[SOLVED] AMD/NVIDIA graphics and Intel network cards driver support in Debian

someshpr · 01-04-2015, 10:25 AM

Hello,

I am looking at couple of laptops (Lenovo Y40 and Z40). Before I make the decision, I want to make sure that drivers for the graphics and network cards are easily available. The cards are:
1. AMD Radeon R9 M275
2. NVIDIA GeForce GT820
3. Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160

So here is the question:
Does anyone have any experience with driver support for any of them in Debian?
Are they expected to work out-of-the box? Or should I expect to have to do some tricks and work-arounds to get them working?

TIA,

Head_on_a_Stick · 01-04-2015, 10:39 AM

For the Intel card you will need kernel 3.13+
http://www.intel.com/support/wireles.../CS-034398.htm

Debian Stable (wheezy) uses 3.2 so you would have to upgrade the kernel using the wheezy-backports repository.

I really don't know about the graphics cards but you would definitely have to do some work:
https://wiki.debian.org/ATIProprietary
https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers

veerain · 01-04-2015, 11:09 AM

Radeon has better open source driver while nvidia has poor one. But closed binary driver are good for nvidia but radeon has some issues with some games.

For network card you can see kernel sources for available drivers.

someshpr · 01-05-2015, 11:40 AM

Thanks Head_on_a_Stick and veerain!
I think I have enough information from the pages you referenced.

Thanks,

Ihatewindows522 · 01-05-2015, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by someshpr

Hello,

I am looking at couple of laptops (Lenovo Y40 and Z40). Before I make the decision, I want to make sure that drivers for the graphics and network cards are easily available. The cards are:
1. AMD Radeon R9 M275
2. NVIDIA GeForce GT820
3. Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160

So here is the question:
Does anyone have any experience with driver support for any of them in Debian?
Are they expected to work out-of-the box? Or should I expect to have to do some tricks and work-arounds to get them working?

TIA,

The AC band is fairly new, and if I were to pick something that would NOT be supported, that would be it. Other than that, everything looks like it will be supported out of the box or with very little configuration. I've had issues with...current drivers on Debian, for me, it was Catalyst 11 or 12 vs Catalyst Omega 14. No, I didn't miss that extra 20+% performance!

someshpr · 01-06-2015, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ihatewindows522

The AC band is fairly new, and if I were to pick something that would NOT be supported, that would be it. Other than that, everything looks like it will be supported out of the box or with very little configuration. I've had issues with...current drivers on Debian, for me, it was Catalyst 11 or 12 vs Catalyst Omega 14. No, I didn't miss that extra 20+% performance!

Thanks Ihatewindows522.
I was thinking the same. At this point, wireless is not a big deal for me, single band is fine.

As of graphics card, I am not into games, but I need dedicated card because I do use some graphics-heavy technical softwares. It seems I should be able to get both NVIDIA and AMD working satisfactorily with some configurations.