Nvidia drivers versus AMD drivers on Wayland

[Easy Rhino]

For a while now I keep reading anecdotes about Nvidia proprietary drivers not being good on Wayland. However I cannot find any benchmarks making that case? Does anyone have any direct experience using both AMD and Nvidia drivers on Arch, Fedora, Ubuntu distros? I have an AMD 6750 XT card that runs perfectly fine when gaming on a 4K monitor scaled down to 1440p. Benchmarks on Windows show another card I have (RTX 4060 Ti) running very similiary performance but nearly half the wattage. I wonder if that is the case on Wayland...

 

[bruhmoment01]

I’ve experienced NVIDIA’s proprietary and AMDGPU on Wayland.

Running an AMD 7840U with its 780M IGP (RDNA 3), opening a terminal in Fedora 41 crashes my entire Gnome session.

Running an NVIDIA RTX A5000 on Debian 12, Wine/Proton applications flicker and stutter so badly as to be unusable.

In both cases logging into an X11 session fixed the issue, so I’d say both drivers (or perhaps Wayland itself?) are in about the same state

 

[Shihab]

Wish I could've bothered, but I can't rationalize benchmarking what isn't even viable for basic, daily use. Nvidia on wayland was always a broken mess to me. Graphical glitches, applications refusing to launch outright, crashes everywhere, can't even wake to a functional gui from suspension, etc, etc.

 

[Solaris17]

I’ve experienced NVIDIA’s proprietary and AMDGPU on Wayland.

Running an AMD 7840U with its 780M IGP (RDNA 3), opening a terminal in Fedora 41 crashes my entire Gnome session.

Running an NVIDIA RTX A5000 on Debian 12, Wine/Proton applications flicker and stutter so badly as to be unusable.

In both cases logging into an X11 session fixed the issue, so I’d say both drivers (or perhaps Wayland itself?) are in about the same state

Wish I could've bothered, but I can't rationalize benchmarking what isn't even viable for basic, daily use. Nvidia on wayland was always a broken mess to me. Graphical glitches, applications refusing to launch outright, crashes everywhere, can't even wake to a functional gui from suspension, etc, etc.

How recent was this? I experienced the same but thay was the end of last summer. In all cases I just went back to x11, but afterwards I saw post after post on phoronix in regards to nvidia fixing and otherwise working on Wayland.

 

[Timbaloo]

Nvidia got their sh*t together recently (don't recall when exactly, about 3-4 months ago?) and started implementing/fixing Wayland support, so there should be less issues now (IF you're running latest drivers, free or non-free). So basically what Solaris said.

Not an expert on this since my Linux machine is using amdgpu driver. No problems on Wayland whatsoever.

 

[Shihab]

How recent was this? I experienced the same but thay was the end of last summer. In all cases I just went back to x11, but afterwards I saw post after post on phoronix in regards to nvidia fixing and otherwise working on Wayland.

I don't recall exactly when (and not near my desktop to check). My last test was several months after driver version 560 was released (after Cannonical got around to release it for 24.04). So, 3~4 months ago or so?

I recall the chatter about the improvements too. One of the reasons I was encouraged to try it again.

 

[Easy Rhino]

How recent was this? I experienced the same but thay was the end of last summer. In all cases I just went back to x11, but afterwards I saw post after post on phoronix in regards to nvidia fixing and otherwise working on Wayland.

Nvidia got their sh*t together recently (don't recall when exactly, about 3-4 months ago?) and started implementing/fixing Wayland support, so there should be less issues now (IF you're running latest drivers, free or non-free). So basically what Solaris said.

Not an expert on this since my Linux machine is using amdgpu driver. No problems on Wayland whatsoever.

This has been what I have been hearing about. That Nvidia has made a concerted effort to develop proper linux drivers and that has lead to improved performance with Wayland. My 6750 XT works great on Wayland but I am tempted to switch over to the RTX 4060 Ti and get the same performance but with half the wattage. If I have the energy perhaps I will run some tests in the future...

