this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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I know Intel is dipping its toe into the GPU market, but let's be real, AMD and nVidia are the only options and have been for the last 20+ years. The manufacturers/assemblers of the complete graphics cards are varied and widespread, but the core tech comes from two companies only.

Why is this the case? Or am I mistaken and am just brainwashed by marketing, and there are in fact other viable options for GPUs?

Cheers!

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[–] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 84 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's not even really "two companies". Nvidia has 92% of the entire market. And the reason for that is mostly CUDA and its ecosystem which has become widespread among developers.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 44 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I think 90+% marketshare is technically considered a monopoly in many places.
But the existence of AMD still makes a huge difference IMO, you do have an alternative option, and Nvidia doesn't control the market completely.
Also personally I use AMD because I'm on Linux, and I don't want the proprietary Nvidia driver to fuck up my system.
So AFAIK on Linux, the majority actually run AMD.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 32 points 6 days ago (2 children)

All-AMD Linux desktop build here plus all-AMD Linux laptop.

Shit just works.

[–] psoul@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

Sh 🤫 IT just works

[–] massacre@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Which laptop? All AMS here as well. ROG was what I found but there's a very l in muted set of laptops with AMD GPUs, so I'm curious

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] derpgon@programming.dev 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Rocking my second Thinkpad with full Linux, it has been a very pleasant experience both times. Sadly, had to switch a year back to from E15 to T16 because the keyboard started failing and it wasn't servicable from my side. Still works with external one though.

[–] massacre@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

How are we with Trust of Lenovo after their previous shenanigans?

[–] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com -2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

I run Linux on my PC with a 3090 and my server running Debian oldstable has a 1070Ti.

The proprietary driver works ok. Nouveau is a valiant effort but isnt very useful. I personally can't imagine having an AMD GPU and not being able to play games or do ML or have NVENC for transcoding (e.g. in JF docker)/video editing, AMD is just not a serious company in the GPU space sadly.

Proper competition is sorely needed. Such a shame too, because I'm quite glad to never have to buy an Intel CPU ever again and deal with their ass backwards ecosystem, it would be cool if AMD could pull off such a comeback for GPUs.

Edit: idk what the fuck is wrong with you people for down voting and simping for shit GPUs. The multi-billion dollar company doesn't care. Stop defending them for shit products and stop attacking me just because I want to play video games once in a blue moon, jesus!

And when I say play games, I think it implies that I mean play games not at 1366x768 AI upscaled frame generated whatever settings but with Path Tracing on proper max settings, or play games on a small portable, which is cool but no replacement for a proper home setup.

[–] herrvogel@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Not being able to play games? Not serious? What the hell are you talking about? Did you compare a 3090 to a bottom tier ATI Radeon card or something? My RX 6800 was a fucking champ that was able to run everything I threw at it without a single problem and with quite satisfactory performance at 1440p. It was most definitely a very competent GPU for gaming.

ML and nvenc are extra features that not everyone needs or even wants.

[–] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com -3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Maybe I'm misinformed, but can the RX 6800 do Path Tracing in CP2077 at 1440p native/~30fps or at least on DLSS Quality or even FSR Quality (in both upscalers cases with Ray Reconstruction and no frame generator ofc).

Can any AMD GPU do that at all, at a better price to performance point?

Because I was under the impression that basically no AMD cards can do practically any substantial RT of any kind, and that's why it's either missing on consoles or borderline unnoticeable and often confined to reflections where it's pretty useless.

I just briefly looked it up, and all I could find was someone on steam discussions with an 79xx XTX card talking about the old timey simple Ray Tracing being "possible" at 1080p in cyberpunk on steam discussions. Granted there were some videos that looked promising but I steer clear of YT and reddit.

And as for features you don't need, idk, to me if I have to buy a GPU, might as well get one that should be able to do more things rather than less for the money. I didn't even play video games much when I got my 3090 years ago during summer 2021 for like $400 used from CeX, but I'm glad I got something that can, and something that can encode video well, whether it's recording, editing and rendering gaming footage to share with friends, or transcoding media on a server, or do ML (eg for self hosting Immich).

If I were to buy a GPU now, i'd look at all features, even if I don't want those things now, I'd ofc want them later, and for that - why would you choose an inferior option?

[–] lordbritishbusiness@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

A RX 6800? Yes, in fact I was playing CP2077 with FSR and ray tracing on at 4K on a 6800. It was the first real card AMD had that could. Though it did struggle at times.

Sadly replaced after 4 years with a RX9060 of similar capability but better Ray tracing.

AMD cards are only about 2-3 years behind NVIDIA in a lot of specialised tasks, but trying to pace the behemoth that is NVIDIA's RnD with a much smaller budget. ROCm works but is held up by compatibility issues with the newer CUDA features.

[–] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Ray tracing? No no, I said Path Tracing.

[–] lordbritishbusiness@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Hmm. I've decided I don't like you.

It feels like you're setting an artificially high goal purely to make challenging your assirtion impossible. I'm not even sure a 3090 can do path tracing. 40/5090, maybe they can.

Could an AMD card do it? Yes. RX 7900 possibly, a theoretical RX 9090 could if they bothered to release one.

But none of that matters really. Never has.

