I’m looking for a machine to run OpenGPT, Stable Diffusion, and Blender. I’m on the precipice of buying an Alienware w/ Ryzen 9 with a Radeon RX6850m. I’ve never needed anything near this level on Linux and I’m scared TBH. I’d much rather get a System76, but the equivalent hw has Nvidia and costs more than twice as much. While skimming for issues with current hardware, I saw something about a Legion laptop that could only use Intel RAID for the file system, and that this was a nightmare with generic distro kernels. What other stuff like this is happening with current laptop hardware?
I can barely manage a Gentoo install by following the handbook, understanding a third of it, and taking a few weeks to get sorted.
I spent all of yesterday afternoon sorting though all of the Linux hardware data in this stable diffusion telemetry: https://vladmandic.github.io/sd-extension-system-info/pages/benchmark.html
That total dataset has just over 5k total entries/699 valid Linux entries not including LSFW. It contains no entries for a Radeon RX6850m. I’m super nervous to buy a laptop that costs as much as my first car. I never want to run Windows again. What resources can I check to boost my confidence that this is going to work on Fedora WS?
If anyone is interested, the SD github dataset has the following numb entries/AMD card model:
- _3 RX 5700 XT /8GB
- _2 RX _580 __ /4GB
- _3 RX _580 __ /8GB
- 15 RX 6600 XT /8GB
- _1 RX 6650 XT /8GB
- 31 RX 6700 XT /12GB
- 10 RX 6750 XT /12GB
- 10 RX 6800 __ /16GB
- 19 RX 6800 XT /16GB
- 15 RX 6900 XT /16GB
- _9 RX 6950 XT /16GB
- _7 RX 7900 XT /20GB
- 39 RX 7900XTX /24GB
- _6 RX VEGA __ /8GB
Other common cards used in Linux and in this dataset are:
NVIDIA
- 39 A100-SXM4 /79GB
- 20 GTX-1070 /8GB
- 11 GTX-1080Ti /11GB
- 13 H100-PCIe /79GB
- 12 RTX-2070 /8GB
- 12 RTX-2080 Ti /22GB
- 31 RTX-3060 /12GB
- 16 RTX-3070 /8GB
- 10 RTX-3080 /10GB
- 39 RTX-3090 /24GB
- 11 RTX-3090 Ti /24GB
- 10 RTX-4070 Ti /12GB
- 87 RTX-4090 /24GB
- 27 RTX-A4000 /16GB
- 15 RTX-A5000 /24GB
TESLA
- 26 T4 /15GB
- 11 V100S-PCIE /32GB
Avoid Acer / Predator. They have screwy BIOS with non standard EFI that really messes with GRUB. Nightmare for secure boot and disk encryption if you care about that (you should)
Buying a laptop that can run SD will cost you more than twice as much as an equivalent desktop. A desktop will also remain upgradeable for the next 10 years or so.
I’m partially disabled and stuck in a bed ~80% of my days. The ergonomics of a laptop on my custom bedside stand that can swing out of my way and 180° to use at my desk is ideal. I have a spare monitor on an arm I use when I really need it, but I hate having any regular keyboard or even being stuck with just a mouse. The touch pad, keyboard location, and screen make an ideal ergonomic situation. Like I have several mains outlets built into my stand, and the wiring is managed so that I don’t get boxed in or tangled. I hate wireless stuff going dead. When adding the cost of the screen to a PC and all the peripherals, and then accessibility mounts, it costs more for me. My only option for a tower is two computers and remotely logging in from a laptop. It is an option but not one I like.
All good points. Fair enough. That said, don’t be too quick to dismiss the remote desktop option. Not sure when you last tried, but these days with software like remmina, connecting remotely to a desktop (particularly one on your lan) is indistinguishable to sitting in front of it. Sure, you can’t do things like play games at any useable framerate, but for something like Stable Diffusion I would expect it to be ideal.
I was also kinda looking forward to connecting with an old friend over battlefield or counter strike as a bonus. That is the one constraint I will end up giving up first if I am forced to, but it gets damn lonely living like this. It will be 10 years of laying around all the time this coming February, I don’t worry about the stuff I can’t change, but I am way past due for having some real fun with friends. People are pooling together to help me out but it is like a one time and place kinda thing where I need to come up with the “thing” I need and be done with it. I’m grateful and all, I just need to make the best of it and not be too much of a burden. I have a max of $3k to play with but need to figure this out in the next few days. The lower I can keep the ask the better off I will be. The Alienware was $1450 and for a 12GBV card, that sounded great.
Ah right, I see. Sounds like you’re making the right choices in the context of your unfortunate situation. Yeah, playing games pretty much rules out a remote desktop setup. Sorry I don’t have any more answers to your questions, but you’re clearly asking the right ones.
If you’re going to do AI stuff you have to go with Nvidia. AMD is quite bad at it and in some cases doesn’t support some technologies like Stable Diffusion at all.
I’d recommend a 3070 at least. You’ll need the vram.
So a 3080Ti at 16GB in a laptop?
If you’re going high end that does sound pretty good.
I have a Dell G15 with rtx3050ti. I have no problem with linux, also they directly sell it without windows.
I have a dell G15 5525 with rtx3060. No issues besides the general Nvidia driver issues. You can check the Arch Wiki.
Uhm, I don’t think you will have much luck with an AMD laptop GPU and stable diffusion. Their support for desktop consumer GPUs is already atrocious in ROCm.
Maybe get a cheaper laptop that allows connecting a eGPU case? No idea if that works better, but I think the chances are a lot better.
@j4k3 These days I always recommend @tuxedocomputers for linux centric laptops. They have a wide and customizable range and are all built with fully linux compatible hardware. The service/support they provide is also top-notch.
Usually linux-centric laptops cost more for inferior hardware. You’re usually better off just buying a Windows computer and installing Linux on it if you want the best performance for the price.
I found that system76 is well priced compared to Windows brands. Avoid paying for the Windows license fee!
Uhh, no.
You still end up paying more for worse hardware with that brand, regardless of the windows license.
