--- title: The end of the AArch64 desktop experiment – Marcin... description: After eleven months running an Ampere Altra Q80-30 (80-core AArch64) system as a daily desktop under Fedora, the experiment ended due to compounding hardware... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-end-of-the-aarch64-desktop-experiment-marcin-juszkiewicz-o8tsn32k7 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The end of the AArch64 desktop experiment – Marcin Juszkiewicz | daily.dev og:description: After eleven months running an Ampere Altra Q80-30 (80-core AArch64) system as a daily desktop under Fedora, the experiment ended due to compounding hardware... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-end-of-the-aarch64-desktop-experiment-marcin-juszkiewicz-o8tsn32k7 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/O8TsN32k7.png og:image:alt: The end of the AArch64 desktop experiment – Marcin Juszkiewicz og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The end of the AArch64 desktop experiment – Marcin Juszkiewicz **[Lobsters](https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters)** · 6 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary After eleven months running an Ampere Altra Q80-30 (80-core AArch64) system as a daily desktop under Fedora, the experiment ended due to compounding hardware compatibility issues. The Ampere Altra has a PCIe erratum (PCIE_65/82288) that causes data corruption with AMD GPUs, requiring a custom self-built kernel rebuilt weekly. The AMD Radeon RX6700XT eventually started failing with fence timeout errors around Linux 7.0. Switching to an Nvidia RTX 2060 with the binary driver worked partially, but critical Flatpak apps (FreeCAD, OrcaSlicer) lacked the nvidia GL runtime for AArch64. The author reverted to a 6-core x86-64 Ryzen system where everything works out of the box, while repurposing the Altra for RISC-V package builds where its 80-core multi-threaded throughput shines. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why would an AMD Radeon GPU stop working properly on an Ampere Altra system? Ampere Altra processors have a PCIe erratum (PCIE_65) that can cause invalid addresses on PCIe MMIO writes, particularly affecting AMD GPUs, because their drivers map MMIO space as normal non-cacheable memory (ioremap_wc). The workaround requires patching the kernel to remap that memory as device non-gathering memory instead, forcing strictly aligned MMIO accesses. _Anyone debugging odd GPU failures on ARM server boards can find hardware quirk write-ups like this through daily.dev._ ### Can you run FreeCAD and OrcaSlicer with an Nvidia GPU on an AArch64 Linux desktop? Not reliably, because the org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.nvidia Flatpak runtime was unavailable for AArch64, causing both FreeCAD and OrcaSlicer to crash on launch when using the Nvidia binary driver, even though video decoding and Wine gaming worked fine on the same setup. _Developers weighing ARM desktop viability for CAD or 3D printing tools can track gaps like this via daily.dev._ ### Is an 80-core Ampere Altra Q80-30 a good choice for a desktop workstation? Not really for everyday desktop use, since 80 cores at 3.0GHz did not translate into a snappier experience compared to a 6-core, 12-thread Ryzen 5 3600, which handled gaming and multitasking better. The Altra's strength showed instead in multi-core workloads like RISC-V package builds rather than single-thread responsiveness. _Engineers comparing core count against real-world desktop performance can follow hands-on reports like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Red Hat ARM Engineer Abandons ARM64 Linux Personal Desktop, Goes Back To AMD Ryzen System](https://daily.dev/posts/red-hat-arm-engineer-abandons-arm64-linux-personal-desktop-goes-back-to-amd-ryzen-system-6mlxvv1aj) · Phoronix · 5 upvotes · 0 comments - [Ubuntu 25.10 Performance On System76 Thelio Astra / Ampere Altra](https://daily.dev/posts/ubuntu-25-10-performance-on-system76-thelio-astra-ampere-altra-en6l3uqjp) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Arm desktop: so many cores, not enough speed – Marcin Juszkiewicz](https://daily.dev/posts/arm-desktop-so-many-cores-not-enough-speed-marcin-juszkiewicz-jt5z31xrj) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#gpu](https://daily.dev/tags/gpu), [#fedora](https://daily.dev/tags/fedora) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-end-of-the-aarch64-desktop-experiment-marcin-juszkiewicz-o8tsn32k7) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The end of the AArch64 desktop experiment – Marcin Juszkiewicz","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-end-of-the-aarch64-desktop-experiment-marcin-juszkiewicz-o8tsn32k7","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-end-of-the-aarch64-desktop-experiment-marcin-juszkiewicz-o8tsn32k7"},"datePublished":"2026-06-30T11:09:57.293Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T20:14:44.553Z","description":"After eleven months running an Ampere Altra Q80-30 (80-core AArch64) system as a daily desktop under Fedora, the experiment ended due to compounding hardware...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--OHB84bZF--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2010","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--OHB84bZF--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2010","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Lobsters","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Lobsters","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--tl8v_Fku--/f_auto,t_logo/v1698841318/logos/lobste.jpg","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-end-of-the-aarch64-desktop-experiment-marcin-juszkiewicz-o8tsn32k7","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"linux,gpu,fedora","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lobsters","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The end of the AArch64 desktop experiment – Marcin Juszkiewicz"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-end-of-the-aarch64-desktop-experiment-marcin-juszkiewicz-o8tsn32k7#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why would an AMD Radeon GPU stop working properly on an Ampere Altra system?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Ampere Altra processors have a PCIe erratum (PCIE_65) that can cause invalid addresses on PCIe MMIO writes, particularly affecting AMD GPUs, because their drivers map MMIO space as normal non-cacheable memory (ioremap_wc). 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