[–] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Yes, a 3090 can do Path Tracing, that's why I'm asking for one. It's not a artificially high goal - it's how I play one of my favourite games of all time - CP2077.

Obviously both the 4090 and 5090 can do that too and better, but that's essentially out of reach for mere mortals, and even if it weren't it's not enough of an upgrade to really justify the massive price tag.

Still, If I were to get a new GPU, I wouldn't want a graphical downgrade, ideally an upgrade since y'know, that's what matters in price to value of computer components, and AMD can't provide so they're not a serious option. CPUs on the other hand? Hell yeah I'm 100% AMD, but that's because they have a serious competitive offering in the 9800X3D.

Maybe to you gaming performance doesn't matter when buying a gaming computer, in which case that's your opinion and it's ok, but it's safe to say it matters to the rest of us.

[–] rapchee@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago (2 children)

lol "not being able to run games" have you heard of a little thing called the steam deck?

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Or indeed the PS5 which runs AMD chips.

[–] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 6 days ago (2 children)

And runs the few games it does have pretty poorly, all things considered.

[–] survirtual@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

This is nonsense and, frankly, sounds like guerrilla marketing for nvidia.

All things considered, I can play any game I want on the steam deck, which has an old SoC by today's standards. A newer AMD gpu can run anything at max settings on a linux machine.

So again, either you are grossly misinformed or working for nvidia to sew gentle doubt. Either way, stop it.

[–] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Do you not play many games? Good luck playing CP2077 with PT or heck even MSFS2020 at good (read: max) settings on 1440p.

The deck is great but I can't even run NMS on high settings on it.

[–] survirtual@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Why would I want to play at max settings? That adds very little to the gameplay for me.

I can play any game tweaking settings, and I can render at 720p + upscale if a game is demanding. This makes nearly any game enjoyable.

High settings are irrelevant, but if you want high settings, any AMD card from the past 2 years will more than deliver max performance for anything you throw at it.

For a handheld, portable device that costs under $500, I am okay reducing graphics quality for portability and gameplay.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 0 points 6 days ago

Runs it better than any PC costing a similar amount.

You can barely get an entry level GPU for that.

[–] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I have a steam deck. It's a portable, it's really cool for what it is but as a main gaming system it can't exactly compete visually nor performance wise with being able to run Path Tracing in CP2077 for instance, which I'd say is borderline required to enjoy the game's visuals.

It's like comparing the PS3 and the PSP or the N64 and the Gameboy Color. Both are cool, one doesn't replace the other nor does it have to.

[–] rapchee@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

the point was about "not being able to game on amd"
yeah duh mobile chips are less performant, but still forza horizon 4–5 runs better on my steam deck than on my desktop pc with a 2080rtx in linux

[–] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Why would I game on shit settings when I can game on good settings for the same/less money?

[–] rapchee@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

i'm not sure if you meant like deck vs desktop, but if so, because the deck is a handheld, you can play anywhere

[–] FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] rapchee@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

i think you probably meant it the other way, can the deck run it in 1080p, but i just tried it in 720p on my desktop and it's still choppy, although it does make the average fps higher.
also it's not unplayable, it's just annoying, and the knowledge that on windows it can do stable 60 fps with "maximum" settings (that's below "ultra" and "extreme") in 1080p
also also, this is a "special" thing, most games run just as smoothly as on windows, forzas, and the "new" mafia games are the few exceptions out of my 1000+ games library

[–] FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

No, exactly what I said - does your steam deck run the games better at the same resolution as your pc with a 2080 does?

It running them “better” but at a lower resolution is an unfair comparison.

[–] rapchee@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

maybe i wasn't clear, but i tried 720p on both the desktop and deck, and the nvidia desktop was still choppy

[–] FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Must have a very weak cpu or some other bottleneck then, as a RTX 2080 is in a whole different league to the GPU in the Steam deck’s APU - like in the 5x better range.

Linux also doesn’t help from all I’ve seen, with terrible drivers for Nvidia gpus.

[–] rapchee@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

it is probably the linux nvidia driver, because, as i mentioned before, it runs smoothly on windows on the same machine on higher settings

[–] thelittleblackbird@lemmy.world 0 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Sorry, I needed to vote negatively your comment due to the false information. Nothing personal, just keeping the house clean

[–] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] thelittleblackbird@lemmy.world -1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

AMD gpus are inside in Xbox and ps5, without taking into account the handhelds like steam deck.

For the ML is usually better to use amd cards because they use to have more vram, and many many models can be trained using amd.

And about the transcoding comment I will bother myself ait it.

In summary, tells me you don't have any clue without telling me you don't have any clue

[–] FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

AMD cards are not really better than Nvidia cards at anything. That’s not being a “shill”, it’s just the truth. They’re cheaper and easier to find in stock, that’s about it.

[–] thelittleblackbird@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

AMD are not better than Nvidia -> sure

I prefer Nvidia than AMD for everything -> perfect, it is your opinion and a respetable one

With AMD you can not do AAA gaming, ML or just transcoding -> a lie, simply, nothing more to add

And I will ignore the sentence about AMD not being a serious company because it is too absurd to discuss

[–] FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I assume you think you’re replying to someone else as I’ve said none of those things other than the first.

Yep, sorry, my mistake, I confused you with another user