Arch Linux

flowitdaflow

Member

Registered: 2018-07-31

Posts: 11

What GPU Drivers are best for this laptop?

I recently installed arch on my Acer Aspire E5-575G and is running Gnome 3.28.2.

Laptop specs:
GPU: Intel HD 520 and Nvidia GTX 940MX (never really in use)
CPU: Intel i5-6500U
8GB RAM
Kingston M.2 SSD 96GB
1TB HDD

Currently installed driver: xf86-video-nouveau

But I don't think this is the right driver for me since I'm not using my Nvidia card.

My question is: Should i keep this driver or remove it? Is it better to install the xf86-video-intel driver?

flowitdaflow

Member

Registered: 2018-07-31

Posts: 11

Re: What GPU Drivers are best for this laptop?

Or do I need other drivers? From what I read it is recommended to install mesa and vulkan-intel?

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,113

Re: What GPU Drivers are best for this laptop?

mesa will already be installed on the system.  If you are not using the nvidia GPU then you could remove xf86-video-nouveau.
xf86-video-intel is optional without it the modesetting DDX will be used instead.  Which DDX performs better for your system you would need to test.
If you have software that can use vulkan you could install vulkan-intel.

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,541

Website

Re: What GPU Drivers are best for this laptop?

When you say you are not using the NVIDIA card, is that just the current state of affairs, or is that your end goal?  If you *want* to use the NVIDIA card at all (I don't see why you wouldn't want to) then you should read the relevant hybrid graphics pages of the wiki.

If you really just want to entirely disable the NVIDIA card, then I second what loqs has said with a slight bias towards the modesetting driver over xf86-video-intel.  Potentially it could vary between systems, but so far I've really only seen xf86-video-intel cause problems.

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"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

pclbusto

Member

Registered: 2018-09-10

Posts: 2

Re: What GPU Drivers are best for this laptop?

I have the same notebook and I couldn't install nvidia drivers. The problem I think is in part for my limited knowledge and another part is what X server are you using? I had gnome with Wayland a for what I had read isn't compatible with Wayland. This is the problem with de nvidia propietary drivers. I tried the solution that were explain in the nvisia part but I dindt succed.
If i had luck I'll tell you.
On the other had i check others post from you and my desktop computer is very similar to yours. It was funy to see the coincidence.

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,541

Website

Re: What GPU Drivers are best for this laptop?

another part is what X server are you using? I had gnome with Wayland

Wayland is not an X server.  There is only one X server in the repos.  If you are using Wayland, follow the Wayland page on the wiki where it says that Nvidia drivers will not work with GBM but should work with EGLStreams.

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"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

flowitdaflow

Member

Registered: 2018-07-31

Posts: 11

Re: What GPU Drivers are best for this laptop?

I installed the xf86-video-intel and xf86-video-nouveau and my notebook seems to now work smoother and the battery lasts longer. Btw. I use Xorg, don't like Wayland. No problems so far.

Last edited by flowitdaflow (2018-09-11 14:47:35)