Maximizing performance of NVIDIA GK107GL [Quadro K600]

Hi, I recently aquired a Nvidia Quadro K600 video card and installed the card into my computer (replacing a Nvidia G210). Previously with the Nvidia G210 I was unable to use any driver but the nouveau open source and performance was not very good. Now the following information is displayed:

Thinkcentre-M57p:~> inxi -Gxx
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GK107GL [Quadro K600] driver: nvidia v: 470.223.02
    arch: Kepler pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: none
    off: DVI-I-1 empty: DP-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:0ffa
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.9 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.2
    compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa alternate: nv
    gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 101
  Monitor-1: DVI-I-1 note: disabled model: LG (GoldStar) IPS FULLHD
    res: 1920x1080 dpi: 102 diag: 551mm (21.7")
  API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: device: 0 drv: nvidia device: 2 drv: swrast
    gbm: drv: kms_swrast surfaceless: drv: swrast x11: drv: nvidia
    inactive: wayland,device-1
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 470.223.02
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Quadro K600/PCIe/SSE2
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.268 surfaces: xcb,xlib device: 0 type: discrete-gpu
    driver: nvidia device-ID: 10de:0ffa device: 1 type: cpu
    driver: mesa llvmpipe device-ID: 10005:0000
paul@paul-Thinkcentre-M57p:~> glxgears
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
299 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.672 FPS
301 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.007 FPS
301 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.001 FPS
Thinkcentre-M57p:~> zypper search -i | grep 'nvidia'
i  | kernel-firmware-nvidia                     | Kernel firmware files for Nvidia Tegra and graphics drivers                        | package
i  | libnvidia-egl-wayland1                     | The EGLStream-based Wayland external platform                                      | package
i  | nvidia-computeG05                          | NVIDIA driver for computing with GPGPU                                             | package
i  | nvidia-computeG05-32bit                    | 32bit NVIDIA driver for computing with GPGPU                                       | package
i+ | nvidia-gfxG05-kmp-default                  | NVIDIA graphics driver kernel module for GeForce 600 series and newer              | package
i  | nvidia-glG05                               | NVIDIA OpenGL libraries for OpenGL acceleration                                    | package
i  | nvidia-glG05-32bit                         | 32bit NVIDIA OpenGL libraries for OpenGL acceleration                              | package
i  | x11-video-nvidiaG05                        | NVIDIA graphics driver for GeForce 600 series and newer                            | package
i  | x11-video-nvidiaG05-32bit                  | 32bit NVIDIA graphics driver for GeForce 600 series and newer                      | package
Thinkcentre-M57p:~>

It is glG05 package so will support soon end? How can I enhance this video performance at all? Are you aware of anything missing in this video card installation? Is more information required?

Thanks

Your K600 card is already 10 years old and upstream support ended Jan 2023. That means the driver series 470 is already legacy and needs patching to be compatible with actual kernels. The driver will be no longer patchable in the near futureā€¦the same happened with the 390 driver series around end of 2023. The 390 series can no longer be used with actual kernels (to much effort to patch for a diminishing amount of hardware older than 10 yearsā€¦).

There is nothing to enhance.

You are using the proprietary driver and all needed packages are installed.

@panorain You could try the G06 as your PCI ID is still showing up in https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/545.29.06/README/supportedchips.html I have a K620 here which still shows as supported in both this list and the Nvidia downloadā€¦

My question for you is if I should create a backup before attempting the above? I am able to clone the drive here to another drive and then test the backup before proceeding. Also could I ask you about more explanation about ā€œPCI IDā€?

Thanks

@panorain thatā€™s your call, do what ever you normally doā€¦

From the output of the inxi command (or lspci) you see the vendor id 10de (which is nvidia) and the second which is 0ffa for your card id.

Below are the legacy GPUs that are no longer supported in the unified driver. These GPUs will continue to be maintained through the special legacy NVIDIA GPU driver releases.

The 470.xx driver supports the following set of GPUs:

Quadro K600 0FFA D

This looks promising and I do have another question for you if I may? I am having some difficulty finding information on the NVIDIA website because I honestly have never owned a Quadro video card previously.

  1. What is this card called on NVIDIA website (is it GeForce?) and how did you locate this on the NVIDIA website ā€˜linkā€™?

  2. How should I translate 470.xx driver support to to G06 for my mind to see more clearly (link 470.xx to G06?

  3. Is it best practice to remove all NVIDIA G05 and powercycling before proceeding to attempt G06 installation?

Thanks

@panorain Quadro are the ā€˜Professionalā€™ line of GPUā€™s and have better/longer support than Consumer (GeForce types) gpus.

Look at the Supported Products tab here: https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/216530/en-us/
Much more information under the actual driver here https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/ in the respective README.

