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.
For Oculus CV1, try Envision / Monado (OpenHMD) https://lvra.gitlab.io/docs/fossvr/envision/
they have a Matrix and Discord server too.
I never had a issue on Windows with swapping a GPU since before xp.
Just installed a 4070… I did go to the website for the latest driver, but Windows supplied driver auto detected resolutions just fine. I was done in fifteen minutes including physically swapping card
I hate when people write lies like this, it makes Linux look bad.
Yep, never had a single issue swapping GPU on windows. First time on Linux, I went to the Nvidia website to download drivers. Apparently that’s the worst thing you can do (?!) and it took me hours to undo the mess.
Don’t get me wrong I still use Linux daily but there’s no need to lie. It has some sharp edges and GPU drivers is one of them.
You used Linux like Windows and got bad results, OP treated Windows like Linux and got bad results. The problem is neither OS but how familiar you are with it and their peculiarities.
That being said, GPU drivers are not a rough edge on Linux, only Nvidia drivers are. And even then it’s usually a single click/command to install the proprietary drivers if you need them, otherwise the open source ones work like a charm. This used to be more of a problem a few years back, when both manufacturers used proprietary drivers, but AMD ones are open now and therefore integrated into the mainstream kernel, so they just work.
Every os has issues man. Linux just swaps some issues for others.
I’d much rather deal with Linux issues than windows, but that’s just me.
I’d much rather deal with Linux issues than windows, but that’s just me.
It’s not just you. ;)
Which I love about Lemmy. I truly am among friends.
ITT: Ubuntu (and downstream) users crying that they dont have a one click Nvidia solution like literally every other competent distro.
If you’re counting me in that, mint stopped booting when I switched from nvidia to amd
This is disingenuous, if you had an AMD GPU on Linux and switched to an Nvidia card you would be using the nouveau drivers so you would need to install the proprietary drivers to get the best performance.
And lots of the same issues that are listed on the windows side could happen on Linux as well since they relate to connectivity.
sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia
Seriously though, this is still the same problem on windows. If you switch from AMD to Nvidia, it’ll load a generic display driver until you install the Nvidia one either through windows updates (heavily outdated) or GeForce Now (heavy bloat).
At least Linux gives you Nouveau instead of throwing you into a 480p fallback output.
Yes, but you would need to know to run that command, so it’s the same situation as the windows case where he didn’t know which drivers to get. So the argument is disingenuous in that it either ignores the case or he has knowledge on one OS that he doesn’t on the other. On the other side of the coin someone could be making a similar post saying in windows they just switched hardware, installed drivers and done, in Linux they spent hours trying to figure out how to install the drivers.
I’m not saying it’s hard (on any OS) but it requires previous knowledge on both (although to a much lesser extent on Linux since this only happens when switching GPUs and only under specific conditions).
windows is shit because windows fundamentally doesn’t care about you. it’s a company and has the fiduciary responsibility to make as much profit as possible; your experience in all of this is completely secondary.
This seems a far cry from reality, unless you’re using some magically niche card.
Sounds like the Linux user only ever used AMD cards.
You still need to download the drivers for nVidia. One of the top noob questions is “which one?” because there are several options without real explanation… At least on Ubuntu based distro, which a lot of new users will be sent to (i.e. Mint).
The experience with AMD cards seems to be the above; plug in and it just works immediately.
But don’t even get me started on Intel cards. Jeezus Effing Kristus. I got mine working, but it’s still a damned issue and a half. And you’ll have to go driver hunting if you want to do anything artistic with them, which is an absolute rabbit hole on Ubuntu distros. But mercifully much more simple on Fedora and Co.
That is one of the first things I noticed when I’ve switched between ATI/AMD and Nvidia early in my Linux usage time. Now I’ve swapped between Nvidia, AMD, and Intel with problems in the past few years
The only thing reading something like this does for me is paint the linux community as completely inept and dishonest.
I swapped GPU in windows by downloading the new driver, shut down the pc, swap cards, boot pc that then loads a default windows driver, install the new driver I downloaded, done. If it asks for a reboot, that takes another 20 seconds.
Done.
I agree that the original post is dishonest, but your solution is exactly the same as what they said with the exception that you knew it would be a problem so you downloaded the driver beforehand. Had you not known that would happen the series of misfortunes could have happened to you too.
I didn’t come here to complain about linux, but the number of distros that give me a black screen after some hardware change or update is more than I can count on two hands. What this post is denying that both userbases have wildly different skill levels because linux generally requires a higher skill level. Windows is over a much more massive userbase that includes people who can’t set the time display on a microwave. And they don’t use linux.
Furthermore, pre-downloading the driver is completely unnecessary as the default windows driver would allow you to continue using the PC and download the correct driver after installation. No “series of misfortunes.”
Can you give me an example of which distro/hardware change gave you a black screen? Because unless it was Gentoo or something you built the kernel yourself a black screen is extremely unlikely. Unlike Windows which requires drivers for everything, in Linux the drivers are baked into the kernel, so any hardware change should just work out of the box (there are some caveats to get the best possible driver, but even the included driver should be more than enough for almost anything except heavy use on Nvidia GPUs).
I agree that on average the Linux user has more technical expertise than the average windows user, but that’s mainly because the average user doesn’t choose their OS. If you take into consideration only people who actually chose their OS, I think it’s very similar.
And OP talked about his experience doing that, the default windows driver gave him a crappy resolution, and he had lots of issues getting the right driver and making it work. You skipped all of those issues because you knew beforehand which was the correct driver, and pre-downloaded it.
This is, specifically, the workflow for changing graphics cards manufacturers on windows, e.g. nVidia to AMD. If you’re just going from one AMD card to another, or vice versa, generally you can just toss it in and reboot a few times, yes.
GPU manufacturers are fucking awful about actually uninstalling their bloatware shit on windows, and it often (potentially intentionally) interferes with other manufacturer’s drivers (and sometimes their own, though that’s less common these days.)
Windows Update installed the bare driver for both Green and Red GPUs directly. There’s no additional software needed for either unless you plan to adjust clock and memory speeds or want something specific from the vendor’s software.
lol sure. When I installed a new GPU while using mint, it never booted again. Even years later when I assumed they would finally have support for the card, same story. Had to move to Ubuntu instead
I rolled my eyes real hard at this.
As a Linux supporter, this is absolutely not the case and it’s going to piss off every person who swaps to Linux thinking it’ll be this easy, and then when they’re hit with reality, switches back to Windows.
The problem they are talking about is specific to Linux Mint, not to Linux in general. Linux Mint is known for not working on newer hardware because of its outdated kernel. Ironically arch based distros would work well here as they always have a new kernel.
I’ve upgraded graphics cards multiple times with Windows, the hardest part was fitting my fat fingers in the case when I underestimated the size of the gtx660 for my tiny Dell case ages ago. I am looking into Linux atm though
While there is truth to that, it’s nice distro-hopping was a solution for me. Can’t really solve your windows problems that way.
What load is this? Unless you’re switching from one manufacturer to the other the drivers are universal save for really old cards. So you go from a RTX2070 to and RTX4070 it’ll work after a few moments to recognize by the PC.
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 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
This is how I am with mac os. I’m pretty knowledgeable about computers, so there are a lot of tasks I view as simple that I will attempt to do, only to have it fight me the whole way. I’m sure it’s just that I don’t know proper protocol, but it’s annoying.
Example would be I had some photos on my phone I wanted to put on my mom’s macbook. Okay, I have a cable, just plug it in. Well, it shows up but refuses to show files in usb mode. Okay, the photo editor saw the phone, but it was import all or nothing. It wouldn’t let me send just one folder. Okay… So I can’t copy/paste files from the phone, import is all or nothing. So… I ended up having to put the folder on a usb stick- but the the photo program wouldn’t recognise that as a source to import from, so I had to copy the folder to the desktop and THEN import from that. Something that should have been relatively simple turned into a whole ordeal because it was designed for one type of workflow and I didn’t know all the little tricks to get it to do what I wanted. I know that’s on me for not knowing the easy way ro do it, but when the obvious option ‘import’ doesn’t give me any real options, I have to figure it out.
The workflow it’s designed for is paying an iCloud subscription to sync the photos. When they introduced that they went out of their way to make transferring via cable a huge pain in the ass.
So, Windows is harder to use you say. And “incompetent” users should stick to Linux?
That’s a take that would have been absurd many years ago. I personally am willing to do things the hard way for some benefit, so I have a Windows PC for gaming. But all my other systems are Linux systems, laptop, workstation, or embedded. However Windiws is supposed to be the easier choice.
I’ll even grant that Windows PITA is mostly not deliberate action by Microsoft. It’s mostly letting vendors be their crappy self and messing up the experience, with a bit of windows driver model incompatibilities breaking hardware support abandoned by vendor, but kept alive Linux side.
Honestly, I think some of them have simply been off windows so long that they only know issues they’ve seen in the news, and not used the relatively smooth experience you get. Like, I swapped to Linux not too long ago. Windows was MOSTLY easier to use, but it was getting to invasive for my tastes.
If you find Linux easier to use day-to-day, you’re either A) much better than the average person at getting an intuition for all the options and controls B) doing something fairly uncommon where windows just falls short C) simply so used to Linux over Windows that you have a better intuition on how to handle Linux
And, like, sure there are specific tasks where one OS is just going to grant a smoother experience, but if we’re talking most general usage, Windows will be such a smooth use for the average user.
you sound like how some people claim linux users are 😄
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.
Yeah that’s exactly what Windows is like. Things normally work fine but when something goes wrong it can be a real pain and often simpler just to reinstall as Windows doesn’t always give you good tools to fix it. When something goes wrong on a Linux system there is pretty much always some way of fixing it because it’s an open book with good tooling for diagnostics and repair. The problem is things tend to go wrong more often or be more clunky to use in the first instance.
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.
