NVIDIA 173.14.09 / 177.13 Driver

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NVIDIA 173.14.09 Display Driver

NVIDIA has released the 173.14.09 binary display driver. However, support for the GeForce GTX 200 series is not part of the change-log, unfortunately...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NjUzMA

[M1AU]

...a regression that prevented the X driver from starting on some GeForce FX/6/7 series...

I got this one, was really annoying.

[rinthos]

However, support for the GeForce GTX 200 series is not part of the change-log, unfortunately...

Ummm..that's because the GTX200 series is supported by the 177.13 driver @:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_177.13.html

and

http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_amd64_177.13.html

[Kano]

Yes and when look at the new README then you will find out that the 173.xx series is 1 day after release already the legacy driver for GeForce 5 series. Now you need 4 different drivers to support best all Nvidia GPUs.

[DeepDayze]

Yes and when look at the new README then you will find out that the 173.xx series is 1 day after release already the legacy driver for GeForce 5 series. Now you need 4 different drivers to support best all Nvidia GPUs.

Crazy, isn't it? I'd figure they have one stable driver to cover their newer GPU's and a legacy driver for their old as dust ones.

[Kano]

Well basically you can cover all cards with 2 drivers, 71.84.04 + 177.13. But of course these are not the best drivers for newer cards, as from GF 2 MX to GF 4 you should use 96.43.05 (not for GF 2 GTS) and for GF 5 the newest driver is 173.14.09. So you get a total count of 4 drivers.

[screemo]

Has anyone noticed increased 2d performance with 177.13 beta ? (very unlikely..)

[MamiyaOtaru]

It gets worse. I''m using a geforce 5 on my old machine with an athlon thunderbird. No SSE means the newest driver I can use is 100.14.19. It's a corner case for sure, but for me (and one of my machines) it's a fifth driver.

[rinthos]

I agree, it's quite a few drivers to keep track of and creates a bit of a headache.

To the comment about not having SSE, time to upgrade or switch to an intel P3 board for a lateral move. More issues than just gpu drivers.

[Kano]

@MamiyaOtaru

I would use in your case 96.x - there are basically no huge improvements in 100.x series for your old card. I have even heard that only 96.x supports xvmc correctly - and your card would be able to use that. Would help to reduce cpu usage. In days of new dual cores thats just not so important but your cpu is real old