[CALUG] Looking for advice

Wed Feb 13 09:48:39 EST 2019

Fantastic discussion - i learnt a few new things. I have always played it
safe since I switched over to linux back in 2001 for my main desktop.
Always went with Intel CPUs. I am not gamer, so did not need Nvidia or any
external video cards. Now a days, my son plays on the computer and I have
Nvdia card. In the last 7 to 8 years, I have not had an issue with Nvidia
drivers. The OS prompts me if I want to use Nvidia drivers or Open source
drivers and I go on.

I have noticed on one of my laptops (toshiba - 4k touch screen) it has some
kind of a hybrid nvidia/intel graphics card or chip (intel 530, nvdia
gm107m/gtx 950m). The OS (deepin linux) prompted me multiple options (a)
intel default (poor compatibility), (b) open source driver (poor
performance), (c) Bumblebee solution (save power to reduce power
consumption) & (d) NV-Prime Solution (for laptops with hybrid graphics).

I chose (c) and it has been working well, at least with the steam games my
son and I play.

A note of OS - I have gone down a different path from Ubuntu or Fedora or
even Linux Mint - I switched over to Deepin Linux. It has worked with all
kinds of hardware I have thrown at it - right from Core 2 Duo to i7 4th
gen. Sadly though, they no longer support 32-bit hardware, so my core 2 duo
is stuck on an older version of Deepin Linux.

Good discussion, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I will try to make it in
today.

-Rajiv

On Wed, Feb 13, 2019 at 8:19 AM Ainsley <ainsley.gibson at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks for the info.
>
> On Wed, Feb 13, 2019 at 12:09 AM Tim Spangler <tspang at jefnet.com> wrote:
>
>> Out of box Fedora 29 Desktop handles the nvidia cards with the nouveau
>> driver, and I can confirm it works fine with a single monitor at 2560x1600
>> resolution (Dell 3011) on install.  I have half a dozen different monitors
>> here at the house, so I can certainly try having a 3 monitor setup, but
>> given the ease of setup with one monitor, I don’t expect a problem just for
>> desktop use.
>>
>>
>>
>> Using 3d acceleration (like playing games) or PCIE Passthrough is a
>> different story, but that doesn’t seem to be part of the original
>> requirement.
>>
>>
>>
>> -Tim
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* Bryan Smith [mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org]
>> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 12, 2019 11:20 PM
>> *To:* Tim Spangler <tspang at jefnet.com>
>> *Cc:* Ainsley <ainsley.gibson at gmail.com>; Wes Westhaver <
>> wes at westhaver.com>; calug at unknownlamer.org
>> *Subject:* Re: [CALUG] Looking for advice
>>
>>
>>
>> If one is not using the AMD GPU functionality, then it doesn't matter.
>> x86-64 is x86-64, AMD invented it, and it just runs the OS like any x86-64
>> would.
>>
>>
>>
>> The GPUs in this case are 100% nVidia, 0% AMD.
>>
>>
>>
>> Now trying to support nVidia without their proprietary kernel module is a
>> serious PITA. There are serious limitations, and forget various vector
>> processing options.
>>
>>
>>
>> Just how nVidia is playing the game.
>>
>>
>>
>> - bjs
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 12, 2019, 16:10 Tim Spangler <tspang at jefnet.com wrote:
>>
>> Hi Ainsley,
>>
>> I have a Ryzen 2700X sitting here with 2 Nvidia cards running on Fedora
>> 29 without a problem, so I don't think there will be significant problems
>> for using a NVidia card for basic display output.
>>
>> That said, trying to blacklist one of them and using PCI Express Pass
>> through to have direct access from a KVM VM is proving to quite be
>> challenging.
>>
>> -Tim
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: CALUG [mailto:calug-bounces at unknownlamer.org] On Behalf Of Ainsley
>> Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2019 4:42 PM
>> To: Wes Westhaver <wes at westhaver.com>
>> Cc: calug at unknownlamer.org
>> Subject: Re: [CALUG] Looking for advice
>>
>> Hi Wes,
>>
>> The latest Linux kernel has builtin support for the AMD GPUs without any
>> special firmware downloads. I’m not sure if Nvidia silk requires that you
>> download drivers from their site. I know historically they did not play
>> well with Linux?
>>
>> Several of the more modern GPUs will support 2, 3 or 4 monitors.
>>
>>
>> Ainsley
>> \\////
>> @@
>>   >
>> ##
>>
>> > On Feb 12, 2019, at 13:45, Wes Westhaver <wes at westhaver.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > Hello,
>> >
>> > I would like to purchase a desktop computer, install Linux (Ubuntu or
>> > Mint?), and attach two (possibly three) monitors to it. Can anyone
>> > here provide guidance on what desktop systems and video cards are well
>> > supported by Linux?
>> >
>> > I'm probably going to purchase some refurbished equipment from
>> > PCLiquidations (https://www.pcliquidations.com/) since I'm on a tight
>> > budget.
>> >
>> > Until now, I've only had experience with using Linux as a server
>> > (mostly headless). But I want to get away from MS-Windows and go
>> completely Linux.
>> > Any advice would be very much appreciated.
>> >
>> > -Wes
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > CALUG mailing list
>> > CALUG at unknownlamer.org
>> > http://lists.unknownlamer.org/listinfo/calug
>>
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>>
>
> --
> Ainsley
>
>
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