I bit the bullet and bought a video card tonight. I’m hoping to accelerate my overall performance and match my system’s processor and RAM. This card might be a bit overkill, but it’s all they had really left. It seems the PCI (versus PCI-Express) versions are becoming increasingly scarce. I think I got a good deal on it at 47 dollars after a rebate. Anyhow, I still consider myself a newbie end-user in the Linux world so any advice here will be appreciated. I’ll try and document any and all issues worth mentioning here in hopes it helps somebody else in the future. Let the games begin!
My current system info----------> openSUSE 12.1
Dell Dimension 2400 series
Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.20GHz
Intel Graphics 845G
MemTotal: 2061820 kB
I assume the first step is to install the nvida repositories correct? I already have 2 concerns before I start…
My BIOS allows me to switch the onboard graphics controller from “auto” to “on”. There is no “off”. Will auto be okay?
Being such an old mobo, will there be a conflict in bus speeds? Does that even make sense lol.
Okay, now here’s something weird (to me). I notice in the installed software list via YaST that “xorg-x11-driver-video-nouveau -” is installed. So I think, maybe it’s safe to put the card in now… I do and it works. Well, I have a display. It’s about the same as my integrated on-board stuff performance wise. The graphics look cleaner, but performance seems the same. So I type a “lspci” in the terminal and it spits out my on-board graphics specs. What?? Hmm… Here’s where my newbism is shining. Anyhow, I figure I still need to install the specific nvidia drivers for my card. Off I go… I think I’ll use the One Click method to acquire them. Or should I use the Zotac drivers?
Anybody here??
EDIT:
lspci -v is better… The important bit is------------------>
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GF108 [GeForce GT 430] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: ZOTAC International (MCO) Ltd. Device 2200
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at fd000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16]
Memory at 80000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=128]
Memory at 88000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32]
I/O ports at df00 [size=128]
Expansion ROM at fe800000 [disabled] [size=512]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [68] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [78] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [b4] Vendor Specific Information: Len=14 <?>
Kernel driver in use: nouveau
Exactly. Wow. I keep getting impressed by openSUSE. I followed the nVidia site’s recommendation and did just that. Installed the “x11-video-nvidiaG02 - NVIDIA graphics driver for GeForce 6xxx and newer GPUs” , reboot and all is right with the world. What a happy day this is! Woohoo! openSUSE 12.1 all the way!!!