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The new NVIDIA 396.18 beta is officially out and it's one of the more interesting driver releases from NVIDIA.

The biggest thing included in the driver, is the brand new Vulkan SPIR-V compiler. NVIDIA say this will help to reduce shader compilation time and shader system memory consumption. Their older compiler will be removed in a future driver version, but if you have issues with the new one which is on by default, you can use the "__GL_NextGenCompiler=" (0 or 1) environment variable to disable it.

They also note some Vulkan performance improvements for these parts of the Vulkan API: vkAllocateMemory(), vkBindBufferMemory() and vkBindImageMemory().

On top of that, they added support for the Quadro GV100, Quadro P3200 and Quadro P4200 plus bug fixes and other features. Find the driver here.

I've already spoken to the folks behind the NVIDIA PPA for Ubuntu users, they told me they will look into it soon.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Drivers, Hardware
11 Likes
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tuubi Apr 11, 2018
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Quoting: ImnotarobotThe 390 driver that comes with Ubuntu is horrible. I can't stop the tearing no matter what i do.
It works with 340, but that is old. I think it does not even support Vulkan.
I've had no trouble at all with the 390 series. But you're not the first one to complain here so there must be something to it.

If tearing is your only problem, you could try enabling the Full Composition Pipeline in the Nvidia settings software. This does come with a small performance penalty, but totally worth it in my opinion.

EDIT: Leopard was quicker.


Last edited by tuubi on 11 April 2018 at 4:37 pm UTC
Ehvis Apr 11, 2018
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Most distributions have other sources to directly install from. What distro are you using?
Leopard Apr 11, 2018
Quoting: GuestAs someone still fairly new to linux, is it best to use drivers from the Driver Manager or get them from nvidias website? What would be the disadvantages of using one from nvidia website (non-beta drivers) ? Would they be less stable or/and less reliable on a wider range of games? I do love to play a wide range of games so wouldn't want to upset that compatability

I'm currently on 384.11, and using an asus nvidia gtx 1060 3gb, does that sound about right or am I on out-dated drivers? It says recommended on driver manager

Stay away from Nvidia site installers.

Add this ppa.

https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

Driver updates will be visible on your driver manager.
frakswe Apr 11, 2018
got tearing even with "full composition pipeline" but only in firefox as far as i can see, and if i load up nvidia settings and then exit,it fixes it for awhile. some sort of sync issue going on here. don't believe i had this issue with the driver that came as default with mint cinnamon, think it was version 340.
Ehvis Apr 11, 2018
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Quoting: Guest
Quoting: EhvisMost distributions have other sources to directly install from. What distro are you using?

Linux Mint 18.3, cinnamon

For Linux Mint you can add the graphics-drivers ppa to get newer drivers.

https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa


Last edited by Ehvis on 11 April 2018 at 5:53 pm UTC
Pependos Apr 11, 2018
Only one thing to say - this beta has a VERY BAD PERFORMANCE.
frakswe Apr 11, 2018
ran "phoronix-test-suite default-benchmark openarena xonotic tesseract gputest unigine-valley"

and the numbers are similar to the 390 release, they are worse..but not by much.

openarena 390 driver = 542.30 fps
openarena 396 driver = 538.33 fps

the rest of the test i won't bother posting since it used different resolutions sadly since last time i ran it :(


Last edited by frakswe on 11 April 2018 at 6:58 pm UTC
TheLinuxPleb Apr 12, 2018
Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: ImnotarobotThe 390 driver that comes with Ubuntu is horrible. I can't stop the tearing no matter what i do.
It works with 340, but that is old. I think it does not even support Vulkan.
I've had no trouble at all with the 390 series. But you're not the first one to complain here so there must be something to it.

If tearing is your only problem, you could try enabling the Full Composition Pipeline in the Nvidia settings software. This does come with a small performance penalty, but totally worth it in my opinion.

EDIT: Leopard was quicker.

Yeap. Have done that done this and nothing works.
I have a laptop and my gpu is k1000m.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYWer86A20s&t=9s
That is the guide i use to get rid of tearing, but with 390 it's not working. Works with all the other driver versions.

I think that Nvidia should open up their drivers if they can't manage to handle their proprietary ones...

Is there any way i can install 384? every time i put sudo apt install nvidia-384 it just installs the 390 driver.
Leopard Apr 12, 2018
Quoting: Imnotarobot
Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: ImnotarobotThe 390 driver that comes with Ubuntu is horrible. I can't stop the tearing no matter what i do.
It works with 340, but that is old. I think it does not even support Vulkan.
I've had no trouble at all with the 390 series. But you're not the first one to complain here so there must be something to it.

If tearing is your only problem, you could try enabling the Full Composition Pipeline in the Nvidia settings software. This does come with a small performance penalty, but totally worth it in my opinion.

EDIT: Leopard was quicker.

Yeap. Have done that done this and nothing works.
I have a laptop and my gpu is k1000m.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYWer86A20s&t=9s
That is the guide i use to get rid of tearing, but with 390 it's not working. Works with all the other driver versions.

I think that Nvidia should open up their drivers if they can't manage to handle their proprietary ones...

Is there any way i can install 384? every time i put sudo apt install nvidia-384 it just installs the 390 driver.

Because on a laptop , you have to configure PrimeSync.

I told you on my earlier message.

https://forum.linuxmint.net.tr/index.php?topic=8505.0

Just do this.

Change xed parts to your distros editor.
TheLinuxPleb Apr 12, 2018
Quoting: Leopard
Quoting: Imnotarobot
Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: ImnotarobotThe 390 driver that comes with Ubuntu is horrible. I can't stop the tearing no matter what i do.
It works with 340, but that is old. I think it does not even support Vulkan.
I've had no trouble at all with the 390 series. But you're not the first one to complain here so there must be something to it.

If tearing is your only problem, you could try enabling the Full Composition Pipeline in the Nvidia settings software. This does come with a small performance penalty, but totally worth it in my opinion.

EDIT: Leopard was quicker.

Yeap. Have done that done this and nothing works.
I have a laptop and my gpu is k1000m.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYWer86A20s&t=9s
That is the guide i use to get rid of tearing, but with 390 it's not working. Works with all the other driver versions.

I think that Nvidia should open up their drivers if they can't manage to handle their proprietary ones...

Is there any way i can install 384? every time i put sudo apt install nvidia-384 it just installs the 390 driver.

Because on a laptop , you have to configure PrimeSync.

I told you on my earlier message.

https://forum.linuxmint.net.tr/index.php?topic=8505.0

Just do this.

Change xed parts to your distros editor.

Hmmmm... Prime is for dual graphics. I have Intel one disabled via bios.

I don't have Prime installed, because i have not needed it before with any other driver, because they all used to work.
I have used single gpu and it has worked and still works with older drivers.

Maybe my only option is to update 384 through Nvidias site, because i can't install it from drivers list or through terminal?

Thanks for trying to help though. Oh! BTW. 396 does not work also.
Damn Nvidia is really on a roll. Maybe i need to buy a cpu and a motherboard for my desktop so i can use my 7870 for my tv. :)
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