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I'm so curious to try out the new Nvidia proprietary driver 367.18, because it supports the Vulkan API in the Steam game Dota 2. But I'm wondering if it's worth it, i.e. whether it's stable. I don't want to get things like black screens, flickering, glitches or worse. In that case I'd rather stay with the current graphics driver I'm on (340.96).

Does anybody have any experience with this, or know where I can go to find this kind of feedback?

Is it generally okay to use new Nvidia graphics drivers if you're concerned with stability?

Thank you.

System specifications: Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS Linux Kernel Version 3.13.0-86-generic Asus M4A78LT-M LE Motherboard AMD Athlon II X4 645, 3.10 GHz Mushkin 8GB PC3 Blackline RAM (2 x 4GB) 500GB Western Digital Hard Disk Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti Nvidia Driver Version 340.96

sunnybubblegum
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If you want stability and what you have now works fine for you, don't upgrade. There's always a risk.

If you need the new features it provides, then go ahead and upgrade, but only once you actually need the features.

For me, the newest drivers tend to work well, but that's just my experience. Every single card (even model vs. same model) is different. Everyone has a slightly different experience. It could work amazingly for you and terribly for anther person with the same GPU.

I believe 367 is a beta, so it's not technically stable. However, like I said earlier, it could work perfectly for you. It could also be a disaster, however.

The best way to find out which it will be is to just do the upgrade. Of course, we could make predictions based on your hardware, but those predictions would be highly based on opinion and therefore off-topic on this site.

If the newest drivers do end up being unstable, it's almost always possible to just go into a TTY and reverse the upgrade. That, however, is a different topic, and one that has already been covered multiple times here and on various forums and Q&A sites. If you run into problems, comment, and I can link you to some topics that may help you out.

TheWanderer
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  • Thank you for your comprehensive answer. I'll consider which is more important to me, and ask for your help on here if I need it. – sunnybubblegum Jun 02 '16 at 01:46
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Yes, the new Nvidia proprietary driver should work well on your PC. Nvidia drivers have a much better reputation in Ubuntu than it's rival, AMD. From my experience, every time I have upgraded a Nvidia proprietary driver on Ubuntu, I have not encountered a SINGLE problem. So..... You should be good to go!

Good luck!

  • NVIDIA actually doesn't have a good reputation with Ubuntu and stability. Take a look at the questions on this site if you don't believe me. AMD has a bad rep, but that's because of lack of support, not instability. If you're lucky enough to have a graphics driver for your AMD card, it's usually pretty stable. NVIDIA supports a lot of its older cards, but the drivers aren't very stable at all. You just got lucky. – TheWanderer Jun 02 '16 at 01:27
  • Nvidia actually has a better rep than AMD though. I just edited my answer. Also, you wouldn't believe how unstable my PCs become when I install AMD graphics drivers. The Radeon series especially. –  Jun 02 '16 at 01:30
  • Well yes, but that's because you have NVIDIA :p (I joke). – TheWanderer Jun 02 '16 at 01:33
  • I also have had really bad experiences with AMD in the past. –  Jun 02 '16 at 01:33
  • I've never had bad experiences aside from incompatibility, which just goes to further support my point of personal experience. – TheWanderer Jun 02 '16 at 01:35
  • Incompatibility and unstability have really made me steer away from AMD drivers. –  Jun 02 '16 at 01:36
  • Thank you for your response, TheChosenOne99. I'll consider it. – sunnybubblegum Jun 02 '16 at 01:45