I recently completed a fresh installation of Debian 13 and followed a guide to install the open NVIDIA drivers. However, it only installed version 550. I found out there's a version 580 available for my RTX 2070 Super on the NVIDIA driver website and I'd prefer to have the latest drivers for optimal performance. Can I install the 580 drivers directly from the Debian repositories I set up? Is there a way to see other driver versions available in those repositories? Or will I need to follow NVIDIA's guide to use their specific repositories? Do I need to remove the current NVIDIA drivers first? Also, is updating even worth it considering my past struggles with getting stable graphics on Linux? I'm really wary about damaging my Debian setup since I've had a tough time getting everything running smoothly before.
2 Answers
If your current driver is functioning well, it might not be worth the risk to update to the 580 version. On past systems, I encountered issues with newer drivers that affected stability. My advice is to set up Timeshift for backups first, just in case. If you want to experiment, make sure to backup everything before you make any changes, which you mentioned you already did!
The latest version in Debian's repository is actually 590.xx for your card, but be aware that Debian tends to stick with older versions for stability. If you want the latest features and performance, you might want to consider using a different distro like Fedora or Arch instead. Debian is great for servers, but if you're looking for cutting-edge software, it's not the best choice.
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