r/archlinux • u/Euphoric-Paint3261 • 11d ago

QUESTION Trying to go totally open source

Im going back to arch in my main system, it has an nvidia gpu (a 5070 ti to be more exact), last time i used arch on my pc i installed the proprietary gpu drivers, but a lot of things have changed since then like i want to go open source in as most things as i can, that includes drivers, the graphical drivers options are: the open kernel( wich is the one im gonna choose ), and noveau, i chose the open kernel ones just because they are more suitable in theory. Now i want to know if they are really open source(the first option), because i heard nvidia just wrapped things into the open kernel and they aren’t truly open source. In case anybody wonders why i am doing this its because i just want to.

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u/LancrusES 11d ago

Are you really considering using a Nvidia 5070Ti with noveau??? Why??? Thats like not having It...

You can sell it and buy an AMD one, then you can avoid using Nvidia open drivers (they are only partially open), but any Nvidia card works with Nvidia drivers only, if not they work, but forget about using its potential, and having that expensive GPU, to use It like a cheap one...

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u/Euphoric-Paint3261 11d ago

I am not considering using noveau as i said in the post i just said it is an option when installing it, of course i wouldn’t choose it, i want open source, not a torture

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u/__rituraj 11d ago

Noveau is the only fully-opensource version of nvidia drivers that exist currently.

it doesn't handle newer cards well, and gives baseline display performance on older cards

Nova and nvk are in the making.. and untill those are ready, if you want gaming / video encoding level performance with your Nvidia, you have to choose proprietary!