Is nouveau good for playing 2d games and 3d games?

PranavG · 2011-10-01 15:20:13

Is nouveau good for playing 2d games and 3d games?I have heard from many linux users that it doesn't run games well.you have to install the nvidia-prop. driver for playing full 3d acceleration games.But the downside of nvidia-prop. driver is that it is not supported well by desktop environments like KDE and gnome as it is not a opensource driver and it cannot be modified.i'm thinking of switching from nvidia-prop. to nouveau. any suggestions will be accepted.

karol · 2011-10-01 15:26:19

nouveau is not good for 3d games. Often even animations on various websites are crawling with nouveau but working smooth with nvidia.

Why not try for yourself? There are nice scripts for easy switching between open and proprietary drivers in the wiki https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Nv … au_drivers
I've tried UT2k4 with nouveau and I got single-digit fps ...

Last edited by karol (2011-10-01 15:28:12)

PranavG · 2011-10-01 15:45:49

But the nvidia driver I use has a problem with animations in gnome-shell and kde.The animations in gnome-shell and desktop-effects in kde are not well supported by nvidia.for eg. eanimations are not smooth in gnome-shell when switching from destop to overview whereas the animations are much smoother with nouveau 3d driver.

karol · 2011-10-01 15:53:11

And the nvidia driver makes my mouse lag when playing Starcraft, so I switch the drivers.

If you want to play, switch to closed driver, reboot and open a new X session just for the game.

PranavG · 2011-10-01 16:02:19

can both these drivers reside on the system simultaneously?.if yes then how to switch between these without uninstalling either of the drivers because the script given in the wiki involves uninstalling the drivers.If it is real,then i will be able to switch to nvidia-prop. when i want to play games and to nouveau when i'm not playing games without messing up my GUI arch-linux system.

karol · 2011-10-01 16:07:18

I don't think they can be used simultaneously: for starters nvidia blacklists nouveau.

atomkarinca · 2011-10-02 08:44:43

I have been using the Nouveau drivers for 2 years now and I must say there has been great improvements.

Playing 2D SDL games like Xmoto, Battle for Wesnoth and Frozen Bubble is no problem for Nouveau. As for 3D games, I have been able to play these games without any problems: Tremulous, Urban Terror, Smokin' Guns, Assaultcube, Glest and Warzone2100.

Lately I've been playing only Minecraft, so I cannot give you any updates, but you can always try and see for yourself.

Grinch · 2011-10-02 10:57:31

Well, I previously ran the nvidia binary blob for many years, but the last couple of months I've been using nouveau and I can't say I've noticed any difference except perhaps in Blender when doing sculpting with very heavy subdivision levels. As for 2d I've noted absolutely no difference, certainly no slowdown with web animations either as someone stated. That said I'm not really doing alot of gaming, mainly some indie stuff and good old starcraft broodwars (using a VirtualBox win2k vm), so as far as taxing the 3d properties I guess only Blender applies but as I said it's been decent performance there. My card is a 9600GT.

karol · 2011-10-02 11:02:54

Grinch wrote:

As for 2d I've noted absolutely no difference, certainly no slowdown with web animations either as someone stated.

I probably should have mentioned that I use an old and weak computer, the cpu is a single core Sempron 1.6GHz and graphics are nvidia 5500 fx (64--bit wide, AGP ...).

Arch Linux

#1 2011-10-01 15:20:13

Is nouveau good for playing 2d games and 3d games?

#2 2011-10-01 15:26:19

Re: Is nouveau good for playing 2d games and 3d games?

#3 2011-10-01 15:45:49

Re: Is nouveau good for playing 2d games and 3d games?

#4 2011-10-01 15:53:11

Re: Is nouveau good for playing 2d games and 3d games?

#5 2011-10-01 16:02:19

Re: Is nouveau good for playing 2d games and 3d games?

#6 2011-10-01 16:07:18

Re: Is nouveau good for playing 2d games and 3d games?

#7 2011-10-02 08:44:43

Re: Is nouveau good for playing 2d games and 3d games?

#8 2011-10-02 10:57:31

Re: Is nouveau good for playing 2d games and 3d games?

#9 2011-10-02 11:02:54

Re: Is nouveau good for playing 2d games and 3d games?

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