Question Looking for an AMD card for linux

[G-Wiz]

Hi, I'm looking for a AMD GPU for use on linux. Could someone make a recommendation please? I don't know anything about AMD cards (I've been an nvidia user for a good ten years).

I want the card to be able to output 4k so I can watch videos/youtube on my 4k TV.

I would like light 1080p gaming potential. The only games I play are either strategy games (like the paradox games), 0AD, or old games from GOG.

So it's not a very beefy card that I need, hopefully that means I'll actually be able to get one and not have to overpay.

Any help appreciated
Thanks

 

[Krteq]

RX 6600XT could be sufficient for your use case.

It has pretty good support in AMDGPU kernel driver and MESA

HW decoder can decode 4K video for all common codecs/formats - H264/H265/AV1/VP9 etc. (don't forget to install gstreamer and VA packages and allow HW decode in browser)

1080p gaming should be also OK for new titles

Power consumption is pretty low

I'm just curious, which distro are you using?

 

[Bigos]

Any GCN+ (Radeon HD 7000) AMD GPU should work fine under Linux. For better compatibility I would stick to at least gfx7 (R9 285+, R9 380+, Rx 400+). For newer GPUs I would also stick to distros that use newer kernel and mesa (like Arch Linux).

About performance, the situation depends on the port quality of various games. The driver performance should mostly match the Windows one (in case of OpenGL even exceed), however some ports perform poorly. You mind find some useful benchmarks on Phoronix.

 

[Krteq]

Well, unfortunately, older GCN cards still doesn't have great support in AMDGPU kernel driver - it's been developed primarily for Polaris and newer archs

 

[VirtualLarry]

I was going to suggest something like a Radeon RX 560 4GB card. Small, low-powered, can output 4K UHD desktop resolution, somewhat adequate 1080P gaming, cheap(er).

 

[G-Wiz]

Thanks for all suggestions guys but I need to add a it more info to my request. The cards suggested are too expensive for my needs, even the Radeon RX 560.

I'm currently using a GTx 750ti and its almost perfect, it just has the slightly annoying issue that it's 4k output is 30fps, although I've been using it for so long I've actually got used it. There's also the fact that I hear AMD is better for linux (and that's really the only reason I'm thinking of upgrading. Well sidegrading really.)

As you can see from me using a 750ti gaming is a very low priority, the gaming performance of this card is fine for me and would like a similar AMD card because I'm really trying to do this as cheaply as possible, and I don't even mind if the card only outputs 4k at 30fps since I'm used to it now.

Krteq, I'll be making the switch from windows to Arch (Arco with the AwsomeWM) soon. I've used linux before so I'm not going in blind.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

The cards suggested are too expensive for my needs, even the Radeon RX 560.

I'd see if I couldn't get a good deal on a 1030 (remember GDDR5 only. DDR4 version is not an option) or RX550. Both have full 4K60 support. But with current market conditions, even those might be seriously overpriced. YMMV depending on where you are.

 

[Bigos]

Well, unfortunately, older GCN cards still doesn't have great support in AMDGPU kernel driver - it's been developed primarily for Polaris and newer archs

My understanding is that the amdgpu kernel driver was written for gfx7+, i.e. Hawaii. It was later extended to gfx6 which should work, but probably with some caveats (that's why I was recommending gfx7+).

There is nothing new with Polaris - it's roughly the same architecture as Tonga/Fiji - gfx8.

 

[Glo.]

Hi, I'm looking for a AMD GPU for use on linux. Could someone make a recommendation please? I don't know anything about AMD cards (I've been an nvidia user for a good ten years).

I want the card to be able to output 4k so I can watch videos/youtube on my 4k TV.

I would like light 1080p gaming potential. The only games I play are either strategy games (like the paradox games), 0AD, or old games from GOG.

So it's not a very beefy card that I need, hopefully that means I'll actually be able to get one and not have to overpay.

Any help appreciated
Thanks

It will be hard to find any new AMD GPU on market, but if you can - RX 6600 XT, or soon to be released 6600 - non XT.

If you will not be able to get them - get RX 570/RX 580 on second hand market. Best support of all of AMD GPUs, apart from maybe RDNA2(6000 series) GPUs. RDNA1 is worth considering but has a lot of workarounds under Linux to make it run. It will run properly, but if you care about the code that is executed - be aware that it is not the cleanest.

P.S. I believe Intel will have by far best Linux open Source driver of them all.

 

[Bigos]

RDNA1 is worth considering but has a lot of workarounds under Linux to make it run. It will run properly, but if you care about the code that is executed - be aware that it is not the cleanest.

Are there really that many gfx10 exclusive errata workarounds? I can think of only a few in mesa and they are basically already solved. I don't think the "cleanliness" of the code is of any concern to the end user if it works right, it just means that the performance might be slightly limited in some situations. And 99% of mesa is shared between gfx10 and gfx10.3 (not sure about the kernel as AMD likes to copy-paste a lot of stuff for each hardware revision...).

P.S. I believe Intel will have by far best Linux open Source driver of them all.

I agree regarding iGPU. However, with Intel currently working on bringing up discrete GPU support into the kernel, I would not assume that their dGPU drivers will be up to par with iGPU drivers instantly. But I will agree that Intel probably invests more resources into Linux GPU stack than AMD.

 

[Shmee]

I would look at used R9 Fury cards, if you are ok with either 4k30Hz or using a DP to HDMI2.0 adapter for the TV. If you want native HDMI 2.0, I would look into used polaris cards, preferably RX580.

 

[mikeymikec]

amdgpu driver on Linux has worked fine for me with my R9 380X for years, though I only run at 1080p.