 

[Solaris17]

This has been what I have been hearing about. That Nvidia has made a concerted effort to develop proper linux drivers and that has lead to improved performance with Wayland. My 6750 XT works great on Wayland but I am tempted to switch over to the RTX 4060 Ti and get the same performance but with half the wattage. If I have the energy perhaps I will run some tests in the future...

I know they stole the head nuveuo (sp?) maintainer. He now works for Nvidia after his breakthrough on GSP communication with 4series and up (or was it 3?). He now pushes patches for NVIDIA’s official branch drivers. That’s around the time I started reading about all the Wayland fixes.

 

[_roman_]

I had to remove the wayland called useflag from my gentoo installation from 2006 with a radeon 7800XT.
I do not know why anymore. I think I did not even get a picture on certain apps at all. It was a few weeks ago.
I'm on ~amd64 = that's basically the newest stuff which exists. I'm on openrc - not systemd.

I remember because It stole a bit of time. More than usual. (I'm well aware of post #1 asked for the binary distros with systemd)

 

[MCJAxolotl7]

Daily user, works great.

 

[igormp]

Fwiw, Nvidia also has open source drivers (not nouveau, the actual kernel modules that work with CUDA and whatnot), I've been using those for the past months without any issues, although I'm still on Xorg instead of Wayland.

 

[unwind-protect]

I don't run it myself but my understanding is that NVidia's Wayland implementation works fine even on FreeBSD.

 

[AusWolf]

I can't comment on Nvidia (yet), but I have zero issues with my 6750 XT on Bazzite (based on Fedora 41) with KDE (I think it's running Wayland, but I'm not that Linux-savvy).

I'm planning to install Linux on my HTPCs that have Nvidia GPUs at some point - just haven't got around to it, yet.

 

[Timbaloo]

I can't comment on Nvidia (yet), but I have zero issues with my 6750 XT on Bazzite (based on Fedora 41) with KDE (I think it's running Wayland, but I'm not that Linux-savvy).

You can check here on Plasma 6:

 

[GerKNG]

from my own experience:
since Wayland is compatible with NVidias Drivers (560.xx) it's better and performs better than the MESA AMD GPU drivers.

 

[AusWolf]

You can check here on Plasma 6:
View attachment 378470

Ah, yes, thanks. I can confirm, I'm running Wayland.

from my own experience:
since Wayland is compatible with NVidias Drivers (560.xx) it's better and performs better than the MESA AMD GPU drivers.

How so?

 

[Wasteland]

I run a GTX 1060 in my secondary rig, which is on Fedora KDE 41. I had reservations about the swap to Wayland--which is now basically forced by default in Fedora KDE--but everything's gone great.

On the whole, I'd say complaints about Nvidia in Linux are overblown, these days. It's a little fussier than AMD, for sure, but most of the little problems I had over the last few years have been addressed. System updates will take a couple minutes longer on Nvidia than AMD, because the (proprietary) driver's kernel module has to be rebuilt whenever there's a new kernel, but that's a very small thing to complain about. It is worth keeping in mind, though. If a system upgrade gives you a blank screen on boot, then there's a very high chance you can fix it by forcing the module to rebuild.

On Fedora, that's:

sudo akmods --force

I believe the corresponding command on Debian-based distros goes something like this, but don't quote me on it:

dkms autoinstall

(You can always get a command prompt by switching to a different TTY terminal: Ctrl+Alt combined with a function key. Usually F3-F6, with F1 and F2 returning you to the GUI login screen and your GUI desktop session, respectively.)

Anyway, this used to be a fairly common problem after version upgrades on Fedora, because of an oversight. The upgrade process didn't give the module enough time to rebuild. Now it does. Let's see ... apart from that, there was a bug a few months ago that caused the Nvidia driver not to recognize monitors connected via DVI adapter. And that covers all my complaints, lol.

Certain software is actually easier to set up on Nvidia. Last time I messed with AI image processing, for example, the Nvidia card just worked, whereas my AMD rig required a convoluted and poorly documented exercise in self-flagellation. Ok, ok, that's a mild overstatement, but you get the idea.

 

[AusWolf]

I run a GTX 1060 in my secondary rig, which is on Fedora KDE 41. I had reservations about the swap to Wayland--which is now basically forced by default in Fedora KDE--but everything's gone great.

On the whole, I'd say complaints about Nvidia in Linux are overblown, these days. It's a little fussier than AMD, for sure, but most of the little problems I had over the last few years have been addressed. System updates will take a couple minutes longer on Nvidia than AMD, because the (proprietary) driver's kernel module has to be rebuilt whenever there's a new kernel, but that's a very small thing to complain about. It is worth keeping in mind, though. If a system upgrade gives you a blank screen on boot, then there's a very high chance you can fix it by forcing the module to rebuild.

On Fedora, that's:

sudo akmods --force

I believe the corresponding command on Debian-based distros goes something like this, but don't quote me on it:

dkms autoinstall

(You can always get a command prompt by switching to a different TTY terminal: Ctrl+Alt combined with a function key. Usually F3-F6, with F1 and F2 returning you to the GUI login screen and your GUI desktop session, respectively.)

Anyway, this used to be a fairly common problem after version upgrades on Fedora, because of an oversight. The upgrade process didn't give the module enough time to rebuild. Now it does. Let's see ... apart from that, there was a bug a few months ago that caused the Nvidia driver not to recognize monitors connected via DVI adapter. And that covers all my complaints, lol.

Certain software is actually easier to set up on Nvidia. Last time I messed with AI image processing, for example, the Nvidia card just worked, whereas my AMD rig required a convoluted and poorly documented exercise in self-flagellation. Ok, ok, that's a mild overstatement, but you get the idea.

That's good to know, thanks. After my 100% positive experience with Bazzite (Fedora) KDE on my AMD gaming rig, and what you and others have been posting here, I'm getting more inclined to try Linux on my two HTPCs with Nvidia GPUs in them as well.

 

[wNotyarD]

I run a GTX 1060 in my secondary rig, which is on Fedora KDE 41. I had reservations about the swap to Wayland--which is now basically forced by default in Fedora KDE--but everything's gone great.

On the whole, I'd say complaints about Nvidia in Linux are overblown, these days. It's a little fussier than AMD, for sure, but most of the little problems I had over the last few years have been addressed. System updates will take a couple minutes longer on Nvidia than AMD, because the (proprietary) driver's kernel module has to be rebuilt whenever there's a new kernel, but that's a very small thing to complain about. It is worth keeping in mind, though. If a system upgrade gives you a blank screen on boot, then there's a very high chance you can fix it by forcing the module to rebuild.

Can confirm. I run Garuda with Wayland on both my RX 7900 XTX desktop and GTX 1050 laptop. Updating the system takes longer on the laptop due to kernel and driver shenanigans.
I must say as well that my experience is way better now on my GeForce compared to when I had a GT 740M laptop and used both Mint and OpenSUSE with Xorg some 8 or 9 years ago. Even Optimus isn't so much of a severe pain in the ass anymore, but still isn't automatic like it is under Windows.

 

[igormp]

On the whole, I'd say complaints about Nvidia in Linux are overblown, these days. It's a little fussier than AMD, for sure, but most of the little problems I had over the last few years have been addressed. System updates will take a couple minutes longer on Nvidia than AMD, because the (proprietary) driver's kernel module has to be rebuilt whenever there's a new kernel, but that's a very small thing to complain about. It is worth keeping in mind, though. If a system upgrade gives you a blank screen on boot, then there's a very high chance you can fix it by forcing the module to rebuild.

That's only in case you're using DKMS and/or your distro does not provide built headers for your current kernel version (fedora fits in this case). Arch, as an example, has both the pre-built modules for the default kernel, and also a dkms module for folks using custom kernels.
Not valid for your case given that you're on a 1060, but for the 2000 series and never one can also use their open source driver (not nouveau, but an actual open source kernel module that works with CUDA):

GitHub - NVIDIA/open-gpu-kernel-modules: NVIDIA Linux open GPU kernel module source

NVIDIA Linux open GPU kernel module source. Contribute to NVIDIA/open-gpu-kernel-modules development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[Wasteland]

That's only in case you're using DKMS and/or your distro does not provide built headers for your current kernel version (fedora fits in this case). Arch, as an example, has both the pre-built modules for the default kernel, and also a dkms module for folks using custom kernels.
Not valid for your case given that you're on a 1060, but for the 2000 series and never one can also use their open source driver (not nouveau, but an actual open source kernel module that works with CUDA):

GitHub - NVIDIA/open-gpu-kernel-modules: NVIDIA Linux open GPU kernel module source

NVIDIA Linux open GPU kernel module source. Contribute to NVIDIA/open-gpu-kernel-modules development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

That makes sense, thanks. Fedora's refusal to package anything non-free strikes again. I don't have any experience with Nvidia on other distros. I thought Ubuntu et al used DKMS (for Nvidia's proprietary driver) by default, and I would have assumed the same of Arch, but I'm glad to hear otherwise.

I'm also glad to hear that the new open-source driver's treating you well. Nouveau's never worked for me, like at all.

That's good to know, thanks. After my 100% positive experience with Bazzite (Fedora) KDE on my AMD gaming rig, and what you and others have been posting here, I'm getting more inclined to try Linux on my two HTPCs with Nvidia GPUs in them as well.

right on

 

[igormp]

That makes sense, thanks. Fedora's refusal to package anything non-free strikes again. I don't have any experience with Nvidia on other distros. I thought Ubuntu et al used DKMS by default, but I'm glad to hear otherwise.

Like Arch, ubuntu has both the pre-built and DKMS options, take a look at the "Installing the pre-compiled NVIDIA modules for your kernel" and "Building your own kernel modules using the NVIDIA DKMS package" sections here:

NVIDIA drivers installation | Ubuntu

Ubuntu is an open source software operating system that runs from the desktop, to the cloud, to all your internet connected things.

ubuntu.com

I'm also glad to hear that the new open-source driver's treating you well. Nouveau's never worked for me, like at all.

Nouveau never gave me problems, but was always useless. No re-clocking on newer gens meant poor performance and mostly 2D only, and no CUDA support makes it useless for me.

 

[AusWolf]

With Bazzite, you can download a separate installer for AMD / Nvidia 10 and older / Nvidia 20 and newer. I trust the Nvidia installers have all the drivers included, so you don't need to fiddle with anything. I'll try it later on my HTPCs.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

Nouveau never gave me problems, but was always useless. No re-clocking on newer gens meant poor performance and mostly 2D only, and no CUDA support makes it useless for me.

That sounds at least almost as bad as Linux in the early-first-decade of the 2000s! Yikes! Almost like Linux in 2002!

The meme of 2002 is that you wouldn't be going back to Windows any faster than during that year! Because nearly everything was useless!

Even 2008 and 2009 was a lot better, of course.

2002 was the year I tried Mandrake Linux 8.1 and then I very fast found out that I had to go right back to Windows. No 3D supported, and that was a severe problem, even back then!

 

[igormp]

With Bazzite, you can download a separate installer for AMD / Nvidia 10 and older / Nvidia 20 and newer. I trust the Nvidia installers have all the drivers included, so you don't need to fiddle with anything. I'll try it later on my HTPCs.

Ubuntu has something similar, they show you a GUI with a radio button for which driver you want. That thing I linked is more of an "advanced" thing for the curious ones.

That sounds at least almost as bad as Linux in the early-first-decade of the 2000s! Yikes! Almost like Linux in 2002!

The meme of 2002 is that you wouldn't be going back to Windows any faster than during that year! Because nearly everything was useless!

Even 2008 and 2009 was a lot better, of course.

2002 was the year I tried Mandrake Linux 8.1 and then I very fast found out that I had to go right back to Windows. No 3D supported, and that was a severe problem, even back then!

Can't comment on that since I only started using linux around 2009 or so