Yep. Vulkan is recommended for cross-vendor setups, more commonly where there's integrated graphics.

I actually had ti and xtx variants, so vram was 12+24GB = 36 GB. Vulkan is implemented cross-vendor and running vulkan-based llama.cpp yielded similar (though slightly worse) performance than CUDA on the 3080ti as a point of reference.

I don't have this well documened but, from memory, Llama3.1 8B_k4 could reliably get arund 110 tk/s on CUDA and 100 on Vulkan on the same computer

I used this setup specifically to take advantage of the vastly increased VRAM of having two cards. I was able to use 32B_k4 models which were outside of the VRAM of either card and tracked power and RAM uasage with Lact. Performance seemed pretty great compared to my friend running the same models on a 4x4060ti setup using just CUDA.

If this is interesting to a lot of people, I could put this setup together to answer more questions / do a separate post. I took the setup apart because it physically used more space than what my case could accommodate and I had the 3080ti literally hanging out of a riser.

I was messing with LLMs recently and landed in a situation whereby I was running a 3080 and a 7900xt in the same system. I started with the 3080 so my system had Nvidia drivers already installed. Adding the AMD was 100% plug and play in Bazzite and Ubuntu 24.04.

If you want to use both cards simultaneously, you can! I spent way too much figuring it out. What you have to do is find how to run llama.cpp with Vulkan. Also, don't try doing that in a docker container because Vulkan in docker is broken. ASK ME HOW I KNOW lamo. Performance is actually really good so have fun!

See this monster of a post from u/sp3ctr4l@dbzer0

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/18288432

To add in about game modding on Linux:

https://github.com/limo-app/limo

https://flathub.org/apps/io.github.limo_app.limo

Limo is a universal mod manager that is linux native.

And I do mean universal. It’ll work with literally any game, you just have to take a bit of extra time to configure things for games that do not yet have a supported preset configuration out of the box… but at this point, that includes most games that are generally reliant on some kind of mod manager type program on Windows, to keep track of 10s or 100s of simultaneous mods.

It works very much along the same lines as something like Mod Organizer 2, though there are some differences, read the wiki.

It sets up a virtual file system that allows mods to be set up outside of the main game directory itself, and will override them such that the mods actually load, but they can be ‘undeployed’ to revert back to vanilla, you can set up different profiles of different mod configurations and deploy/undeploy what you like.

It can also manage load orders, supports formats such as fomod and similar for games like Fallout New Vegas and Skyrim, you can set up tags and category groupings, and it also shows you conflicts between mods down to the specific files, showing you a chain of overwrites to the final file from the final loaded mod.

It doesn’t support things like LOOT, which purport to autogenerate correct load orders… but frankly, thats fine, because shit like that doesn’t even work properly in situations you’d use it in on Windows 90% of the time.

EDIT: Wow, apparently it does support LOOT now, it did not a few updates ago.

…

I have successfully gotten FONV working using Limo to set up uh… there’s a variant of the Viva New Vegas mod setup guide aimed at Steam Deck users, but it tells you to set up Mod Organizer 2 on the Deck… which you can do, but its rather input laggy and there are other inconveniences…

Here it is, Mirelurked Viva New Vegas:

https://ashtonqlb.github.io/mirelurked-vnv/intro.html

I had to alter a few steps from this to get it working with Limo, but they were basically just… set up Limo instead of MO2, and you have to handle NVSE a bit differently, because it literally replaces/overrides the entire main game exe.

…

I have also used Limo to mod Cyberpunk 2077, works with more in depth frameworks like CET, RedExt, etc, as well as using the Decky Framegen plugin to insert FSR 3.1 Upscaling and Framegen into CP77, which gives better quality and fps than the official FSR 2 and 3 implementations that come with the vanilla game and are vanilla supported on a Deck.

You basically just have to launch the vanilla game via the normal launcher first, check the ‘enable mods’ switch, fully load the game…

Then you can set up the Framegen mod, which adds a custom command in steam to the launch parameters… and then you can also setup the ‘skip intro’ mod, which is reliant on both the mod being present, as well as additional command line parameters…

There are a bunch of reddit posts complaining that the FrameGen mod doesn’t allow other additional launch arguments, but they are wrong.

All you have to do is append those additional launch args … at the end of the FrameGen mod’s launch arg. This just doesn’t seem to be explicitly documented anywhere, by anyone… I may have been the first person to figure this out?

