Is Linux pretty much unusable with an Nvidia GPU?

I've been trying Linux Mint on my old dell laptop with an nvidia GPU and it's been just one impossible issue after the other.

Even games that have native linux versions like Valheim don't run if I'm running off the GPU (but run if i switch to the integrated intel gpu but with terrible performance). Some games that work with proton work fine but have tons of weird issues like not being able to type specific characters on the keyboard, or the game and the entire OS just randomly freezing after 15-20 minutes - it happened in both warframe and guild wars 2 for example. Every time it happened I had to do a hard reboot since it was completely unresponsive.

I tried installing bottles and couldn't get through the basic setup of the GOG launcher without getting black screens in it. There were some workarounds with no-sandbox launch arguments at one point but I think I eventually gave up on it. Steam had tons of issues with launchers freezing, or steam itself getting stuck on constant shader updates every day I start the game.

I tried changing proton versions, installing wine and lutris manually, changing nvidia drivers (randomly trying other one since there's no useful info online about which to pick or which ones even work...) and it never got to a satisfactory point. I still have no idea which drivers im supposed to be using (if it's not the recommended ones that come with Mint), or how to properly update them manually.

I've had steam somethines just not run at all, I run it and nothing happens. I see it in the process manager, kill it ,restart it... it gets the temporary update popup and then disappears with no error message whatsoever.

I actually own a steam deck and I never had any major issues with it, so my only conclusion is that this time it's the fault of either linux mint (which is supposed to be the stable, no-nonsense OS), or the different hardware - probably the GPU.

So yeah... is the conclusion wrong, or is it really simply pointless to try linux with nvidia?

edit: hardware info:
GPU: GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile
CPU: i7-7700HQ
I'm currently running Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon
Nvidia drivers in use are the latest ones available from the driver manager (currently nvidia-driver-550).

Will try PopOS! next

sgtnasty ,
@sgtnasty@lemmy.ml avatar

The support for NVIDIA hardware on Linux is not ideal at best. When I switched to all AMD I have since had a very smooth experience, especially with distro hopping.

joyvio ,

In this thread: people gaslighting OP.

I've also had massive issues with the GTX660, up to the point of complete computer freeze and pressing the hardware shutdown button, as risky as doing that on a consistent basis is. Never again did I use Linux up until I went AMD.

nanook ,
@nanook@friendica.eskimo.com avatar

I have several machines with Nvidia GPUs, they are all working fine, one thing I like about Intel internal graphics that you can't do with Nvidia is to use pass
through of virtual GPU's to get OS's in kvm-qemu virtual machines, giving the ability to play Windows video games in a virtual machine with usable performance.

fushuan ,

I have some window resizing/tiling/moving lag spikes with KDE and notifications lag the whole system with kde/gnome. This sis apparently a bug in the nvidia driver. Besides that games run pretty much perfectly. The card gets hotter than on Windows with PoE but that's basically it. For reference, I play PoE, league (for now), ffxiv, D2 mods, last epoch, some indie games, bg3,... I have a 3080 card and a ryzen 5800x processor.

Always using the newest proprietary driver of course.

darkphotonstudio ,

I do believe you but I've only used Nvidia cards for over 20 years with Linux. Idk where all these difficulties people have with Nvidia on Linux come from. Every issue I've ever had with a GPU was from a hardware failure. Maybe something is busted.

freedumb , (edited )

Currently running Pop!_OS 22.04 with a 3090 GPU, and it purrs like a happy cat. Getting significantly better performance than when the same hardware ran Windows 10.

KarnaSubarna ,
@KarnaSubarna@lemmy.ml avatar

I actually own a steam deck and I never had any major issues with it, so my only conclusion is that this time it’s the fault of either linux mint

Isn't Steam Deck use AMD and not NVIDIA?
Btw, playing CS:GO2 on Nvidia 3070 Ti on Linux desktop using driver version 545 doesn't give me a major issue so far.

Kaldo OP ,

It is, I'm just saying that even games that worked fine on steam deck had issues on my nvidia laptop so I doubt its the game's fault.

brunofin ,
@brunofin@lemm.ee avatar

I've been having the best experience with a laptop with an Nvidia GPU on my fedora 39.

utopiah ,

Not my experience at all. Running :

  • Ubuntu 23.10
  • NVIDIA 525.147.05
  • latest Steam stable (1705108172) with latest Proton

and I have been playing "flat" and VR games with no tinkering for years now. I honestly spent at most 1h on drivers or compatibility since I bought my desktop. In fact thinking back I probably spent more time on Windows years ago than now.

Pantherina ,

The keywords are "Linux Mint" and "old NVIDIA GPU"

utopiah ,

Is Linux pretty much unusable with an Nvidia GPU?

So clickbait title?

Pantherina ,

I mean... "Linux" is just a Kernel XD "is Linux Mint unusable with Nvidia" may be more accurate.

