Nvidia Driver Issues on Lenovo Thinkpad P14s Gen 5

mosdos · 2026-01-28 17:51:15

I have been having issues with nvidia drivers lately. I remember that when I used to use windows 11, I got very good performance in games, and even though I now have nvidia drivers working on arch, I am still getting poor performance. I was wondering if I could get some assistance with this issue, as I have had poor performance when doing any graphically intense applications for quite some time now, and I haven't yet come across a solution online?

My specs are as follows:
Laptop Model: Lenovo Thinkpad P14s Gen 5 (Intel)
CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 155H
GPU: Nvidia RTX 500 ADA Generation Laptop GPU
RAM: 32 GB

I will also provide the output to some common commands I have seen ran for this very problem

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes: |
| GPU GI CI PID Type Process name GPU Memory |
| ID ID Usage |
|=========================================================================================|
| 0 N/A N/A 774 G /usr/lib/Xorg 4MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

glxinfo | grep -Ei 'Direct|String':
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.4
client glx vendor string: Mesa Project and SGI
client glx version string: 1.4
OpenGL vendor string: Intel
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa Intel(R) Arc(tm) Graphics (MTL)
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.6 (Core Profile) Mesa 25.3.4-arch1.1
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.60
GL_AMD_multi_draw_indirect, GL_AMD_performance_monitor,
GL_ARB_depth_clamp, GL_ARB_derivative_control, GL_ARB_direct_state_access,
GL_ARB_draw_elements_base_vertex, GL_ARB_draw_indirect,
GL_ARB_half_float_vertex, GL_ARB_indirect_parameters,
GL_ARB_multi_draw_indirect, GL_ARB_occlusion_query2,
OpenGL version string: 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 25.3.4-arch1.1
OpenGL shading language version string: 4.60
GL_AMD_draw_buffers_blend, GL_AMD_multi_draw_indirect,
GL_ARB_direct_state_access, GL_ARB_draw_buffers,
GL_ARB_draw_indirect, GL_ARB_draw_instanced, GL_ARB_enhanced_layouts,
GL_ARB_half_float_vertex, GL_ARB_indirect_parameters,
GL_ARB_multi_draw_indirect, GL_ARB_multisample, GL_ARB_multitexture,
GL_EXT_direct_state_access, GL_EXT_draw_buffers2, GL_EXT_draw_instanced,
OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.2 Mesa 25.3.4-arch1.1
OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.20
GL_EXT_multi_draw_indirect, GL_EXT_occlusion_query_boolean,

lspci -k | grep -EA3 'VGA|3D':
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Meteor Lake-P [Intel Arc Graphics] (rev 08)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device 50ea
Kernel driver in use: i915
Kernel modules: i915, xe
--
01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation AD107GLM [RTX 500 Ada Generation Laptop GPU] (rev a1)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device 50ea
Kernel driver in use: nvidia
Kernel modules: nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia

V1del · 2026-01-28 18:54:38

Please use [code][/code] tags when sharing outputs

What exactly are you running and how? And can you quantify "poor performance", 1FPS, 80 instead of 100? Is lib32-nvidia-utils installed? In general unless you're on steam and invoking things via proton, you will want to install nvidia-prime and prepend stuff that you think should benefit from the nvidia card with the "prime-run" command. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PRIME# … er_offload

What general GUI environment are you running? A DE/WM? Which?

Generally speaking there's always some overhead with these systems, and in the case of proton if the game you're running happens to use D3D12 then there are some known performance issues is the translation layers involved in combination with the nvidia drivers, but relevant fixes are on their way and if everything goes well things will stabilize by the end/middle of the year. If possible and the games provide the option configuring them to use DX11 instead should help.

mosdos · 2026-01-29 15:55:04

Hello, I have some more information about my system here:

 -`                     jack@pfradio2
                 .o+`                    -------------
                `ooo/                    OS: Arch Linux x86_64
               `+oooo:                   Host: 21G2002CUS (ThinkPad P14s Gen 5)
              `+oooooo:                  Kernel: Linux 6.18.7-arch1-1
              -+oooooo+:                 Uptime: 2 mins
            `/:-:++oooo+:                Packages: 931 (pacman), 18 (flatpak)
           `/++++/+++++++:               Shell: bash 5.3.9
          `/++++++++++++++:              Display (LEN8AB1): 3072x1920 @ 1.65x in 14", 120 Hz [Built-in]
         `/+++ooooooooooooo/`            DE: KDE Plasma 6.5.5
        ./ooosssso++osssssso+`           WM: KWin (Wayland)
       .oossssso-````/ossssss+`          WM Theme: Breeze
      -osssssso.      :ssssssso.         Theme: Breeze (Dark) [Qt], Breeze-Dark [GTK2], Breeze [GTK3]
     :osssssss/        osssso+++.        Icons: breeze-dark [Qt], breeze-dark [GTK2/3/4]
    /ossssssss/        +ssssooo/-        Font: Noto Sans (10pt) [Qt], Noto Sans (10pt) [GTK2/3/4]
  `/ossssso+/:-        -:/+osssso+-      Cursor: breeze (24px)
 `+sso+:-`                 `.-/+oso:     Terminal: konsole 25.12.1
`++:.                           `-/+/    CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 7 155H (22) @ 4.80 GHz
.`                                 `/    GPU 1: NVIDIA RTX 500 Ada Generation Laptop GPU
                                         GPU 2: Intel Arc Graphics @ 2.25 GHz [Integrated]
                                         Memory: 3.57 GiB / 30.84 GiB (12%)
                                         Swap: 0 B / 15.42 GiB (0%)
                                         Disk (/): 123.80 GiB / 1.79 TiB (7%) - ext4
                                         Local IP (wlan0): 192.168.219.63/18
                                         Battery (5B11H56402): 70% [Charging, AC Connected]
                                         Locale: en_US.UTF-8

Also, I forgot to mention that I recently tried out Bazzite OS. I got very good performance in games, but didn't love the other aspects of the OS.

When it comes to this poor performance, what I mean is that I am getting much less fps than I usually would in games. Depending on the game, I could be getting anywhere from 30-80 fps, when I usually get at least 100-120 for most of the games I play. I have been testing this system out with mainly 3 games: Star Wars the Old Republic through steam with proton (at least 120 FPS on bazzite with medium settings, now about 60-80 FPS on arch), TCG Card Shop Simulator on steam(Between 100-120 FPS on bazzite, now between 30-60 FPS on arch), I believe with proton, and Minecraft Java Edition(Not tested on Bazzite, but I got 160+ FPS on integrated graphics, and now I get about 80-120 FPS when using the GPU). The games I have listed unfortunately don't have the options to use DX11.

Feel free to let me know if I forgot anything, and I appreciate the help (And apologize for the late response).

V1del · 2026-02-02 00:44:48

Did you configure the monitor for the framerate you want and e.g. specifically on KDE enable the tearing protocol for fullscreen windows? Most of this is stuff I'd assume would be preconfiged on bazzite and you might want to change a few things in this regard.

Rendering on the dGPU and copying to the iGPU always incurs some overhead, in can very much be possible that something as simple as minecraft is not taxing enough to make this overhead worth it and the iGPU being actually sufficient for the task at hand.

mosdos · 2026-02-02 01:23:55

Hello,

My laptop's screen is set to its max of 120 Hz. I also play most games with their fps monitors enabled, mainly in steam so that I can see the fps I'm getting. Additionally, I checked but I don't see any controls for screen tearing protocols. Earlier, I tried x11 too, and I tested Star Wars the Old republic, however it froze after I logged in with my character.

Arch Linux

#1 2026-01-28 17:51:15

Nvidia Driver Issues on Lenovo Thinkpad P14s Gen 5

#2 2026-01-28 18:54:38

Re: Nvidia Driver Issues on Lenovo Thinkpad P14s Gen 5

#3 2026-01-29 15:55:04

Re: Nvidia Driver Issues on Lenovo Thinkpad P14s Gen 5

#4 2026-02-02 00:44:48

Re: Nvidia Driver Issues on Lenovo Thinkpad P14s Gen 5

#5 2026-02-02 01:23:55

Re: Nvidia Driver Issues on Lenovo Thinkpad P14s Gen 5

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