Nvidia Drivers

nVidia cards on Linux have several driver options that are easily installed, especially on Gentoo. Three major choices are covered here.

nv
The original X.Org driver for nVidia cards has very basic support for 2D operations with minor acceleration. It does not and will not do 3D acceleration of any kind. This driver is essentially a small step up from the VESA driver which has no acceleration at all.

As this driver is rarely used anymore, there is no HOWTO for it.

Supported Cards:

RIVA 128 RIVA TNT RIVA TNT2 GeForce 256 GeForce 2 GeForce 3 nForce nForce 2 GeForce 4 GeForce FX GeForce 6XXX GeForce 7XXX

nouveau
The new Freedesktop.org supported 2D and 3D accelerated driver which was reverse engineered due to lack of documentation from nVidia. It provides incomplete 3D acceleration, however, it works just fine for most tasks such as a full Gnome 3 desktop and video playback. Advanced applications like OpenGL or DirectX gaming through Wine will need a more complete 3D experience since accelerated OpenGL is incomplete.

nouveau includes Kernel Modesetting (KMS), suspend and resume functions, and EXA 2D acceleration.

An installation guide can be found in the nouveau article.

Supported Cards:

RIVA 128 RIVA TNT RIVA TNT2 GeForce 256 GeForce 2 GeForce 3 nForce nForce 2 GeForce 4 GeForce FX GeForce 6XXX GeForce 7XXX GeForce 8XXX GeForce 9XXX GeForce 100 GeForce 200 GeForce 300 GeForce 400 GeForce 500

nvidia
The ages old and most feature complete driver with fully supported 2D and 3D acceleration including OpenGL for gaming and applications. The only drawback to this driver is that it's closed source, so open source elitists best look elsewhere.

This is strictly an X.Org driver. It does not include KMS, so an extra framebuffer such as VESA or uVESA is required. It cannot co-exist with the nvidia or riva framebuffers.

Comes in two flavors: Legacy and current. There are three editions of the legacy driver which support older and older GPUs.

A guide for installation can be found in the nvidia article.

Supported Cards for 71.86.xx:

RIVA TNT RIVA TNT2/TNT2 Pro RIVA TNT2 Ultra Vanta/Vanta LT RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro Aladdin TNT2 GeForce 256 GeForce DDR Quadro GeForce2 GTS/GeForce2 Pro GeForce2 Ti GeForce2 Ultra Quadro2 Pro

Supported Cards for 96.43.xx:

GeForce2 MX/MX 400 GeForce2 MX 100/200 GeForce2 Go Quadro2 MXR/EX/Go GeForce4 MX 460 GeForce4 MX 440 GeForce4 MX 420 GeForce4 MX 440-SE GeForce4 440 Go GeForce4 420 Go GeForce4 420 Go 32M GeForce4 460 Go Quadro4 550 XGL GeForce4 440 Go 64M Quadro NVS Quadro4 500 GoGL GeForce4 410 Go 16M GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X GeForce4 MX 440SE with AGP8X GeForce4 MX 420 with AGP8X GeForce4 MX 4000 Quadro4 580 XGL Quadro NVS 280 SD Quadro4 380 XGL Quadro NVS 50 PCI GeForce2 Integrated GPU GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU GeForce3 GeForce3 Ti 200 GeForce3 Ti 500 Quadro DCC GeForce4 Ti 4600 GeForce4 Ti 4400 GeForce4 Ti 4200 Quadro4 900 XGL Quadro4 750 XGL Quadro4 700 XGL GeForce4 Ti 4800 GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X GeForce4 Ti 4800 SE GeForce4 4200 Go Quadro4 980 XGL Quadro4 780 XGL Quadro4 700 GoGL

Supported Cards for 173.14.xx:

GeForce PCX 5750 GeForce PCX 5900 Quadro FX 330/GeForce PCX 5300 Quadro FX 330/Quadro NVS 280 PCI-E Quadro FX 1300 GeForce FX 5800 Ultra GeForce FX 5800 Quadro FX 2000 Quadro FX 1000 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra GeForce FX 5600 GeForce FX 5600XT GeForce FX Go5600 GeForce FX Go5650 Quadro FX Go700 GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5200 Ultra GeForce FX 5200 GeForce FX 5200LE GeForce FX Go5200 GeForce FX Go5250 GeForce FX 5500 GeForce FX 5100 GeForce FX Go5200 32M/64M Quadro NVS 55/280 PCI Quadro FX 500/FX 600 GeForce FX Go53xx GeForce FX Go5100 GeForce FX 5900 Ultra GeForce FX 5900 GeForce FX 5900XT GeForce FX 5950 Ultra GeForce FX 5900ZT Quadro FX 3000 Quadro FX 700 GeForce FX 5700 Ultra GeForce FX 5700 GeForce FX 5700LE GeForce FX 5700VE GeForce FX Go5700 GeForce FX Go5700 Quadro FX Go1000 Quadro FX 1100

Supported Cards for 200.00.xx (as of 290.10.00) and newer:

GeForce 6 Series GeForce Go 7 Series GeForce 7 Series GeForce 8M Series GeForce 8 Series GeForce 9M Series GeForce 9 Series GeForce 100M Series GeForce 100 Series GeForce 200M Series GeForce 200 Series GeForce 300M Series GeForce 300 Series GeForce 400M Series GeForce 400 Series GeForce 500M Series GeForce 500 Series Quadro Plex Series ION ION LE Quadro Series Tesla C-Class Quadro FX Series Quadro Blade/Embedded Series M-Class Quadro NVS Series Quadro G-Sync G-Sync II