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I work primarily on a laptop with Nvidia 4070 card (Ada Lovelace codename), and not so long ago, I noticed out of nowhere appeared some Open drivers as an alternative to Proprietary, and what's more, to my surprise they are recommended by my Linux Mint 22.1 Cinnamon. I would like not to waste time and ask a relatively quick question:

What are those Open drives and do they offer something else than Proprietary ones? Thank you!

Just a quick look:

$ apt-cache policy nvidia-driver-570{,-open} nvidia-driver-570: Installed: 570.169-0ubuntu0.24.04.1 Candidate: 570.169-0ubuntu0.24.04.1 Version table: *** 570.169-0ubuntu0.24.04.1 500 500 https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/restricted amd64 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status 570.133.07-0ubuntu0.24.04.1 500 500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security/restricted amd64 Packages nvidia-driver-570-open: Installed: (none) Candidate: 570.169-0ubuntu0.24.04.1 Version table: 570.169-0ubuntu0.24.04.1 500 500 https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/restricted amd64 Packages 570.133.07-0ubuntu0.24.04.1 500 500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security/restricted amd64 Packages
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They’re the “open kernel” NVIDIA drivers, that is to say kernel modules with full MIT/GPLv2 source code. Most of the functionality is now handled in user space or in the GPU firmware, both of which remain proprietary. There shouldn’t be any functional difference.

Whether to use the proprietary or “open” drivers depends on which GPU you have. Turing and newer GPUs (which include your laptop’s GPU) should use the “open” drivers; older GPUs have to use the proprietary drivers. See the list of supported hardware on the “open” drivers and the section on kernel modules in the NVIDIA installation documentation for details.

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  • I just found via search: Proprietary drivers have full support for all NVIDIA features, including advanced gaming technologies like DLSS, thus can be a better choice if gaming. (PS: I am testing games here and love DLSS, so I intend to continue on Proprietary drivers). Hope this addition helps someone else. Commented Sep 16 at 12:12
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    The reason I’m asking is that I suspect the reference you found is comparing the NVIDIA drivers and the Nouveau drivers. The “open kernel” NVIDIA drivers should support DLSS and so on too; see for example github.com/NVIDIA/open-gpu-kernel-modules/issues/781. Commented Sep 16 at 12:41
  • prnt.sc/7licBTsJ8Q9F Commented Sep 16 at 12:46
  • Aren’t the two buttons at the top links to the corresponding sources? Commented Sep 16 at 12:51
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    The proprietary drivers having features the open driver does not is hogwash, nvidia expects you to run the open driver on 4000 series and newer cards (As in the closed driver won't even run the cards). DLSS works fine on the open drivers, i've used it myself. As an end user you will not be able to tell the difference between the two drivers. Commented Sep 16 at 13:22

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