this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
45 points (97.9% liked)

Linux Gaming

15800 readers
42 users here now

Gaming on the GNU/Linux operating system.

Recommended news sources:

Related chat:

Related Communities:

Please be nice to other members. Anyone not being nice will be banned. Keep it fun, respectful and just be awesome to each other.

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I've seen stuff about Nvidia ~~cards~~ not working well with Linux, is that true?

If one was in the market for a new laptop anyway, would you recommend not getting nvidia and going with AMD?

I'm currently intrigued by the Lenovo LOQ line (full size numpad). Not buying anytime soon, just scoping out good brands and ideas.

*Primary role is laptop productivity, secondary role is maybe patient gaming, so I'm ok with budget gaming. Going Linux is not guaranteed, but maybe in the future because windows keeps getting more nuts. So I'm looking for info to make sure Linux is possible.

*I want this to last a long time, 10 years should be easy.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Another guy says that long term Nvidia is a problem with Linux. That support is dropped after some years. Thoughts?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Some years? Maybe if you have a 10+ year old GPU. They're supported for a really long time. The GTX 10xx series are still fully supported despite releasing in 2016 for example.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Here's his exact comment:

When you buy Nvidia for Linux, you’re buying obsolescence. It will work fine for a while and then they’ll hard-drop driver support at a certain kernel version. Your 3d acceleration will last as long as you can run an LTS kernel compatible with it. You may have moved on by then, but I currently have 3 Nvidia laptops that have between limited and zero 3D support in Linux. If I cared to run Windows or MacOS, 3D would still work. MacOS would also be outdated, though. In the future, I’m going AMD only.

I am looking to keep laptops for a long long time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not sure what GPUs he has but they must be very old. You don't have to worry about this unless you really care about keeping your laptop for around 10 years or more.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well I do. Is 10 years a hard line?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not really, but it's a rough estimate. If you want something to be supported for a much longer time then an AMD gpu is probably s good idea since their drivers are open source.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Lenovo and ASUS are pretty good. Avoid some of the lower end gaming laptops, they usually have heating issues. Avoid MSI and Dell, I've heard nothing but complaints. In general just do research before buying the laptop and you'll be fine.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Can confirm, I have an mx 130 from like 2017. Still works like it used to. Garbage. But it's the weak GPU not a driver issue. There are driver issues but dropping support isn't one of em.