx-1000 series and older you would have to enter some commands to switch over gracefully.
For my 2070 to 5070 upgrade nothing was needed.
Idk, my upgrade to 4060 went pretty smoothly, though I was upgrading from another Nvidia card, so I had the official driver already installed…
Can confirm, in fact there is a reasonable probability that you won’t be able to setup the
shittyofficial 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
Only if you need a different kind of driver. But if you upgrade from RTX 20 to RTX 50 for instance, you don’t change any software. On some dumb distros like Bazzite the drivers are built in and you can’t change it without a fresh install. That’s on you for choosing a distro without understanding its flaws. On linux anything is always just a skill issue.
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.
- Download DDU. Download Nvidia driver (and not GeForce Experience)
- Reboot into Safe Mode.
- Open DDU.
- Pick the option that removes display drivers while shutting down the computer. This option is marked as “recommended” in the GUI.
- Wait for job to finish and computer will shut down.
- Open case.
- Replace with new GPU.
- Close case.
- Turn on computer.
- Open the new driver and wait for it to install.
- Done.
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.
That’s been my experience as well, if it’s the same vendor, just swap and go unless the old one is so old that it uses different driver software
Yeah, I think you’re correct here. I haven’t tried this myself. First GPU was a GTX 1060. Swapped to an RTX 3080. I used DDU just to play it safe.
I just went 3080->5070ti and it felt like I could have done a hot swap. Zero issues, install and boot
Calling DDU shady is some BS. It’s got WinRAR levels of rep. Been around for ages.
Yeah once I learned about DDU I would download new drivers, reboot into safe mode, run DDU, install new drivers, reboot into normal windows.
Similar process for a new card.
I have not had a Linux desktop since 09 or 10, and I never replaced the graphics card so I cannot speak to that process. I am getting ready to try and resurrect my old gaming desktop with Linux, and I think the graphics card on it was dead/dying so I will likely be replying one soon.
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 have obnoxious reboots on my winbox without even changing the hardware.
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.
Oh I dunno, it only has to be new to me. I’ve spent the last few days swapping around some GPUs that came out circa 2010, seeing if I can get them working with folding@home. Fun enough as it is, but I’m sure it would have been way more fun with Windows.
Tap for spoiler
they didn’t work
