I have a question that might seem simple, but I’d like to get your input. As far as I know, Fedora uses proprietary Nvidia drivers. Can I expect better performance with these drivers compared to Nouveau, which is the open-source alternative used by my current OS, Pop_OS?
I’ve been experiencing disappointing performance with Nouveau, particularly when working with AI models. Even small models cause issues, with errors like “CUDA out of memory” when trying to run text-to-speech models for short phrases (only 3 seconds long). This seems abnormal and is hindering my progress.
Some of you might suggest that I don’t need to switch to a new OS just to use Nvidia’s proprietary drivers, and that I could simply change the drivers on my current system. However, I’ve been considering switching to Fedora for a while now, and this is an opportunity to explore whether it would provide better performance.
I’d appreciate any advice or insights you can offer on this matter.
Fedora uses Nouveau as well. The proprietary drivers can be installed, but you need to do it manually from their repos or using rpmfusion. The process is not one click easy like in some other distros (it involves some terminal work). I think Pop_OS has an easier installation process for the nvidia proprietary drivers. You should try that first.
Fedora, Ubuntu, PopOS all allow to install proprietary NVIDIA drivers?
On Fedora they cannot legally include them in their repo, so the driver (and a lot more packages) come from the external “rpmfusion” repo.
This causes some conflicts from time to time, where updates may not work for a few days. You dont have this if everything can be legally sone by the same organization. Though, PopOS by System76 should also be tied to US law, no idea how they can do that.
Btw System76 is working on their own desktop afaik, which is very cool but not close to done yet. So your experience might be better with Fedora.
you could also give universal-blue.org a shot if you want proprietary NVIDIA support on a rock stable system, based directly off Fedora
With the RTX 4060 gpu it is a given that the nvidia drivers will perform much better than nouveau.
In fact, with either the 3000 series or 4000 series gpus there is an open source driver available for nvidia.
The rpmfusion repo provides instructions for installing the proprietary driver as well as swapping to the open driver (swapping quoted here).
You can also swith to the akmod-nvidia-open package that relies on the full source code of the kernel space driver (it takes longer to build). This package is located in the rpmfusion-nonfree-tainted repository so it doesn't get selected by misstake from unaware users.
sudo dnf install rpmfusion-nonfree-release-tainted
sudo dnf swap akmod-nvidia akmod-nvidia-open
I have been using the nvidia open drivers on my system for quite some time and it seems to work flawlessly.
I just installed Fedora KDE (just a preference) and I have to say, it is just amazing.
i dont even know if I managed to install the proprietary nvidia or just the nouveau ones, but the AI models are working better.
not only that, the fingerprint scanner is working on my MSI laptop for the first time, that never happened with other OS, clearly fedora has a bigger compatibility with devices.
is there a command that says if I am using nouveau or Nvidia drivers?
Very likely the kernel. Fedora updates their kernels more often than many Debian/Ubuntu based distros and usually end up with better hardware compatibility.
To check what driver you are using you can:
sudo lspci | grep VGA
That will output your video card. Take note of the number in front (it will be in a xx:xx.x format). Then just:
sudo lspci -vs xx:xx.x
…replacing the xx:xx.x with the number you got from the previous command. At the end of the output you should she a line that tells you what driver/module is in use.
There are a couple ways in the gui to see if Nouveau is currently used or the Nvidia driver, in the settings section for KDE as well as Gnome find the ‘about this system’ area it will show hardware specs of machine…if the Nvidia driver is installed it will show the exact model of GPU - say for example, ‘3050 ti’, if nouveau is currently in use it shows something like ‘NV192’. Logs can also show whether the Nvidia driver module was successfully installed and/loaded. The Nvidia control panel is installed with the proprietary driver…if there is no control panel installed then you are probably on Nouveau. If the driver installation does not succeed you may have the Nvidia control panel but there is no readout of the GPU temperature/utilization, etc…this indicates an installation or module loading (mok) issue - the computer will default back to nouveau drivers if that occurs.
Capabilities: [d00] Lane Margining at the Receiver
Capabilities: [e00] Data Link Feature <?>
Kernel driver in use: nvidia
Kernel modules: nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia
