# nouveau or nvidia

## uldo

I just cant get my finger on it... 

whats best for nVidia 8500 GT?

whats the main diff?

'n'stuff... in other words - im confused...

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## d2_racing

Nouveau = the open source driver.

Nvidia = the driver is proprio.

I recommend that you use the Nouveau driver to start.

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## Satoshi

nouveau: KMS, which means native resolution bootup (pretty); open source; I've experienced some problems in a notebook where it wouldn't go to native resolution (something to do with it thinking there was a secondary display and choosing a default resolution).

nvidia: better support for 3D, works out-of-the-box in most cases, also think suspend/hibernate works a lot better than nouveau.

I'd go with nouveau unless you need 3D or you hit the odd case where nouveau didn't work as expected (do report it if that happens).

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## dirkfanick

of course the nvidia-driver runs better 'n faster.

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## uldo

i went with nouveau... yeah... KMS is the thing why i got confused... so far so good... no complaints so far...

Gentoo still rocks  :Smile: 

thx for replies  :Wink: 

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## Princess Nell

I couldn't get noveau working with compiz, so I went back to nvidia.

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## d2_racing

Yeah, i don't know if Nouveau even work with Compiz.

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## Shining Arcanine

 *d2_racing wrote:*   

> Nouveau = the open source driver.
> 
> Nvidia = the driver is proprio.
> 
> I recommend that you use the Nouveau driver to start.

 

The Nouveau driver has major issues at the moment. I recommend helping Nouveau as a tester in spare time, while using the Nvidia driver for production work.

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## cach0rr0

 *Princess Nell wrote:*   

> I couldn't get noveau working with compiz, so I went back to nvidia.

 

if you're going to be doing anything involving compositing, or really anything 3D-heavy, I'd steer well clear of the nouveau driver for the time being

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## dirkfanick

In frames per second:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=89194

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## Jon Wilder

I've used both and I have to say that for KDE the nVidia proprietary drivers are MUCH better. If you use KDE, you get all the desktop effects that you don't get with the in kernel driver and the graphics are much clearer and colorful.

The only issue I have is that I can't get the pretty CLI on the main CLI of Gentoo like I had with the in kernel driver. I've tried compiling in the VESA framebuffer but to no avail. If anyone has any suggestions for that I'd greatly appreciate it.

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## hujuice

I'm very happy with nouveau, with one exception

I installed it on 4 computer and everything goes very fine (I'm not a gamer), including composition and every desktop needs.

The only exception is described immediately below, but it isn't related to the screen behaviour and it is a special case.

My thumb is really up if you are elsewhere.

--

The exception: the GTS 250 card.

This card has a very power cooling fan and when it spins at 100% is very very noisy.

nvidia drivers have a fan speed control system. So, normally, the fan spins at 20%, a very noiseless speed. It's ok.

I didn't find such a behaviour in nouveau. So, the fan spins always at 100% and my desktop is loud like an aeroplane taking off.   :Shocked: 

(Obviously, I've the same issue with nvidia, when X is stopped.)

Googling around didn't offer a solution or workaround for me.

A very home-made way could be sys-power/nvclock (a manual tuning tool) and some pm-related script.

But I'm not so brave to risk to burn my card because a script error.

Regards,

HUjuice

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## hujuice

I wrote an how-to here in the forum about the nvidia -> nouveau+kms switching: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-6655021.html

Please, share, improve and correct it if you think that it's necessary.

Regards,

HUjuice

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## hujuice

 *d2_racing wrote:*   

> Yeah, i don't know if Nouveau even work with Compiz.

 

I think that it depends on your card: Nouveau Feature Matrix

I tested it on 5 computer (including my noisy one) and it works fine on:

home box (noisy): nVidia Corporation G92 [GeForce GTS 250] (rev a2)

laptop: nVidia Corporation G98 [GeForce 9200M GS] (rev a1)

media (sofa): nVidia Corporation G86 [GeForce 8500 GT] (rev a1)

office 2: nVidia Corporation G96 [GeForce 9500 GT] (rev a1)

Not smooth on:

office: nVidia Corporation G72 [GeForce 7300 SE/7200 GS] (rev a1)

(See https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-6660355.html#6660355)

Regards,

HUjuice

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