Anyway, after that bit of silliness, setting up other mods for CP 77 using Limo is fairly straightforward.

…

… I am doing all this on Bazzite on a Deck, but you could do it on… presumably any linux distro that supports flatpaks and proton (the translation layer that allows Windows games to run on Linux).

There will always be a few ‘weird’ mods that are just totally reliant on a whole bunch of Windows specific things to work, or just cannot be made to work without actually overwriting some core game files in the main, real directory itself…

And, some of these mods will require a windows component dependency, like vc_2017 or vc_2022, you set those up with something like ProtonTricks or SteamTinkerLaunch to modify the proton config per game, instead of trying to install the exe system wide as 99% of the windows oriented mods will tell you to do…

But so far, I have found either my own solutions for these cases, or someone else already has, or someone has just made basically a linux compatible equivalent for such a windows reliant mod.

… You can also just choose to run MO2 on Linux, it will work, its just… buggy, and overlycomplicated, imo, you’ve got to set up a custom wineprefix for the MO2 UI to not do dumbshit, give it thr dependencies it needs, and then you’ve got to do this for each different game you want to mod with MO2.

I found that Limo is sufficiently capable and much less hassle to use once you take the time to understand its differences from MO2.

Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?

No. Thanks to Steam Deck, most popular windows games also work on Linux. See https://www.protondb.com/ for a complete list of 18,000 titles.. Someone already mentioned that kernel level anti-cheat is the big, obvious blocker.

Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?

~~Im guessing that most moders target Windows users therefore, don't think mods would be AS easy. Not saying modding wouldn't exist or work at all.~~ Edit: see sp3ctr4l's reply to this comment. They know more than me

If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?

There are workarounds. Linux has some great alternative software to popular paid stuff. See LibreOffice or Krita.

There are also more advanced options to run Windows apps under Linux, see Wine or Virtual Machines

Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?

Yes. Similar to the above answer/ similar to aforementioned Proton. For .NET specifically, there is a Linux runtime.

How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a "Linux Update" program like what Windows has?

This can depend a lot on what distribution you're running, but definitely, there are ones with easy buttons for whole-system updates.

How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?

It's different and probably overall better than windows. Most distros are much better out of the box than windows.

Open source is ususually a security advantage because (long story short) security mistakes can be caught by more people.

I don't have a good answer for you on anti virus. I am very privacy and security conscious and I dont use one on linux. My personal opinion is that you don't need one and shouldn't need one if you're not downloading sketch stuff.

Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?

Totally. GPU drivers are much, much better than they used to be.

Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?

Theoretically. You would have to try really hard, but for normal use, no. More likely, you could lose data or access to the system if you misconfigure stuff (just like with Windows)

Distro recommendations. My personal opinions, don't flame me.

• Bazzite. hard to mess up, gamer focused, super simple updates, and targeted support for gamer hardware. Feels like a cross between steam deck and windows. Less support for tinkering but if you never want to touch the terminal, this is my choice.

• Pop!OS. Simplified Linux with great driver and steam support with easy updates. More tinkering support than Bazzite

• Linux Mint. Easy to start on but more traditional back-end. Much more support (forum posts) than the previous two. A lot of what works on Debian or Ubuntu works the same on Mint, so you'll be able to do all kinds of fiddling

How about the fact that there's a massive oligopoly in the industry? How about one studio basically steamrolling the industry with one franchise in the 2010s which alienated movie goers? How about movie-going being expensive AF?

When I worked in an office, most of my team was in other offices across the world. But we had to be in the office for that TEAM BUILDING

Worst three weeks...

... so far

It's worse than you thought. They're the same company.

This is an advertisement packaged as "news"

"...OMG they were roommates"

This is extremely typical for Amazon corporate.

They have the data because they ask (corporate) employees about their working experience constantly. I'm sure employees love the option to WFH. But they don't like the data (typical) because they spent billions building cheap, crowded, loud office space around the world.

So what do they do? They pull out the mantra, "Disagree and Commit", which is Amazon manager speak for "shut up and do what I say." Ironically, Disagree and Commit is actually "Have Backbone, Disagree and Commit" and is about finding alternative solutions or data when you think the company is doing the wrong things rather than keeping quiet.

Amazon, like most American corporations is an oligarchy and it's run terribly at the top with dire consequences for their employees, customers, and the world.