Hello again 
Its not as much as being Mate friendly, but more like Linux friendly.
I have no statistics, but I do see a large user base of the GeForce series. From the not so new 6800 series to the latest. I'm somewhere in the middle of that list and I have found GeForce reliable through the years with linux.
This does not mean they are the best, but IMO they are a popular linux choice.
So go find a card that you like and post back. Maybe a user of that series will chime in.
You sure there is no hope for your AMD card?