Itā€™s good to hear back from you. At a first glance >

Linux x64 (AMD64/EM64T) Display Driver

Version: 545.29.06


Release Date: 2023.11.22
Operating System: Linux 64-bit
Language: English (US)
File Size: 309.67 MB

This indeed does look very promising. I will have a deeper look now. Thank you for the clarity of the links you have suggested also.

I see not Quadro k660 but yes k620
Quadro Series:

Quadro GV100, Quadro GP100, Quadro P6000, Quadro P5200, Quadro P5000, Quadro P4000, Quadro P2200, Quadro P2000, Quadro P1000, Quadro P620, Quadro P600, Quadro P400, Quadro M6000 24GB, Quadro M6000, Quadro M5000, Quadro M4000, Quadro M2000, Quadro K2200, Quadro K1200, Quadro K620

So it is uncertain you think about the Quadro k600 or give it a try with proper backup? My question is what would you do?
-Regards

@panorain Yes, but if you look at the README file with supported products, the K600 is still listed, so it may be worth a shot at trying the latest driver.

My Nvidia Tesla P4 [10de:1bb3] is not listed in either documents, but is still supported;

 nvidia-smi 
Sun Jan  7 22:22:40 2024       
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 545.29.06              Driver Version: 545.29.06    CUDA Version: 12.3     |
|-----------------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name                 Persistence-M | Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp   Perf          Pwr:Usage/Cap |         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                                         |                      |               MIG M. |
|=========================================+======================+======================|
|   0  Tesla P4                       On  | 00000000:03:00.0 Off |                    0 |
| N/A   42C    P8               7W /  75W |     46MiB /  7680MiB |      0%      Default |
|                                         |                      |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
|   1  NVIDIA T400                    On  | 00000000:04:00.0  On |                  N/A |
| 38%   41C    P8              N/A /  31W |    817MiB /  2048MiB |     14%      Default |
|                                         |                      |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

Nvidia Quadro is intended for professional use - CAD/CAM/CAE.
Nvidia GPU is a bad choice for TW. Use ATI/AMD instead, or Intel Arc.

@Svyatko Please stop this anti Nvidia retoric. If you have no value to add, then suggest you stay silent.

4 Likes

Hi, I was able to implement my backup solution and then sortof start from base again so to say. Previously after installing the G06 NVIDIA drivers using YaST Software Manager. I powercycled the machine and logged back into KDE without incident. Well, in my mind there was an issue and it is as follows: While machine loading through the verbose grub2 (current bootloader options are as follows: resume=/dev/system/swap nosimplefb=1 plymouth.enable=0 . I see the message lines not all the way at left edge of the monitor (smaller display in about an inch all around). Note, I am currently working on getting a photo image of this. Then I say to myself the following: Oh G06 caused all this now. Then after implementing my backup solution to my almost shock was the backup during grub2 verbose load is exactly the same (not displaying the full monitor size). So now I am wondering again to install the G06 out of YaST Software Manager.

Current nvidia-smi top output (for referencing):

paul@paul-Thinkcentre-M57p:/etc/sane.d> nvidia-smi
Mon Jan  8 12:04:06 2024       
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 470.223.02   Driver Version: 470.223.02   CUDA Version: 11.4     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name        Persistence-M| Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp  Perf  Pwr:Usage/Cap|         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                               |                      |               MIG M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
|   0  Quadro K600         Off  | 00000000:01:00.0  On |                  N/A |
| 26%   51C    P8    N/A /  N/A |    644MiB /   974MiB |      1%      Default |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
  1. Could I get your insight on this by chance?

-Best Wishes

@panorain I just setup a test system here with the Quadro K620ā€¦

System:
  Kernel: 6.6.9-1-default arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.1
    Desktop: GNOME v: 45.2 tk: GTK v: 3.24.39 wm: gnome-shell dm: GDM
    Distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20240107
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GM107GL [Quadro K620] vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: nvidia v: 545.29.06 arch: Maxwell pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16
    ports: active: none off: DP-1 empty: DVI-I-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0
    chip-ID: 10de:13bb
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.9 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.2
    compositor: gnome-shell driver: gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: DP-1 model: AAA res: 1920x1080 dpi: 85 diag: 660mm (25.96")
  API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: device: 0 drv: nvidia device: 2 drv: swrast
    gbm: drv: nvidia surfaceless: drv: nvidia wayland: drv: nvidia x11:
    drv: swrast inactive: device-1
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 545.29.06
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Quadro K620/PCIe/SSE2
    display-ID: :0.0

I just disabled the onboard Intel and also just used the Nvidia repo rpmsā€¦

@panorain I see;

 nvidia-smi 
Mon Jan  8 12:06:11 2024       
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 545.29.06              Driver Version: 545.29.06    CUDA Version: 12.3     |
|-----------------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name                 Persistence-M | Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp   Perf          Pwr:Usage/Cap |         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                                         |                      |               MIG M. |
|=========================================+======================+======================|
|   0  Quadro K620                    Off | 00000000:01:00.0  On |                  N/A |
| 34%   35C    P8               1W /  30W |    140MiB /  2048MiB |      0%      Default |
|                                         |                      |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
                                                                                         

I am thinking of using YaST2 Software Manager to try again which seemed fine before. Can I get your insight into if this will extend the video cards supported lifecycle?

