on NVidia RTX 3080 (10 Gb), tempted to switch to AMD 7900 XTX (24 Gb). Should I?

Akelun

When I bought my new PC in 2020, it was an urgency, as my previous PC died all of a sudden. Problem, it was during a period when scalpers tried to steal all the graphic cards and processors, so it was really hard to buy some. But I managed to do it, and since it was the best deal during that time, I paid an Nvidia RTX 3080 (10 Gb V-ram) for my Windows 10.

However, I wasn't sure I would have to necessarily come back on Linux, and more importantly, I didn't know nVidia drivers was THAT horrible for Linux systems (even if Solus is really helpful for Nvidia installations I have to admit).

Usually, I'm mostly using my PC on Solus Plasma Wayland to work on Blender & Krita, and to watch some videos (movies / youtube) or play some video games sometimes.
However, especially when I'm on Blender AND watching a youtube video on Brave (my web browser) on the other screen, even if it's rare, there were several times when the screens froze completly. The sound of the launched video was still playing, but the screen is completly frozen. Unusable.
Only way to fix it was to shut down the PC manually (bye bye all unsaved files) and restart it.

And for some reasons, I have the feeling it's because of the graphic card...

I'm tempted to switch for an AMD Radeon 7900 XTX.
Normally, it will make the video games better, the compatibility with Linux and Wayland far better too, and even loading heavy scenes on Blender should be better thanks to the V-Ram improvement (10 Gb vs. 24 Gb).
The only problem... is that AMD is EXTREMELY low in performance for Cycles render on Blender. Benchmarks showed that despite the V-Ram difference, my 3080 is faster to render scenes with Cycles. But like... really faster.

That being said, I don't know if I should replace my graphic card. I don't know if that's really worth it. And after the RAM price increasing and the announcement that AMD and Nvidia will raise their GPU prizes and place a focus on adding AI in there, I have the feeling that if I don't make a choice fast, I will never been able to buy a decent AMD GPU for my everyday use before a while.

Do some of you here have an opinion about it?

Diabloget

You said the 3080 is better than the AMD one for Blender, did you see a comparison in Linux for these two? AMD often just works better in Linux compared to how Nvidia does, so while your Nvidia gpu may outperform the AMD one in Windows, it could be a different scenario within Linux.

I am not telling you to for for the AMD one, just to verify the actual difference in Linux before making a decision. Also, do you game a lot and if you do, are those games very recent or heavy in graphics? If gaming is not a priority and you are certain this GPU will not be better than your Nvidia one for your main use, then I think is better to just stay with the 3080

Akelun

Diabloget Before posting that topic, I saw a lot of videos and banchmark talking about Blender with AMD and about the problems with Nvidia on Linux.

It's really hard to find EXACT benchmark matches between Nvidia GeForce 3080 and AMD Radeon 7900 XTX on Linux, but I found 1 or 2, and from what I read, the problem is that Blender uses OptiX for Nvidia RTX cards which is what makes the render insanely faster and allows Nvidia to outrun AMD. From what I saw, I should be 10% faster with a 3080 than with 7900 XTX. Eventually, I could use a technology called "ZLUDA", allowing to reduce the gap of render time, but I don't know how much and it doesn't seem it could make the render time faster than Nvidia with OptiX and it's not an official technology, meaning it could be not stable or stop working in the future anyway.

Regarding games, I play some which are really recent or with heavy graphics (Sea of thieves, Killing Floor 3, Remnant 2), but all of them runs smoothly with my 3080 on my 3440x1440 screen. Linux Solus - Plasma Wayland is perfect for that. However, I'm not a big gamer.

What makes me hesitant is rather what I heard about why Nvidia are not great on Linux systems, particularly on Arch where the black screen after updates are apparently really frequent. On that point, I have a lot of trust in Solus which never disappointed me with their currated rolling-release model, but since Nvidia could apparently stop maintaining my graphic card once they judge it too old, and that could be an issue, I wonder if sacrificing those 10% render time in Cycles wouldn't be worth it for stability and longevity.

Plus, I need to sometimes watch youtube videos while working with Blender and that's always what causes the screen freeze I talked about, and possibly ruin the work I didn't save in my Blender files. And THAT is really a problem I fear. Apparently, one solution would be to go back on X11 instead of Wayland, but 1, I would prefer not to go back to X11 (I learnt to love Wayland with Solus Plasma) and 2, I think Plasma has become Wayland only now, meaning I could not go back to X11 anyway.

Solarmass

Akelun but since Nvidia could apparently stop maintaining my graphic card once they judge it too old

you can wait for when it will actually happen. I have AMD and older Nvidia GPU in HTPC. Apart from annoying nvidia driver maintenance and huge size it works fine for youtube/videos. And your Nvidia RTX 3080 will be supported for years I think.

Citfta

I don't use Blender so I can't comment about Blender and AMD. But I do use Freecad and Cura and watch videos regularly. I kept having problems with my Nvidia card and switched to AMD. I have not had any problems with it. It just works. For a 10% slowdown I would rather have something that works without crashing. Just my 2 cents.

Akelun

Citfta Yes, that's exactly the kind of feeling I had with Nvidia vs AMD on Linux.
So, you said you had similar issues, and you experienced switching from Nvidia to AMD and think it should be worth making the change?
May I ask you what you had as Nvidia before and what AMD you have right now, just out of curiosity?

SethStorm666

I have an AMD 7900 XTX in my main machine and I'm very happy how it perform. Before that I was a nvidia-boy, but after reason years of poor Nvidia drivers, I switched to AMD - and I most say I'm very happy with that decision.

PS. - I'm a heavy gamer.

Akelun

Solarmass That's what I thought as well at first... But I fear that in the future, graphic cards would be too expensive to change (I can still have the 7900 XTX for 900 €, which is correct regarding the specs, but when we see the price of Ram and the announcement for next graphic cards to come... I feel quite puzzled).

Also, the risk of screen freeze when I use Blender, even if not frequent enough to really make me feel pushed to replace my Nvidia for an AMD, is still frequent enough to make me feeling tempted to do it, despite the loss for render time on Blender's Cycles.

Those 2 points really make me in a perfect balance between wanting to buy the 7900 XTX before it's too late, or keeping my GeForce 3080 to save money and win some render time on Cycles.

That's also why I need to ask for advices. You're saying I should stay with Nvidia since it works, which I totally understand, but others above seem to tell that replacing my Nvidia should be a better choice. XD

Solarmass

Akelun Also, the risk of screen freeze when I use Blender, even if not frequent enough to really make me feel pushed to replace my Nvidia for an AMD, is still frequent enough to make me feeling tempted to do it, despite the loss for render time on Blender's Cycles.

I got my first AMD GPU to keep using Budgie when I had issues with random system freezes, so I understand your problem 🙂

Can you sell Nvidia and get AMD?

Akelun

Solarmass If I buy the AMD, that's the project, yeah. I'll try to sell my 3080 back (and my 750W power supply).
Still, it will be quite expensive... But probably less than if I wait for Graphic cards to have prize increased as much as Rams.

Akelun

Well, thanks everyone who helped me taking a decision.
So far, I also added a poll, and the result doesn't show any hesitation, even if some messages tended to recommand me to stay with Nvidia.
In the end, I also talked with other friends, who have some good knowledges in hardwares, etc... and I decided to buy the 7900 XTX.
I btw checked some Blender benchmarks... Yes, I'm losing some render time, but I came to the conclusion that it is worth it.

Thanks everyone.