Hey all,
In the market for a GPU, would like to use Bazzite, mostly a Steam user with some SteamVR (rare), and have run into nvidia issues with Bazzite and a 3070 previously.
With the recent news on nVidia’s beta drivers and Plasma’s sync support in beta, I’m newly on the fence about switching to AMD given nvidia having a better performance to cost ratio, the power usage (big one for a compact living room system), and the fact that they have the potential for HDMI2.1 support which AMD doesn’t have a solution to yet.
What are community thoughts? I’ll probably hold out for some reports on the new drivers regardless, but wanted to check in with the hive mind.
Thanks!
Why even use HDMI when AMD does DisplayPort 2.0 where nvidia only does 1.4?
I’d say nvidia would work fine but you need to take into account that the drivers can be a bit flakey.
A lot of displays don’t support DP unfortunately. I have an LG C2 which is perfect for desktop use and one of the more affordable OLED screens out there, and it does not support DP. The PC monitor equivalent that uses the same panel is made by Asus, but that one has a $600 dollar mark up.
There are converters these days, albeit with some minor quirks. And they typically only use DP 1.4 anyway, although that’s enough for perceptually lossless 4k@120hz + HDR.
Do they support VRR though? Last I heard that was still an issue with these converters.
Yes, some of them do but it can be dependent on the firmware (some of them are flashable). I will add that my display supports both Freesync over HDMI and VRR, and it’s not always clear which it is actually using under the hood, so be aware of that. You’ll need a pretty recent kernel. Definitely at least 6.3 but prefer 6.6 or later.
My experience is the adapters have much better support under Linux as well, with them being almost useless on Windows (no HDR, no VRR, and potentially no 120Hz). But it’s been a while since I’ve tested.
Here’s the adapter I use: https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-102101-BLK-Computer-Adapter/dp/B08XFSLWQF/
And a long discussion thread about HDMI 2.1 and adapters used to workaround the issue: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/amd/-/issues/1417 which may be helpful if you run into issues.
EDIT: Fixed the link
Did you copy the wrong link? This was a random youtube video.
Good to hear that some adapters do work though. The lack of HDMI 2.1 basically prevented me from ever considering AMD, but if there are converters that work that certainly opens up my options.
My bad, the two clipboards on Linux still trip me up after all of these years. Anyway, I’ve added a link to the above.
Thanks! So VRR works out of the box for you or did you have to do tweaks to get it to work? The answers on the Amazon page are conflicting, with the manufacturer saying VRR is not supported but some users saying it does. Don’t know who to believe.
Should work out of the box with Plasma 5/6 (6 if you want HDR) and Sway.
VRR didn’t work with older firmware versions but there have been updates since so the manufacturer information may be out of date. If it doesn’t work, there are links in the gitlab thread for newer firmware (you’ll probably need Windows to update although I saw some vague references that it might be possible on Linux). The adapter is mostly useless on Windows for the record, although you can just swap to a direct HDMI connection in that case.
Oh and I’ll add there are some instances where you may need to power cycle your TV/monitor and/or switch console VTs, if you get a black screen or if HDR fails to toggle on/off.
And lastly, gamescope session didn’t work reliably last time I checked, but it’s been a while.