Which distro to install for my PC?

[breand123]

Hi everyone, I'm looking for a Linux distro to get the most out of my PC
I've already tried Ubuntu, Manjaro, and Fedora, but every time I tried to install the proprietary Nvidia drivers, I got errors: the screen would zoom or everything would get messed up. I also tried Pop!_OS, but the same thing happened.

My system:
Processor: Intel Core i3-3220 @ 3.30GHz

RAM: 12 GB

GPU: Nvidia GT 610

Disk: 1 TB SSD

I'm studying Computer Science, so I'm looking to use it for programming, gaming, etc.

If you know of any distros that work well with this graphics card or know how to resolve the driver issue without breaking everything, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!

 

[theLegionWithin]

have you tried the nvidia-open drivers instead of the proprietary drivers?

 

[CaffeineAddict]

every time I tried to install the proprietary Nvidia drivers, I got errors: the screen would zoom or everything would get messed up.

I use proprietary NVidia driver on Debian and it works fine but with backported kernel. (which can be installed from backports channel)

GPU: Nvidia GT 610

That's an old GPU, and is not listed here https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/details/242273/

Therefore it's likely not supported any more.

 

[Brickwizard]

the 610 was an entry level GPU and was constructed using different chipsets [depending on availability at the time]

some will work with the Kernel drivers, others will not, currently I cannot access any legacy drivers for this GPU

 

[lomszz]

I asked this with AI, i'm not sure if it will work but you could try it on ubuntu based.

 

[f33dm3bits]

I'm studying Computer Science, so I'm looking to use it for programming, gaming, etc.
GPU: Nvidia GT 610

Therefore it's likely not supported any more.

And if you want to game it's better to use a supported gpu, the gpu you have is from around 2012. It's 10+ years old so pretty useless to play any recent game unless you are wanting to play games from around that time or earlier.

 

[APTI]

I have no issues with nvidia on fedora. Out of the box.

 

[KGIII]

so pretty useless to play any recent game

It used to be that buying the latest and greatest graphics card would mean you can play top-shelf games for the next five or so years. These days, they're making games that won't play on their highest levels unless you have a very expensive graphics card.

Ah well...

I do think that gaming has been a motivator for OEMs to make faster hardware.

 

[maceion]

Many machines just use Intel Integrated Graphics, suitable for many general uses, but perhaps not for specialised games.

 

[kc1di]

I would give MX a try see if it works. They have an extensive Nvivia driver range.

 

[MikeWalsh]

@breand123 :-

Like the guys said, you ain't gonna get much in the way of gaming done with a 610...

A lot of your specs are pretty similar to mine, actually. I'm on an HP Pavilion desktop rig ATM:-

• Intel Pentium G5400 'Gold' @ 3.70 GHz
• 32 GB DDR4
• 1 TB Crucial MX500 SSD, annnd.....
• .....an Asus GeForce GT 710 w/ 2 GB GDDR5.

(As detailed in my signature, below)​

Your GPU and mine are both Kepler-based (my variant only has 192 of the CUDA cores enabled, yours has the full 384 active (but you're stuck with DDR3)). 64-bit support for these evaporated between the 470- and 480-series drivers, a couple of years back now. 32-bit support went out the window even further back, around the 390-series.

If you want the 'official' driver for that card, it WILL be out-of-date. That's a given. This may not bother you - it doesn't me! - but most members here will refuse to run anything other than bang up-to-date everything, citing security issues. Which, to be fair, IS the way you're supposed to do things...

If we were obedient little geeks, we'd dutifully run straight to our nearest tech outlet and slap down a wad of cash for a newer GPU.....just so we COULD run the most up-to-date drivers. But I'm summat of an 'oddball'.....and I rarely do what I'm told to do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

I run 'Puppy' Linux 95% of the time (occasionally ChromeOS Flex or the BeOS-based HaikuOS, though these two don't even pretend to offer 'official' drivers). Some of my Pups run the official driver, some just chug along with the in-kernel 'nouveau' driver. My usage is not demanding - I'm no 'gamer' - at most I spend the odd half-hour with one of a dozen or so indie games if I get bored.

Puppy doesn't offer drivers from its repositories. Rather, we use a home-grown utility from one of our small band of Japanese members which directly compiles & installs the official .run files in-situ, on-the-fly.

It works well.

I'm not suggesting you use 'Puppy', though. She's known for being 'peculiar' even by Linux standards.....and I don't think it's fair to wish that on a beginner.



Mike.

 

[KGIII]

- but most members here will refuse to run anything other than bang up-to-date everything, citing security issues.

I'm not sure that that's accurate. Many of us use old hardware. I have one system from way back in 2017.

I wouldn't worry too much about graphics card drivers from a security point of view. It's a wide and varied target. I would use the open source drivers, however.

 

[MikeWalsh]

I'm not sure that that's accurate. Many of us use old hardware. I have one system from way back in 2017.

I wouldn't worry too much about graphics card drivers from a security point of view. It's a wide and varied target. I would use the open source drivers, however.

@KGIII :-

Actually, I should talk. This HP Pavilion is the first NEW computing hardware I've ever treated myself to. Prior to that, all my hardware was 15+ yrs old hand-me downs.....with the exception of the anciente Inspiron, but that was pretty rubbish when we bought it in 2002 through lack of knowledge.

I may have used computers for almost 40 years, but for most of that time I had no concept of the financial OR technical aspects involved, since I was always using other people's machines.

The old Compaq tower I inherited from my sister lasted so long, and ran so well, that upgrading never entered my head.....until it finally croaked at the start of COVID. I bought the GT 710 shortly after that because in all those years, I'd never had a discrete GPU before & wanted to tick it off my bucket list.

