Title. I remember having a laptop with an intel iGPU and NVidia dGPU back in the day, and trying to use Linux on it was – Yeah not really a thing. It meant spending a whole day trying to configure the driver, then you could do optirun command, but depending on the application, it didn’t matter how hard you tried or how good you smelled, that shit just wouldn’t work.

It’s been a long long time. Gaming on Linux has gotten better and better, but I’ve been using AMD stuff exclusively since ~2018

Still, getting a laptop with an AMD dGPU is… Does anyone other than Framework even make them? Either way I tried and couldn’t find any to buy in my country at all.

So I’m eyeing a laptop with an NVidia GPU and an Intel processor. … But it worries me that I would buy it and find Linux doesn’t work on it. I categorically refuse to use Windows on a personal machine ever again, so I’ll just do without if NVidia+Linux is still as fuckt as it was back in the day.

In my current machines I use CachyOS, but yeah.

  • lagoon8622@sh.itjust.works
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    2 hours ago

    It’s fine. Asus laptop with Intel/Nvidia (2023ish), all-AMD desktop (2026ish), both fine with CachyOS. No issues to note really

  • folekaule@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    I installed CacyOS on my MSI laptop with Nvidia m2060 + igpu and Intel CPU a couple of months ago. I can play genres through Steam just fine. It performs better than it did on Windows 11.

    I’ll be honest, I was amazed I had no issues getting it running. CachyOS has sone great tools to set things up and their wiki is excellent. I just followed the steps in there to set up GPU switching. I disabled secure boot, since that can get in the way of drivers loading, but they have instructions for that as well.

    Wi-Fi worked out of the box. I even have a luks encrypted root.

    The main issue I had was MSI specific hardware, like battery charging control, normally managed by the Dragon Center. I found an open source replacement for that.

    I can’t speak to the battery performance since I always use it plugged in. It’s a few years old so it’s probably not great anyway.

    Your mileage may vary. It’s probably going to be more off a struggle with hardware specific to the model of laptop rather than Nvidia.

  • José Devezas@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    It’s not a nightmare, but I’ll still go with AMD next time. I think NVIDIA does a really poor job with drivers still. I keep having sleep issues.

  • mybuttnolie@sopuli.xyz
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    5 hours ago

    i got a used thinkpad with nvidia t1000 about a year ago. i installed kubuntu on it, chose the proprietary driver from the driver manager thingy and rebooted.
    i forget the driver is even a thing. it switches to it automatically when i start a game, and it uses intel igpu when on battery. not a single issue yet and I’ve used it almost daily.

  • Auster@thebrainbin.org
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    5 hours ago

    Been using for some 2~3 years now a Nitro 5 laptop almost always set to the Nvidia GPU. Issues are very rare, and some times compatibility is actually better than with the other GPU, the Intel one. Also worth noting I use Linux Mint though, and been some years since I last tested systems based Arch (btw).

  • katze@lemmy.4d2.org
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    8 hours ago

    I have been using NVIDIA under Linux since 2005, then in 2025 I switched to AMD. I have lots more problems with the Radeon, like the driver just crashing, taking the whole X server and all applications with it. That never happened with NVIDIA.

    Gaming on a laptop is a path that will lead to failure eventually; get a desktop computer.

  • Zarobi@aussie.zone
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    8 hours ago

    Laptops are still a bit fucky. Manufacturers often put proprietary power savings and performance optimisation functionality that expects Windows install, and Linux can’t emulate properly.

    I spent 3 hours getting a laptop to “work”; the quotes meaning it’s very “quirky”. Stuff like, don’t ever close the lid or you’ll have to suffocate restart it, had to turn off all power savings settings, a few things required deep research and sudo nano config files, etc.

    It’s ok now and mostly works while plugged in, but be prepared.

  • ZombieCyborgFromOuterSpace@piefed.ca
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    5 hours ago

    No idea.

    But what you could do is buy the laptop, install Linux on it, troubleshoot it if there is any issue, and document the solution online in a blog/wiki post or YouTube video for others to see.

    That could be your contribution to the community.

  • plateee@piefed.social
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    13 hours ago

    I’m running a 13th gen core i9 and an rtx 4070 on my rog zephyrus. It runs CachyOS beautifully.

    No complaints for the two-ish years I’ve had it.

  • CyberSeeker@discuss.tchncs.de
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    16 hours ago

    The only issue of note is the binary blob, and NVIDIA’s refusal to digitally sign the driver. Thus if you have Secure Boot enabled, you need to take the added steps to resign your drivers every system update, which is a pain, or disable secure boot, which may lock you out of some future stream games.

    • LiveLM@lemmy.zip
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      13 hours ago

      which may lock you out of some future stream games

      Don’t those that require Secure Boot use Kernel Anticheat? You’ll be locked out of them on Linux anyway