NVIDIA 180.16 Beta Linux Driver

[geoffp]

Why not try the 180.16 driver then?

Because I'm squeamish about blowing away Mythbuntu's beautifully clean, package-wrapped driver install with a raw one from the Nvidia installer. I might do it anyway, though. I'd love to try it.

Is it normal for a GPU to run at 77 degrees Celcius whilst just browsing the internet, granted an ambient temperature of around 25 degrees Celcius?

You seem adept enough to me.

I don't know the specs on this GPU, but I think I would find that alarming. That seems pretty high to me.

[debian_user]

Thought I'd add my 2c.

I bought an 8200-based mobo for a MythTV system, and as of driver 177.80, I consider it to be junk.

I consider it so for two reasons: first, because the 2d acceleration is so slow I can literally see the GUI draw itself in a nice, old-school top-to-bottom wipe, and second, because using sync to vblank for video drives xorg up to 100% on one CPU core, despite the old "UseEvents" "True" trick, which doesn't help.

I'm not trying to be a hater. Nvidia have earned many of my dollars, but the 8200 is just not working right for me. There are several threads on nvnews.net on these issues.

I'm not sure whether to go get a $30 8400GS, wait and hope they fix their drivers, or jump ship. I don't want more heat in my little case, though, and I do eventually want to use VDPAU, so...I'm probably stuck with waiting.

You're technically more adept than me and I concur with your sentiments. Is it normal for a GPU to run at 77 degrees Celcius whilst just browsing the internet, granted an ambient temperature of around 25 degrees Celcius?

[debian_user]

Flash nailing 1 core is a known flash-plugin bug.

A board like the Asus M3N-HD works perfectly out of the box on opensuse 11.0.



That's all dependent on the dac being used. You do not have to compile a custom kernel either on other distro's. As mentioned boards like the M3N-HD work out of the box in openSUSE which has a 2.6.25 kernel.


Almost all the above issues stem from your choice of distro. Not with linux nor the chipsets. It's typical for debian to be lagging a bit in supporting new hardware.

Ok, let me qualify - don't go after a MCP78S mobo like Abit A-N7HD with NVIDIA 8200 and Realtek ALC888 DAC. Debian Lenny uses kernel 2.6.26-1 by default - ALC888 problems are well known and the latest kernel has been updated with improvements to the module. I'm now using kernel 2.6.27.9 and sound crackling is fixed. But using NVIDIA 177.82 drivers, 2D performance (I haven't tested 3D) is still shocking. I will wait for updated drivers coming through Debian experimental repository to see improvements. Thanks for alerting me to flash plugin bug. I updated to using the latest version (32 bit). It is reported that Flash is the number one plugin to cause crashes of Firefox browser. News is that a native 64-bit plugin is in alpha development. But still, I feel it is mainly a NVIDIA driver problem for the 8200 GPU, not distro choice or bad Flash plugin code, because my old FX5200 on a 3.5 year old system does a better job. Here's what I'm talking about on my 64-bit AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5Ghz dual core SSE3 machine - link to Picassa album photo.

[deneb]

I bought an 8200-based mobo for a MythTV system, and as of driver 177.80, I consider it to be junk.

Why not try the 180.16 driver then?

[geoffp]

Thought I'd add my 2c.

I bought an 8200-based mobo for a MythTV system, and as of driver 177.80, I consider it to be junk.

I consider it so for two reasons: first, because the 2d acceleration is so slow I can literally see the GUI draw itself in a nice, old-school top-to-bottom wipe, and second, because using sync to vblank for video drives xorg up to 100% on one CPU core, despite the old "UseEvents" "True" trick, which doesn't help.

I'm not trying to be a hater. Nvidia have earned many of my dollars, but the 8200 is just not working right for me. There are several threads on nvnews.net on these issues.

I'm not sure whether to go get a $30 8400GS, wait and hope they fix their drivers, or jump ship. I don't want more heat in my little case, though, and I do eventually want to use VDPAU, so...I'm probably stuck with waiting.

[matt8]

In my humble opinion and personal experience, I would recommend that you stay away from mobos with the integrated GeForce 8200 chipset

Many thanks for taking the time to post your detailed advice.

Does this laborious process apply also to GeForce 8300 chipsets? Related question: is it the case that the 750a boards with onboard video come with built-in GF8200 video (and the 780a's with GF 8300 likewise)?

It turns out that just minutes before I saw your post, I ordered a re-certified MSI DKA790GX Platinum (790GX, ATX, 128MB sideport, etc) after considering these other boards closely (all nicely loaded):
1. Asus M3A78-T (790GX)
2. GB xyzGPM-DS2H (mATX 780G w/ sideport)
3. Asus M3N78-EM (mATX w/ GF 8300)
4. Jetway HA07-Ultra (790GX currently holding the world record on OCing @ ripping.org)

The MSI unit was too appealing at a good price (because it was a recert) with good looking heat sinks+pipes (I expect that it'll do a good job w/ heat dissipation, perhaps only matched by the Jetway unit among ALL the sub-$150 780G/790GX boards out there). We'll see how it works out. MSI does seem to (based on the reviews at newegg and elsewhere) have the best quality among the top three (Asus, GB, MSI), as their boards seem to be registering the least number of complaints from buyers about unwanted hassles. Does MSI make all of their boards in Taiwan, or do they outsource parts of production/assembly to other countries?

