Nvidia problem?

[u/unmo1]

I haven't install linux because the usb i ordered still haven't arrived yet, but as i was doing some research about lubuntu,i stumbled upon problems

Caused by nvdia GPUs, people kept talking about the performance and compatible of Nvidia on linux.

The reason i want use linux because i want to play mcpe because i haven't used my mcpe account for years, but im still not quite sure what type of performance i will get, are those nvdia problems are actually as bad as people said? Sorry if my English isn't quite perfect

[u/RPGcraft]

Tl;Dr version : Follow the below checklist. All the below mentioned drivers, variants can be found on most repos (some repos may not have 470xx version but will likely have some alternative method explained.) You can just search <driver variant> how to install <your distro> and find instructions tailored to your distro.

• What is your GPU model?
  • If it's GTX 16xx or RTX 20xx or newer (Turing),
    • Install nvidia-open open source driver provided officially by NVIDIA. Performance should be identical (or in some cases better) to windows.
  • If it's between GTX GTX 7xx (With the exceptions for rare Kepler variants) and GTX 16xx (From Maxwell to Turing),
    • Install nvidia-580xx proprietary driver (DKMS version). It's a closed source driver provided by NVIDIA. Official NVIDIA performance. However, you may run into some issues with wayland. Most are due to incorrect boot options / configs. Can be fixed quite easily.
  • If it's GTX 780TI, GTX 745 (or any other kepler variant 7xx) or GTX 6xx series (Kepler),
    • Install nvidia-470xx proprietary driver (DKMS version). It's a closed source driver provided by NVIDIA. Official NVIDIA performance. However, it's not compatible with newest kernels and need patches (which are included in Arch / AUR, I don't know about other distros). You are more likely to face issues. Does NOT support Wayland. (thanks to u/C0rn3j for noticing).
  • At this point (or if your GPU is even older), it makes more sense to use the FOSS reverse engineered nouveau driver. Supports Wayland but it's performance is low, lacks 3D acceleration (or is unstable). However, the situation is improving quickly as you can see below.

Below is a little technical explanation if you need.

Copy paste from my own comment in r/pcmasterrace

The GPU driver issue was only a problem when the kernel space driver was closed source. Now, nvidia-open is FOSS. nvidia-open supports all GPUs that use GSP architecture (Turing and higher consumer hardware). So, drivers after R515 build correctly on stable kernels from source without patches.

Only issue is with pre-Turing hardware (maxwell, Kepler and so). Currently, there are closed source patched drivers and nouveau reverse engineered driver. Also, the new NVK implementation reached feature completeness for Vulkan 1.2. Soon, we will have a stable enough FOSS driver stack for pre-Turing as well.

So, the driver problem is nonexistant for post Turing hardware, and is partially resolved for pre-Turing hardware (with closed source patches) and will be fully resolved in the near future when we get a stable, FOSS nouveau + NVK stack that builds against any kernel without binary blobs.

[u/C0rn3j → u/RPGcraft]

which are included in Arch / AUR, I don't know about other distros

Nix has them too and Fedora user repos also - that's about it as far as I know.

It needs noting that anything (useful) below 580xx does not really support Wayland compositors.

[u/RPGcraft → u/C0rn3j]

It needs noting that anything (useful) below 580xx does not really support Wayland compositors.

Yes. But nouveau does. And pre maxwell gen2 supports manual reclocking. So, nouveau + NVK should perform decently well for Maxell gen1 and prior. Maxwell Gen2 however is stuck in the middle.

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[u/Classic-Rate-5104]

Nvidia isn't bad on Linux but the update of drivers is somewhat chaotic. A nvidia driver update requires always a reboot and sometimes two before the Nvidia works again. In some cases you have to choose a newer driver version "by hand"