EnvyNG vs. restricted drivers?

[Losgann]

Hello,

My motherboard has an onboard NVIDIA graphics chip. I was wondering what the difference is (if any) between enabling the restricted NVIDIA driver under the Hardware Drivers Manager, and using EnvyNG to compile and install NVIDIA drivers. Is one preferable to the other? Does one do something the other does not?

Thanks!

[Husse]

Basically it is the same- however I think Envy does a better job.
It's clear that some cards like the one but not the other but you can't tell beforehand....

[garda]

Is one preferable to the other?

This actually depends on your overall system configuration. I've tried both and found the Hardware Drivers applet (a.k.a Restricted Driver Installer) to be more preferable. On some machines, however, EnvyNG seems to do a better job.

Does one do something the other does not?

Yes. One thing that I remember is EnvyNG also installs nvidia-xconfig which then will give you access to Nvidia X Server Settings (via Control Center). It gives you more options to customize several aspects, such as Anti-aliasing level, Anisotropic filtering level, just to name a few. If you use Hardware Drivers applet to install the driver for your graphics card, you'll have to install those additional components manually through Synaptic. Additionally, I reckon switching display resolutions can be a tough job using either one on some machines. Thus, as Husse said, you'll have to try both to figure out which one suits your taste best. Hope that helps.

[kirsch92]

EnvyNG tends to have a newer driver also. Which can fix OR break things. Try the default driver manager first. Then try envy.