[Pseus]

In my humble opinion and personal experience, I would recommend that you stay away from mobos with the integrated GeForce 8200 chipset (aka MCP78) at this current time of writing because it takes a lot of fiddling to get them working reasonably. And even still, 2D performance takes 100% hit (on a single core).

2D performance is good unless you're playing tons of Flash animations, as Deanjo said.

Disclaimer: I'm running a fairly up-to-date distro, so I don't know how these mobos work on Ubuntu.

[deanjo]

In my humble opinion and personal experience, I would recommend that you stay away from mobos with the integrated GeForce 8200 chipset (aka MCP78) at this current time of writing because it takes a lot of fiddling to get them working reasonably. And even still, 2D performance takes 100% hit (on a single core). To get the sound working without popping and crackling, you need to use the latest Linux kernel (2.6.27.9) alongside the latest ALSA base 1.0.18. In terms of distros, I've found that "out-of-the-box" Ubuntu 8.10 configures the sound properly but the 2D/3D graphic performance is shocking and sometimes unplayable at times, even when viewing a Youtube vid.

Flash nailing 1 core is a known flash-plugin bug.

In fact the whole system is incredibly sluggish. Using Debian Lenny (still in testing at this time) I've found the system to be very responsive and I would recommend it above Ubuntu 8.10. However, it does not work properly "out-of-the-box" either and requires a little more work for your rewards.

A board like the Asus M3N-HD works perfectly out of the box on opensuse 11.0.

Firstly, to configure the sound properly in Lenny you need to update the ALSA base package from the experimental repository to get the ALSA 1.0.18 version. Then, you need to compile a custom kernel 2.6.27.9.

That's all dependent on the dac being used. You do not have to compile a custom kernel either on other distro's. As mentioned boards like the M3N-HD work out of the box in openSUSE which has a 2.6.25 kernel.

In doing this, you must also compile a compatible NVIDA kernel module from the experiment repository source package (nvidia-kernel-source) to match your custom kernel and also install the experimental nvidia-glx package. The version of the experimental NVIDA source package at this time of writing is 177.80-2, so it does not fix the 100% CPU usage problem. But at least the Debian Lenny system is much faster (how Linux should be) and the sound works fine. I hope my verbose answer helps you.

Almost all the above issues stem from your choice of distro. Not with linux nor the chipsets. It's typical for debian to be lagging a bit in supporting new hardware.

[debian_user]

Steer away from NVIDIA IGP 8200 mobos

I was wondering which of the Nvidia GeForce mGPUs and nForce MCPs are now fully supported (i.e. on all of the north/south bridge functions handled by these chipsets, including video and audio) in Linux.

In particular, if one buys a motherboard with one of these IGP chipsets:
A. GeForce 8200 mGPU
B. GeForce 8300 mGPU
C. 750a SLI
how much mileage vs hassle should/could be expected for getting the mobo to work well?

In my humble opinion and personal experience, I would recommend that you stay away from mobos with the integrated GeForce 8200 chipset (aka MCP78) at this current time of writing because it takes a lot of fiddling to get them working reasonably. And even still, 2D performance takes 100% hit (on a single core). To get the sound working without popping and crackling, you need to use the latest Linux kernel (2.6.27.9) alongside the latest ALSA base 1.0.18. In terms of distros, I've found that "out-of-the-box" Ubuntu 8.10 configures the sound properly but the 2D/3D graphic performance is shocking and sometimes unplayable at times, even when viewing a Youtube vid. In fact the whole system is incredibly sluggish. Using Debian Lenny (still in testing at this time) I've found the system to be very responsive and I would recommend it above Ubuntu 8.10. However, it does not work properly "out-of-the-box" either and requires a little more work for your rewards. Firstly, to configure the sound properly in Lenny you need to update the ALSA base package from the experimental repository to get the ALSA 1.0.18 version. Then, you need to compile a custom kernel 2.6.27.9. In doing this, you must also compile a compatible NVIDA kernel module from the experiment repository source package (nvidia-kernel-source) to match your custom kernel and also install the experimental nvidia-glx package. The version of the experimental NVIDA source package at this time of writing is 177.80-2, so it does not fix the 100% CPU usage problem. But at least the Debian Lenny system is much faster (how Linux should be) and the sound works fine. I hope my verbose answer helps you.

[cbsim]

Seems to have problem with the menu in Compiz + Murrine theme.