I am a bit confused about how NVIDIA Drivers work generally on Manjaro Linux.
I have an old Geforce GTX 1660 NVIDIA Graphics Card from around 2019. No RTX, so no Raytracing for me. The currently installed NVIDIA Proprietary Driver is 590.48.01. It works without any Problems.
But when i go to the NVIDIA Website and search for Drivers (type in my GPU Model) it shows
As far as I understand this, there have been three new Releases for Linux? For my GPU? You can see it by the date stamp.
I know the GPU Drivers are backwards compatible. I don’t thing that there are important Changes for an GPU from 2019 but as far as I understand that you never now. But i think newer Cards will profit more from it.
So my thoughts are these: These new Drivers will be in the Manjaro Repositories sooner or later, but not now?
Can somebody please explain why there is these delay? I mean, these are proprietary Linux drivers. Why are they not just put in the repos, maybe one day after Release?
Another Thing which confuses the Hell out of me: The numbering of the Drivers. 590.48.01 is a lower number than 580.126.09. As far as I understand there are two Different Branches: Linux Production Branch and Linux New Feature Branch? Which is better? Whats the difference? Which one is Manjaro choosing?
So my Driver is the latest of the New Feature Branch Version?
Thanks for everybody who can explain some of these questions…
you have forgot changes for wayland , that why there is more version
from 470 to 580 it should works with X11
from 570 to 590 it should works with wayland
in case of wayland you have nvidia-open drivers , not confusing with nvidia drivers
Your Geforce GTX 1660 works with the proprietary Nvidia 590xx series driver, and that’s really all you need be concerned with – it is recommended to only install drivers from the official Manjaro repositories – they are essentially the same drivers that Nvidia provide.
The Wiki link kindly provided by @stephane contains information needed to install graphics drivers on Manjaro – Again, if the 590xx series are working without any issue, then there is nothing more you need to do.
With respect drivers listed on the Nvidia site – some of these were released before the current 590xx series but are constantly updated for those who still use them – they will often be updated and will remain available for those who need them until Nvidia designates a driver series as EOL.
About the numbering(which applies to apps in general), the . separates different version number(major, minor, stuff like that) so when wanting to know the latest, you only look at the first one. 590 is bigger than 580 so 590 is the most recent of the 2.
Here, I can only presume the OP means that the 590 driver appears below older ones on the Nvidia site – this means little, in as far as the driver series are concerned.
The most recently released updated driver appears at the top – regardless of whether the update was for 590, 580 or 570 series – if this still confuses you, contact Nvidia for a more indepth explanation.
