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.
My laptop has an Nvidia GPU, an Intel processor and an Intel iGPU.
In my experience running debian based distros (I’ve run Ubuntu, Kubuntu, MX Linux, failed to install Devuan) can ultimately become a nightmare. They will always work fine at first and then degrade and have more and more problems over time.
RHEL based distros (I’ve specifically run Bazzite and Fedora) have had no problems at all. You will need to ensure you install the proper Nvidia driver correctly once for the best performance in games. Fedora defaults to the nouveau drivers, Bazzite will handle it for you.
I have difficulty getting Arch-based systems and BSDs to even install properly with graphical support. I’ve failed to install CachyOS and FreeBSD in the past.
Its possible to run any of the systems I mentioned, but the least exhausting one to deal with for me has been Fedora.
I am running an i5 and a GTX 3050 with 32GB of ram on CachyOS on an HP Victus laptop.
I am quite content with how well everything functions. I have found very few issues that don’t have a workaround of some kind, and even those kinds of issues are fewer and further between in the past few months.
I can’t answer the laptop issue specifically. I have two desktops with Nvidia in it. And it runs fine apart from one of them being out of date of the official drivers. It’s not nearly the hassle it was a decade ago. AMD is always easier generally. But these days Nvidia is pretty stable as well. Especially if you have a modern 20+ series card supported by their current drivers
What made Laptops hard was the whole “two GPUs, and the dGPU switches off to save battery” thing that required the installation of a specific daemon (I think it was called bumblebee or something?) and running games with a specific command to make it happen.
The laptop I was eyeing has a low-end 50 series card.
Interesting. Today I learned. The last new laptop I bought for myself was in the late 90s at the local micro center. Sporting an AMD k6-2. My current one has an AMD iGPU. I’ll have to keep this in mind if I ever get lucky enough to find a good deal on a used laptop with a dedicated or discreet GPU.
Yeah therev was some version of it called Optimus as well I think. I installed kinoite on my old xps9570 and handed it to my brother and he’s been gaming on it so the dedicated card surely works. Can’t remember exactly what I did but I think I had to start steam with a specific param or something.
Sorry I can’t be of more help.
I second that Optimus sucks a bit still. That said, I have an older laptop with a 1060 mobile and that one runs smooth af.
For like 80% of the hardware I would assume things work without much hassle.
For the 20% there are more or less reliable workarounds.
But the only thing you need to know: these 10 years Linux’ drivers issues really have improved in a major way. If you ask whether it’s worth it to try again, I would say yes. Not a guarantee but a new roll of the dice.
Generally it’s fine, but right now, with my laptop, I’m having to use run an older kernel version because the Nvidia drivers haven’t been updated in the Ubuntu repositories. Installing drivers for Nvidia isn’t hard, but it is something you have to elect to do, and it is something that can break. Meanwhile, with AMD GPUs, it generally ‘just works’.
IMO, given two laptops of equal value, I would pick the AMD, but I wouldn’t pick a worse laptop in order to have an AMD card.
I am running a System76 Oryx Pro with a Nvidia Optimus(hybrid GPU) chip set and an Intel CPU. I would be lying if I said there were no problems but things have been incredibly stable on the latest drivers. I am not on an Arch based Distro so I can’t speak to that, but most issues I have had have been solved with a bit of tinkering.
Good question. I’m afraid I don’t have an answer to it. I got laptops without Nvidia stuff after that. But I still remember not upgrading to the latest kernel because of the proprietary drivers. The free ones used a lot of battery and it took years to get acceptable performance out of them… I had to read about optimus, bumblebee, screen tearing… Also got the laptop to just come up with a black screen once or twice after a bigger update… I heard it got better after that. But no clue if that’s really the case.
Lol, I don’t know. I purposely bought AMD / Radeon because I heard I didn’t have to load no dumb proprietary binary blob. It’s been good. Just works.
I’ve been running Mint on a system with an nvidia GPU for almost two years. The only problem I have really had is one particular silly game (Cosmoteer) that takes a bit of massaging to run, every other game works either as well or better than windows. It keeps a gaming computer from 2020 working and playing games in 2026.
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.
Defeatist mindset
More like realistic mindset based on the “been there” factor.
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 nanoconfig files, etc.It’s ok now and mostly works while plugged in, but be prepared.
Use Mint and you’ll be fine.
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.No.
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.
I have an Intel + Nvidia laptop, it works as it should. Is it a recent laptop?
