Introduction
Recently, I've got a chance to try AMD GPU.
I didn't have experience as a user with AMD GPU, but I felt it was very easy to switch.
How to switch from NVIDIA GPU to AMD GPU?
Here is the steps to migrate from NVIDIA GPU.
(I'm using Debian sid as a daily driver, but the following instructions are also applicable)
Not only nvidia-driver, but also need to say good-bye to CUDA related packages. Anyway, it is important to clean it up.
- Reboot it!
Ensure without nvidia-driver, it correctly boot with GUI desktop.
Now you can see driver was changed to nouveau module. You can ensure it with lsmod command.
$ lsmod |grep nou nouveau 3055616 16 mxm_wmi 12288 1 nouveau drm_gpuvm 45056 1 nouveau drm_exec 12288 2 drm_gpuvm,nouveau gpu_sched 65536 1 nouveau video 81920 1 nouveau i2c_algo_bit 16384 1 nouveau drm_display_helper 274432 1 nouveau drm_ttm_helper 16384 2 nouveau ttm 106496 2 drm_ttm_helper,nouveau drm_kms_helper 253952 3 drm_display_helper,drm_ttm_helper,nouveau drm 774144 14 gpu_sched,drm_kms_helper,drm_exec,drm_gpuvm,drm_display_helper,drm_ttm_helper,ttm,nouveau wmi 28672 4 video,wmi_bmof,mxm_wmi,nouveau button 24576 1 nouveau
- Install amdgpu related stuff
Install the following packages.
libdrm-amdgpu1 2.4.124-2 xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu 23.0.0-1 mesa-vulkan-drivers 25.0.7-2 mesa-utils 9.0.0-2+b2 firmware-amd-graphics 20250410-2
Now ready to switch GPU.
I rarely had the opportunity to replace the GPU and in this time need to change power supply as well, it was a bit difficult to do.
Then, graphic driver was changed from nouveau to amdgpu as expected.
$ lsmod | grep amd amd_atl 57344 1 edac_mce_amd 28672 0 kvm_amd 217088 0 kvm 1396736 1 kvm_amd ccp 163840 1 kvm_amd amdgpu 14450688 33 amdxcp 12288 1 amdgpu drm_exec 12288 1 amdgpu gpu_sched 65536 1 amdgpu drm_buddy 20480 1 amdgpu video 81920 1 amdgpu i2c_algo_bit 16384 1 amdgpu drm_suballoc_helper 12288 1 amdgpu drm_display_helper 274432 1 amdgpu drm_ttm_helper 16384 2 amdgpu ttm 106496 2 amdgpu,drm_ttm_helper drm_kms_helper 253952 3 drm_display_helper,amdgpu,drm_ttm_helper drm 774144 23 gpu_sched,drm_kms_helper,drm_exec,drm_suballoc_helper,drm_display_helper,drm_buddy,amdgpu,drm_ttm_helper,ttm,amdxcp crc16 12288 3 bluetooth,amdgpu,ext4 gpio_amdpt 16384 0 gpio_generic 20480 1 gpio_amdpt
That's all.
Currently, I'm using it on linux-image-6.12.38+deb13-amd64 kernel.
It seems that there is more newer release for firmware-amd-graphics, but no critical issue is found yet.
Conclusion
By switching from NVIDIA GPU, there were some disadvantage that some application does not support AMD GPU yet.
On the positive side, no need to worry about nvidia-driver issues such as #1089513
I just started using AMD GPU, I hope I could help to improve the AMD GPU experience on Debian.
This article was written with Ultimate Hacking Keyboard 60 v2 with Riser 60.