-Thanks

@panorain I just used zypper in nvidia-drivers-G06 which should remove your old packages and install all stuff neededā€¦

I am proceeding now. I will notify.

paul@paul-Thinkcentre-M57p:~> sudo zypper in nvidia-drivers-G06
[sudo] password for root: 
Refreshing service 'NVIDIA'.
Refreshing service 'openSUSE'.
Retrieving repository 'Games' metadata .............................................................................................................[done]
Building repository 'Games' cache ..................................................................................................................[done]
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
Resolving package dependencies...

Problem: the to be installed nvidia-drivers-G06-545.29.06-18.1.x86_64 requires 'nvidia-compute-G06', but this requirement cannot be provided
  not installable providers: nvidia-compute-G06-545.29.06-18.1.x86_64[NVIDIA:repo-non-free]
 Solution 1: Following actions will be done:
  deinstallation of nvidia-computeG05-470.223.02-59.1.x86_64
  deinstallation of nvidia-glG05-470.223.02-59.1.x86_64
  deinstallation of x11-video-nvidiaG05-470.223.02-59.1.x86_64
  deinstallation of nvidia-computeG05-32bit-470.223.02-59.1.x86_64
  deinstallation of nvidia-glG05-32bit-470.223.02-59.1.x86_64
  deinstallation of x11-video-nvidiaG05-32bit-470.223.02-59.1.x86_64
  deinstallation of nvidia-gfxG05-kmp-default-470.223.02_k6.6.2_1-59.12.x86_64
 Solution 2: do not install nvidia-drivers-G06-545.29.06-18.1.x86_64
 Solution 3: break nvidia-drivers-G06-545.29.06-18.1.x86_64 by ignoring some of its dependencies

Choose from above solutions by number or cancel [1/2/3/c/d/?] (c):

How should I proceed?

Thanks

@panorain Solution 1 to remove the old G05 driver.

The installation finished then I powercycled. I logged into KDE and there is approximately a 1 inch black surround the exterior of the viewable display on the monitor now.

paul@paul-Thinkcentre-M57p:~> inxi -Gxx
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GK107GL [Quadro K600] driver: N/A arch: Kepler pcie:
speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:0ffa
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.9 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.2
compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nouveau,nvidia,vesa
unloaded: fbdev alternate: nv gpu: N/A display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96
Monitor-1: Unknown-1 mapped: None-1 res: 1920x1080 size: N/A
API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: device: 0 drv: swrast gbm: drv: kms_swrast
surfaceless: drv: swrast x11: drv: swrast inactive: wayland
API: OpenGL v: 4.5 vendor: mesa v: 23.2.1 glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes
renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 17.0.6 128 bits) device-ID: ffffffff:ffffffff
API: Vulkan v: 1.3.268 surfaces: xcb,xlib device: 0 type: cpu
driver: mesa llvmpipe device-ID: 10005:0000
paul@paul-Thinkcentre-M57p:~>

paul@paul-Thinkcentre-M57p:~> nvidia-smi
NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldnā€™t communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running.

paul@paul-Thinkcentre-M57p:~>

paul@paul-Thinkcentre-M57p:~> glxgears
4065 frames in 5.0 seconds = 812.895 FPS
3789 frames in 5.0 seconds = 757.725 FPS
3698 frames in 5.0 seconds = 738.943 FPS
2485 frames in 5.0 seconds = 496.955 FPS
1754 frames in 5.0 seconds = 350.733 FPS
2905 frames in 5.0 seconds = 580.356 FPS
1643 frames in 5.0 seconds = 328.302 FPS
1137 frames in 5.0 seconds = 227.390 FPS
2215 frames in 5.0 seconds = 442.996 FPS
2867 frames in 5.0 seconds = 573.319 FPS
2165 frames in 5.0 seconds = 432.944 FPS
3660 frames in 5.0 seconds = 731.980 FPS

I can somewhat hear an audible sound coming from the Quadros fan like itā€™s going fast and slower or whatnot which was not like this before so (speratic like). the noise when card would have to work sounded like a little quicker hum then right back or whatnot.

Looks like a failure. Are there some things I can keep doing for testing purposes here?

Thanks

Things didnā€™t work out so great so I passed:

zypper --verbose rm nvidia-drivers-G06

Now, my question for you is if this is all that is necessary to revert back to G05? Are there other packages that should be removed as well?

Thanks