I noticed there was a NVIDIA driver at slackbuilds along with a kernel module. I just downloaded the diver from the NVIDIA website and installed it. Is there any advantage to using the slackbuild?

>Is there any advantage to using the slackbuild?

Imho no. It's just dead easy using the original driver. Usually I don't use any binary packages at all, apart from the thrustable packages of Alien Bob.http://www.slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/

In my opinion, the nVidia SlackBuilds provide a very mild convenience. It provides a nice nvidia-switch script that allows you to switch between the nVidia OpenGL files and the default files to use the 'nv' driver instead. It also provides an easy way to uninstall the drivers consistent with the rest of the system. That being said, it's just as easy to install, uninstall and upgrade using the nVidia binary (easier, perhaps, because there is only one script to run instead of two). It's a personal choice. If you want to keep your system consistent, and have all of the files installed by the nVidia installer nicely shown in /var/log/packages/, the SlackBuilds are perfect for that. However, they're really not necessary and don't provide much convenience elsewhere. I can honestly say I will never have a use for the nvidia-switch script, though I like the idea of it -- I have no plans on switching between the proprietary drivers and the nv drivers, since the proprietary drivers work just fine.

Use whatever you like, basically -- they're both easy and convenient.

I have a MX4000 nvidia graphics card too but when I installed 12.1 I din't install the nvidia drivers and its working fine.
How much is necessary to install the Nvidia drivers? I mean, my box it's few years old (AMD Duron 800MHz) but I dont run games or something similar...

I'm running quite similar hardware (Duron 900) and I always installed the proprietary driver because if you don't have much cpu power I think it's best to have every other piece of hardware you got use most of the features it can to support the old cpu

Your box will run the nvidia driver just fine and you will notice advantages over the nv dirver for sure. Think googleearth, videos and stuff.

Well, my only real concern is performance. I eventually (Once I'm nice and comfortable with my no OS) intend to install Neverwinter Nights and maybe a few other games. Other than that though, I'm of the mind-set, if it works right, why bother?

Well, in my case slackbuilds just saved me a lot of time with regard to the nvidia drivers. I just installed the 2.6.25.3 kernel and I couldn't build the nvidia module as I always could in the past (I use a legacy driver). Rather than track down the problem, I just downloaded the slackbuild and it compiled just fine. Thanks everyone at Slackbuilds.org for your great work.

Brian