I'm a relative newbie that's curious about something. I was just wondering a little bit about which graphics driver is currently better: NVIDIA's propreitary drivers or the open source Nouveau drivers.
As far as I can tell, results may vary depending on your hardware, OS and software setup and configuration, as well as whether or not you have paid your tithings and offerings to the graphics driver gods.
I have been told in the not too distant past, the NVIDIA's drivers, even though it can be troublesome depending on some hardware, it's more or less better. I have also been told that Nouveau is getting better and better is better than NVIDIA's and will continue to get better.
I have used both in various distros over my three years of using Linux as my main OS. (Unfortunately, I'm still tortured by Windows and other Microsoft crapnologies at work.) I've had good and bad experiences with both ranging from major, panic inducing issues, to the mind numbing frustrations causing me to rip my hair out (possibly explains why I'm bald), to minor little bumpy graphics here and there that can be ignored, sometimes.
I've only had relatively minor problems with both of them on Fedora 16 and 17, but enough to cause some amount of frustration. With Nouveau, everything looks and runs just fine and beautifully. That is, until I start watching some HD videos with a lot of fast movement in them, like action scenes or something that have a lot people or things moving around the screen very quickly. That's when some screen tearing may happen.
At first, I thought it was a graphics chip problem or something relating to that, until I installed the NVIDIA drivers. Videos of any type, size or resolution in any player, in the the browser or from the puter, or anywhere else, looked great! Graphics and animations everywhere else looked equally beautiful, until I hit the Super key (or click "Activities", or stick the pointer at the top left of the screen). Normally, the animation for the Activities Overview screen is smooth and clean. With in NVIDIA drivers installed, however, it gets bumpy. Really bumpy! Frustratingly bumpy! Looks like it's skipping a few frames here and there because it had too much to drink kind of bumpy! I had the same problem with Fedora 16 too. I ignored it at first, but then I started to get a little frustrated and eventually uninstalled it.
I'd like to hear the opinions and experiences of the collective geniuses of the Interwebs. Which is better: NVIDIA drivers, or Nouveau?
Also, should I reinstall the NVIDIA drivers and either find a way to put up with that bit of bumpiness when going to the Activities Overview (well, that's what it's called on GNOME3.org) and maybe wait for some kind of fix, or develop some kind of magical skill set to fix or workaround if I can find the time? (HIGHLY UNLIKELY!!)
Thank you all in advance!!
As far as I can tell, results may vary depending on your hardware, OS and software setup and configuration, as well as whether or not you have paid your tithings and offerings to the graphics driver gods.
I have been told in the not too distant past, the NVIDIA's drivers, even though it can be troublesome depending on some hardware, it's more or less better. I have also been told that Nouveau is getting better and better is better than NVIDIA's and will continue to get better.
I have used both in various distros over my three years of using Linux as my main OS. (Unfortunately, I'm still tortured by Windows and other Microsoft crapnologies at work.) I've had good and bad experiences with both ranging from major, panic inducing issues, to the mind numbing frustrations causing me to rip my hair out (possibly explains why I'm bald), to minor little bumpy graphics here and there that can be ignored, sometimes.
I've only had relatively minor problems with both of them on Fedora 16 and 17, but enough to cause some amount of frustration. With Nouveau, everything looks and runs just fine and beautifully. That is, until I start watching some HD videos with a lot of fast movement in them, like action scenes or something that have a lot people or things moving around the screen very quickly. That's when some screen tearing may happen.
At first, I thought it was a graphics chip problem or something relating to that, until I installed the NVIDIA drivers. Videos of any type, size or resolution in any player, in the the browser or from the puter, or anywhere else, looked great! Graphics and animations everywhere else looked equally beautiful, until I hit the Super key (or click "Activities", or stick the pointer at the top left of the screen). Normally, the animation for the Activities Overview screen is smooth and clean. With in NVIDIA drivers installed, however, it gets bumpy. Really bumpy! Frustratingly bumpy! Looks like it's skipping a few frames here and there because it had too much to drink kind of bumpy! I had the same problem with Fedora 16 too. I ignored it at first, but then I started to get a little frustrated and eventually uninstalled it.
I'd like to hear the opinions and experiences of the collective geniuses of the Interwebs. Which is better: NVIDIA drivers, or Nouveau?
Also, should I reinstall the NVIDIA drivers and either find a way to put up with that bit of bumpiness when going to the Activities Overview (well, that's what it's called on GNOME3.org) and maybe wait for some kind of fix, or develop some kind of magical skill set to fix or workaround if I can find the time? (HIGHLY UNLIKELY!!)
Thank you all in advance!!