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    Linux & Nvidia GTX 260m

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by dhminch, Jun 17, 2009.

  1. dhminch

    dhminch Newbie

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    Hey everyone. I'm looking at buying a Sager NP8662 with a Nvidia GTX 260M graphics card. I was wondering if anyone had experience installing Linux (I'll be using Ubuntu most likely) with this graphics card. I would really like to get this notebook but I don't want to install my Linux distro only to find the OS does not tap the power of the 260M.

    Any suggestions are welcome!
     
    dhminch, Jun 17, 2009
    #1
  2. Dire NTropy

    Dire NTropy Notebook Deity

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    What do you mean by tap the power? Gaming on Linux does not generally yield good results (DX games I mean).

    The GPU will be able to run all of the fancy 3-D effects (compiz, etc) without a problem, but lesser GPU's can do the same.
     
    Dire NTropy, Jun 18, 2009
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  3. dhminch

    dhminch Newbie

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    Sorry "tap the power" was rather vague. What I mean is to be able to run all of the 3D effects well and run older games well. Its not so much that I'm looking at getting 100% of its use with DX games (like I might in Windows), I just want it to work. The most intensive game I play is Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and that plays fine on a much lesser card but it has a proprietary driver.

    For instance, I have a ATI card that is only two years old and it works fine in Ubuntu 8.10 but ATI didn't release a driver for 9.04 so I can't upgrade and get much of anything from the card in the new version of Ubuntu.
     
    dhminch, Jun 18, 2009
    #3
  4. Dire NTropy

    Dire NTropy Notebook Deity

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    I have nah no experience gaming on a Linux machine, but nVidia drivers are easy to install and work well IMO, so if you could get games to work on weaker cards, I would suspect they would run on the GTX 260m
     
    Dire NTropy, Jun 18, 2009
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  5. Ayle

    Ayle Trailblazer

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    You can install the driver manually...
     
    Ayle, Jun 18, 2009
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  6. vagotis

    vagotis Newbie

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    I think the OP was asking if there are Linux/Ubuntu drivers for the GTX 260M yet... Are there?

    I am having trouble finding them and I will be in the same boat as soon as my 8662 gets here.
     
    vagotis, Jun 25, 2009
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  7. Dire NTropy

    Dire NTropy Notebook Deity

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    System --> Administration --> Hardware Devices

    OR

    You can install it the harder way by downloading the driver from nVidia.

    If you want to put yourself through that... (Follow at your own risk, it worked for me)
    -download NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.22-pkg2.run
    -Ctrl-Alt-F1
    -sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop
    -sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4363.run (first cd into directory with this file)
    -sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart
     
    Dire NTropy, Jun 25, 2009
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  8. hustheman

    hustheman Notebook Evangelist

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    y did you get a 260 if ur not going to game heavily ....
     
    hustheman, Jun 25, 2009
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  9. Dire NTropy

    Dire NTropy Notebook Deity

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    -CUDA
    -Using Wine to game :)

    I'm actually going to build a desktop mainly for research purposes (I'm going to make use of GPU programming) and need to get a high end GPU. I may or may not boot Windows for gaming (Wine has come a long way).
     
    Dire NTropy, Jun 25, 2009
    #9