Hey folks, I’ve been running a 1080Ti on Windows 10 for the past 7 years but since Windows 10 is reaching its end of life, I’m trying to make the switch to Linux. I recently bought an Nvidia 5080 and a new NVME drive and got it working pretty well on CachyOS, though I ran into some bugs with Overwatch 2 like TTS, in-game voice, and saving highlights. Unfortunately, I had to return the 5080 because it wouldn’t display graphics output during bootloader when using fast boot. I swapped my 1080Ti back in for now, but it’s pretty stuttery on Linux, so I’m back on Windows 10. I’m looking to pick a new GPU to game smoothly on Linux. Would you recommend going with the Nvidia 5080 again or switching to an AMD 9070 XT? Looking for opinions based on real Linux gaming experience.
5 Answers
Actually, Nvidia has come a long way with Linux drivers. Since they added explicit sync, performance is pretty stable and I haven’t run into bugs personally. So from a stability and driver perspective, the 5080 can be a good buy if you don’t mind Nvidia’s ecosystem.
From what I’ve seen, Nvidia cards tend to perform 10-15% worse on Linux than on Windows, sometimes even up to 30% slower in the worst cases. This means the 5080 doesn’t actually blow past the 9070 XT on Linux the way it might on Windows—often their performance is pretty close. Plus, Nvidia’s Linux drivers still tend to have more issues with games. For solid Linux gaming, I’d usually lean away from Nvidia these days.
I ditched an RTX 4070 recently because the stuttering was a pain, so I’m skeptical that the 5080 would be much better. Based on that experience, the 9070 XT might give you a smoother ride in Linux gaming.
If you ask me, go with the 9070 XT. Nvidia’s latest hardware, especially their 50 series, feels like a step down for Linux gaming.
AMD’s got solid VAAPI support which compares well to Nvidia’s NVENC/NVDEC, their ROCm stack is getting better, and even though their ray tracing isn’t top of the line, the 9070 XT handles it pretty well. Wayland support is also excellent on AMD cards.
I’m currently using an RTX 3090 but my next card will definitely be AMD due to things like Nvidia dropping 32-bit PhysX support on the 50 series. If you’re into Linux and want a future-proof experience, AMD’s 9070 XT is the way to go.
If your 1080Ti is stuttering badly on Linux, something might be off because it generally performs decently with some tuning and FSR. If you still want a newer card, the 9070 XT is a solid upgrade and probably the better pick considering price and compatibility. I almost upgraded to it myself but held off since my 1080Ti still works well, but if I had to choose, the AMD card wins for Linux gaming hands down.
I actually had the 5080 running pretty well, especially with Overwatch 2 running maxed at 1440p and 144FPS, only about 40% GPU load. But yeah, Nvidia driver updates sometimes break older generation cards and that’s been annoying.