Arch Linux

oldcastle

Member

Registered: 2022-04-29

Posts: 16

For a non-gaming setup, is Nouveau enough or do I still need Nvidia?

Hi,

I have a laptop with an Nvidia GeForce MX150 card, and I basically use it for office stuff and music production. Nothing that makes use of any heavy graphic usage, like games, video editing, or image processing. Performance speaking, is there any reason for me to use the official Nvidia drivers or nouveau is enough?

Thanks

Last edited by oldcastle (2022-05-05 21:04:35)

ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 7,362

Re: For a non-gaming setup, is Nouveau enough or do I still need Nvidia?

Official drivers will give you better power management (though you could also just disable the card). Otherwise you probably won't notice a difference. Nouveau may allow you to use wayland with less bugs? Not sure on that one.

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jonno2002

Member

Registered: 2016-11-21

Posts: 868

Re: For a non-gaming setup, is Nouveau enough or do I still need Nvidia?

if its an optimus setup just turn the nvidia gpu off completely and dont use it, thats what i do.

install bbswitch and use these configs:

/etc/modules-load.d/bbswitch.conf

bbswitch

/etc/modprobe.d/bbswitch.conf

options bbswitch load_state=0 unload_state=1

/etc/modprobe.d/nouveau.conf

blacklist nouveau

and of course remove any and all nvidia drivers you have installed.

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,826

Re: For a non-gaming setup, is Nouveau enough or do I still need Nvidia?

nb. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Hardwa … ion#NVIDIA for nouveau-fw

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