But I dont know, to my knowledge Xorg and old GPUs should work. But I even get amdgpu errors on Fedora.

BCsven ,

I have had zero issues with nVidia on multiple Leap machines. nVidia works great on SUSE / OpenSUSE since nVidia hosts their own repo to support SUSE, OpenSuse, (and maybe REL?)
Since it is an nVidia package it works as expected and the nVidia configuration GUI app gives you granular control

haui_lemmy ,
@haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com avatar

Nvidia is shit on linux. It works if you’re lucky or know what you’re doing but dont expect anything to work oob.

If anyone ever needs to decide if amd or nvidia on linux, its amd 11/10.

BCsven ,

Just a disclaimer: nVidia works great on SUSE / OpenSUSE. nVidia hosts their own repo to support SUSE, OpenSuse, (and maybe REL?)
Since it is an nVidia package it works great and the nVidia configuration GUI app gives you granular control

haui_lemmy ,
@haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com avatar

Nvidia also works great on windows. But I want neither suse nor windows. What I want is a driver that doesnt need 10s of hours of tinkering.

pbjamm ,
@pbjamm@beehaw.org avatar

Nonsense. I ran NVidia for years before I upgraded to to a newish AMD card. Not perfect but it absolutely works even for gaming as my many many hours of KSP can attest.

haui_lemmy ,
@haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com avatar

Thats the most „it works for me so its fine“ take I‘ve seen in a long time.

There are fixes for most games in protondb titled „if you have an nvidia card“.

Astonishing how many completely out of touch comments happen on lemmy. „Confidently incorrect“ gets a new renaissance.

pbjamm ,
@pbjamm@beehaw.org avatar

Then your take is equivalent to: "it does not work for me so it is shite."

Utterly devoid of meaning, vague and useless.

haui_lemmy ,
@haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com avatar

Nice rhetoric but it doesnt work that way. As I just mentioned in the comment before, there are hundreds of reports saying nvidia doesnt work as well as amd, period.

So, despite your toxic attitude, I choose to educate you. Be better.

rambos ,

MSI GTX1060 on PopOS works great for me

NOOBMASTER ,

I have nvidia, and I can't use any other proton version that is higher than ge-7.50. It's probably a software issue, but I can still play many games, both new and old. I have gtx 1060 6GB. Using Zorin OS.

Oh, sometimes, the driver update gets stuck, and I have to use a command (dpkg --configure -a) to resume it after a system reboot.

person ,

I have the same card, and I had the same issue with Proton GE (well I don't remember which version exactly). Then I tried the latest version a couple months ago and it worked flawlessly.

Never had that driver update issue myself.

Linux Mint btw. For kicks I updated to the much newer kernel version instead of the default LTS, and despite expectations everything works great with that too.

Kory ,
@Kory@lemmy.ml avatar

Please let us know if changing distros did the trick, I really hope it does, good luck!

Kaldo OP ,

Well, valheim now works straight out of the box on Pop_OS so that's an improvement! Haven't downloaded other games so not sure about that just yet though, still setting up my usual programs now.

On the other hand I kinda hate its GUI, I installed that gnome extension to make the toolbars customizeable and now it just crashes every once in a while, for example just few minutes ago alt-tab stopped working and everything minimalized and became unresponsive so I had to force shut it off. An hour ago I closed the laptop lid and when I reopened it later, the OS woke up to the login screen but everything was frozen and I couldn't do anything. It's a bit of a cursed OS, you can't even click the folder path to copy the path, I miss mint lol.

rambos ,

I have some issues with alt tabbing while running some full screen games, but not sure what is causing that. It doesnt happen often so it doesnt bother me, but its not even that bad as you described.

you can't even click the folder path to copy the path

You can if you press CTRL+L

Kory ,
@Kory@lemmy.ml avatar

That doesn't sound good. Maybe you could try to post on the official Mint forums, people really know their stuff there from my experience (and here too, but since you liked Mint, maybe give it a try, because running a distro you don't like is not a great option imho.)
https://forums.linuxmint.com/index.php

ashaman2007 ,

Running Fedora 38 on both desktop and laptop, both former Windows machines with NVIDIA GPU (laptop has the intel IGPU and NVIDIA DGPU). I’ve been able to run every single game I’ve tried (Elden Ring, Mass Effect Andromeda, Starcraft 2, Sea of Thieves, etc) using Steam+Proton. In some cases Proton GE was required, and on the laptop there was a special proton launch argument required for Elden Ring to work. Additionally, on Wayland there is one specific issue being worked on (explicit sync) that does cause some annoyance, flickering apps etc. But it feels like NVIDIA is catching up in terms of Linux compatibility, hang in there!

Yerbouti ,

Same. 2080ti. Nobara gives me an almost perfect experience. Every single games works great.

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