A little about me....I am not a "gamer." I don't need high end graphics, and if I ever do, I'll deal with it then. I've been using linux since Fedora days. There have been bumps in the road but linux has basically been easy for me. Here's my problem:

I'm now using OpenSUSE, and I'm trying to get 15.3 installed and running. During the install, the software informed me that the Nouveau video drivers are no longer supported. Well, I've heard this before, so I tried and now I can't start applications which I really need and use all the time, like kmail, and kMyMoney. These provide no output at all. OpenSUSE 15.3 will not install.

Since this seems to be a video driver problem, I'm thinking I need to replace my video card....but with what? I have no need for high end graphics that many games require. My motherboard is an MSI MS-7673 (P67A-G43) with an Intel i5 processor. So, am I correct that I need a new video card? If so, which will not cause me the grief that I now face. Or will I need both video and motherboards replaces? If so, please make a suggestion.

I am near a very good computer/parts store, so I should be able to follow whatever you can advise me.

Thank you for whatever help you can provide.

Depending on what NVidia card you have, you probably have absolutely no need of a new graphics card.

Nouveau is a name with multiple meanings. Read here about this.

I'm using NVidia cards with openSUSE 15.3 on about 5 different PCs just fine. Nouveau is only needed for KMS services by the kernel. Each kernel comes with a nouveau module that is fully supported.

The nouveau you got the misleading message about is applicable to Xorg and Wayland, which depend on KMS. That message is an unfortunate result of licensing and NVidia policy. Almost certainly it is of no consequence to your PC.

So, we need to know which card you have, and exactly where installation is going wrong. What are you able to do, and what stops you from proceeding, if you have not been able to install an openSUSE 15.3 system.

Have you successfully installed the OS only to find KDE, Gnome, XFCE, Cinnamon, LxQT, Xorg or Wayland functioning poorly, failing to provide support for certain apps? Which apps? If you have an installed system we need information about it:The inxi, Mesa-demo-x and xdpyinfo commands may not be installed. If not, install them with zypper or YaST before copying inxi output and the susepaste URLs here.

It works in Slackware with gtx 960 gtx 1060 gtx 2080 sorry not going to buy any more to test.
then after I login I install nvidia update a simple script to download and install Nvidia. so on all kernel upgrades it makes it work.

You need to find a system that doesn't have binary init that actually read your system. then starts.
and just download nivida from Nivida and install it like Nvidia want Linux user to do.
apt-get wtf nvidia or yum where is nvidia.

Simple fact not one distro as we speak should not boot and run the latest
nvidia card wether in Nouveau and when it fails sets up visa nvidia buffer Suse
pushed what. Since you never said nvidia. that tells me OpenSuse Leap turd has no clue what to do with your video card.
Why would any one release this with out making sure it works there is only three major GPU makers how hard can it be to right the script Suse doesn't GAS
It is free they only make money on enterprise.
So buy the enterprise and call them.
just install slackware64-current
Simple scripts during init time and and not one systemd system can do this.

You should be able to switch to Intel graphics in the BIOS.
Your hardware is nice but getting old, the processor was released in 2011. Replacement graphics cards are over priced and based on past experience, it hurts to buy an expensive graphics card for a Ten year old (High End) home computer only to have a Vendor specific part fail shortly after.
And the vendor would rather sell you a new computer, they don't hold on to their custom MOBO for Ten years. This is my experience with High End computers when they get that old, it's risky.

Not sure I understand, but...

Nouveau is absolutely NOT obsolete, quite the opposite. It keeps getting better and better.

I think support for older cards is no longer there. I get the impression the OP is asking for suggestions on a replacement (i.e. supported) card. I haven't needed nouveau for years, so I'm just going on search results.

Not likely. The MSI MS-7673 (P67A-G43) motherboard I found on msi.com has no graphics output connectors, which makes it likely OP's i5 has no IGP.

All Sandy Bridge have IGP.

Sorry, on drugs or something. Must be mother board thing, not processor.

His motherboard has no ports to make an IGP useful. It's probably why he has the NVidia.

Most all computer nowadays only use Nvidia for better rendering, still passing the signal through On Chip Intel graphics. My MSI allows me to switch between the two.

That motherboard works on a plug-&-play basis — if it finds an Nvidia card, it will use it. Try unplugging the card and booting up the live Linux to see if it runs. Commercial PC have such cards because they cater to gamers. I've never had any sort of video card in a desktop — in the old days the Northbridge was good enough, now I rely on AMD's APU.

To the original question: can we know more about the specific nVidia card installed here? If you don't know, run inxi -G, or lspci and look for 'VGA compatible controller' somewhere.

As far as upgrades - that P67 board is indeed odd in not offering any video outputs, but your i5 should probably have an IGP (if we can know the actual model it can be confirmed on ARK), but I see no point in buying another motherboard. If you want to be rid of the nvidia situation, I'd suggest a Radeon graphics card - I've had seemingly no issues running Wayland on pre-GCN Radeon/FirePro that only use the 'radeon' driver, early GCN that use 'amdgpu' with 'experimental support,' and late GCN that are only supported in 'amdgpu', and of course Xorg works fine everywhere too (I've tested this with GNOME 3 (for Wayland and X) and XFCE and IceWM (for X)). Depending on how fancy you want to get dictates how much you should look to spend (and realize right now the GPU market for newer, performance oriented cards, is completely insane) - something cheap and serviceable I'd look at like FirePro V4900, which you can probably have for around $10-15 on ebay, and gives you DisplayPort and DVI outputs. If you need Vulkan support you need a GCN-era card, which may get trickier to find at non-insane prices (use Wikipedia as a reference for what is what - the naming schemes are pretty hard to follow otherwise - and then you'll just have to search around for what is offered at non-insane prices).

There will be no video output - it may also fail to boot (some BIOSes will halt the system if they detect no GPU). That board has no physical outputs, despite the Intel chip potentially having an iGPU. So this is like an 'older' PC (where graphics had to be an add-on card), due to the way MSI set that board up. There are LGA 1155 boards that will offer HDMI/DVI/whatever and expose the iGPU to the world, but that'd be a lot of work to swap the machine over, versus trading an add-in card out.

neidorff - you have two options:

(1) Install a distro that has a text-mode installer (like Debian or Slackware). Then, install the Nvidia proprietary driver.

-or-

(2) Replace the Nvidia card with an AMD card. The drivers are already built-in. You will need a very recent distro.
Ed

I agree with this summary, but have to ask 'why do you say this?' to the bolded section. Do you mean for modern RDNA support?