It wasn't until after I'd bought the Pavilion that I realized the weird, proprietary low-output slimline PSU was NOT upgradeable. Hence the GT 710, due to its low power requirement via the slot itself.

Unlike some people who post in computer fora online - not just here - I've never been able to throw the kind of "disposable income" at this stuff that some folks take for granted. My priorities have always been more mundane, I'm afraid; a roof over my head, food in my belly and clothes on my back. This stuff has always come firmly in the "hobby" category; nice to have, and to play with - and increasingly necessary, it turns out! - yet in no way NEEDING insane amounts of cash thrown at it.

But of course, there's always those who enjoy "bragging rights", aren't there? They exist in every walk of life.....

(sigh...)

Ah, hell. Take no notice of me. I just get "maudlin" sometimes..!


Mike.

 

[theLegionWithin]

Unlike some people who post in computer fora online - not just here - I've never been able to throw the kind of "disposable income" at this stuff that some folks take for granted.

same, i try to be as frugal as I can... however, I need a moderately decent daily driver - it's my edutainment center, my communication portal, etc. I typically upgrade/replace it once every 5 years (7 the last time around) - assuming this most recent pc lasts as long as my previous computer did (and I expect it will, as there's fewer individual components/fewer points of failure), it comes out to $0.24/day... basically nothing. averaging in the total cost of the electricity to run it for those 7 years only adds another 5 cents per day (and I expect I will be entirely offgrid in 2 years, so cost drops there as well).

 

[KGIII]

But of course, there's always those who enjoy "bragging rights", aren't there?

While I've had new computers, that's starting to change. I also haven't had a 'bragging rights' computer for a long time. For example, I've relied on onboard graphics instead of a stupidly expensive graphics card.

It's actually because of that 2017 computer that things are changing (for me, obviously). That computer is still perfectly usable today, for the things I do. I have some upgraded hardware for it but I haven't put that in yet.

There was a time when I legitimately benefited greatly from riding the constant upgrade train. Those days are behind me.

I do need to get over it and buy a pricey PC with Windows on it. I want a full-on racing sim and they all come with Windows. I don't want the overhead of doing it in Wine or in a VM.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

I do need to get over it and buy a pricey PC with Windows on it. I want a full-on racing sim and they all come with Windows. I don't want the overhead of doing it in Wine or in a VM.

Your recent comments about MSFT and Windows are worrying, I feel MSFT mages took your soul over lol

What overhead? there is barely any overhead with wine or proton.

 

[KGIII]

I feel MSFT mages took your soul over lol

Nah, I've been consistent in this matter. I really don't want to use Windows, but I want to play some racing sims with as little overhead as possible. I've found the company I like and want the full sim experience, complete with VR as an option but with three monitors mounted on said sim. I like that it comes on a truck and they come in to assemble it. They should be able to drive the forklift right straight into the basement. But, the whole thing runs on Windows.

While I don't hate MSFT, I really don't want to use Windows. But, I don't want any additional overhead and I don't want to deal with hardware that doesn't have great drivers for Linux. But, yeah... I really don't want to use Windows. I just see it as a logical solution.

 

[MikeWalsh]

@KGIII :-

I used on-board graphics for most of my computing 'career'. By & large, they were fine. But when the old Compaq desktop rig croaked in January 2020, all I was left with was - at that point in time - the ancient, 32-bit P4-powered Inspiron lappie.....and that really no longer 'cut it' as a daily driver. Watching paint dry was more productive; the P4 ran bloody fast, and produced a ton of heat.....but didn't do much of anything else (and what it DID do, it did veeery slowly)!

So I splashed out on the Pavilion......my first 'new' rig for many years. I've always preferred desktop rigs, 'cos they're just so much easier to work on. But I must have had an 'off' day when I bought it; I obviously hadn't done my homework properly, else I'd have found out about that low-power, slimline, non-upgradeable PSU....

(Heigh-ho....)

Within hours of powering it on, I discovered there was a permanent, diagonal, on-screen 'tear' from the on-die Intel GPU! So; since I had to watch the power consumption quite closely, I did my research and ended-up with the GT 710 as a more-or-less drop-in replacement; 19W TDP through the slot, AND I managed to snag a discounted brand-new one for around GBP £35 (before GPU prices went stupid later that year with the crypto craze).

It fixed the diagonal 'tear', so.....there must have been summat not quite right with the onboard UHD 610. Either that, or it was dodgy Intel GPU drivers. Still, it does what I want, and - to date - has been totally trouble-free.

(shrug...)

It'll do me for a while yet.


Mike.

 

[KGIII]

the GT 710

I plan on upgrading my refurb (while still sticking to a budget) just because it's a fun project and the GT 710 is on my 'potential list'. It should be adequate to at least get the computer into the PS4 range as far as emulation goes. If we exclude the monitor, I'l still be into it for less than $200 US. I could even recoup some of my expenses by selling the 4 x 4 GB RAM that came with it, though that's way more effort than I'm willing to put into it.

But, the cheap PC thing has really been a fun project. They started making the model in 2015 but a QC sticker inside said it went through in 2017. But, it's perfectly usable for what I do. I would not have expected it to be as good as it is, even though I owned similar in period. It runs just fine, even without upgrading the hardware. I'm kind of curious how long I can keep it running as my 'retro game emulation' system.

 

[Asif1234]

looking for a new monitor for my ps4. its cheap and available in my country now. https://bmdubaitech.com.bd/uniview-mw-lc22is2-22-inch-fhd-display-hdmi-vga-monitor i was inquiring about free sync caz if it is supported then i can test free sync on my pc.. thats it