Which drivers to install for a nVidia GT8500 card

[DeMus]

Hi,

My computer with a Q6600 quadcore processor, 4GB ram and 2 500GB disks has a nVidia GT8500 graphics card. The processor is not running at 2.4 GHz but at 3 GHz, giving it a 25% boost.
Still, when watching videos, the image sometimes freezes. I think this might be caused by a faulty graphics driver or wrong setting.
In the attachment you see what I installed to get the card working. Is there something wrong, missing or installed too much?

In the file .nvida-settings-rc I see this:

#
# /home/jan/.nvidia-settings-rc
#
# Configuration file for nvidia-settings - the NVIDIA X Server Settings utility
# Generated on Sat Feb 9 14:38:03 2013
#

# ConfigProperties:

RcFileLocale = C
ToolTips = Yes
DisplayStatusBar = Yes
SliderTextEntries = Yes
IncludeDisplayNameInConfigFile = No
ShowQuitDialog = No
Timer = PowerMizer_Monitor_(GPU_0),Yes,1000
Timer = Thermal_Monitor_(GPU_0),Yes,1000
Timer = Memory_Used_(GPU_0),Yes,3000

# Attributes:

0/CursorShadow=0
0/CursorShadowAlpha=64
0/CursorShadowRed=0
0/CursorShadowGreen=0
0/CursorShadowBlue=0
0/CursorShadowXOffset=4
0/CursorShadowYOffset=2
0/SyncToVBlank=1
0/LogAniso=0
0/FSAA=0
0/TextureSharpen=0
0/TextureClamping=1
0/FXAA=0
0/AllowFlipping=1
0/FSAAAppControlled=1
0/LogAnisoAppControlled=1
0/OpenGLImageSettings=1
0/FSAAAppEnhanced=0
0/DigitalVibrance[DFP-0]=0
0/ColorSpace[DFP-0]=0
0/ColorRange[DFP-0]=0
0/XVideoSyncToDisplay=65536


Who can help me with this? Which drivers do you guys install to make it run smoothly?

Thanks.

[DeMus]

Well, nvidia-settings tells me I use the 304.64 driver. It's not that I don't have a nvidia driver installed, I have so much more installed and I wonder if all that is necessary.
After a clean install of Kubuntu 12.10, what needs to be done to get the perfect driver setup for my nvidia card, GT8500?
Do I need extra repositories, what do I need to install and how? Who can help me?
When you have a working nvidia card plus driver, please show me a picture of Muon showing all the packages which are installed when you filter on nvidia. Have a look at my picture in the original post to see what I mean. I can then see what to uninstall if needed.

Please help.

[DeMus]

Okay, I just installed the latest through Jockey. I will see what the card does now.
Thanks for your help, I will report back.

[oshunluvr]

The latest nvidia driver supports your card and 12.10 uses the latest driver/xorg supported by Ubuntu. More likely you're experiencing interference with some desktop effect. You might try disabling all desktop effects just to test to see if the problem goes away. Possibly a better tuned install using an xorg.conf file would help as well. To test your card performance try installing gtkperf and running it, posting your results.

Other things to check: read through your log files starting with /var/log/Xorg.0.log and ~/.xsession-errors

[DeMus]

Hi oshunluvr,

This is the result from gtkperf:
gtkperf
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf", line 9: reading configurations from ~/.fonts.conf is deprecated.

(gtkperf:5070): Gtk-WARNING **: GtkSpinButton: setting an adjustment with non-zero page size is deprecated

(gtkperf:5070): Gtk-WARNING **: GtkSpinButton: setting an adjustment with non-zero page size is deprecated
GtkPerf 0.40 - Starting testing: Mon Feb 25 22:39:00 2013

GtkEntry - time: 0.06
GtkComboBox - time: 1.87
GtkComboBoxEntry - time: 2.41
GtkSpinButton - time: 0.15
GtkProgressBar - time: 0.08
GtkToggleButton - time: 0.09
GtkCheckButton - time: 0.07
GtkRadioButton - time: 0.09
GtkTextView - Add text - time: 0.58
GtkTextView - Scroll - time: 0.01
GtkDrawingArea - Lines - time: 0.24
GtkDrawingArea - Circles - time: 0.41
GtkDrawingArea - Text - time: 0.40
GtkDrawingArea - Pixbufs - time: 0.06
---
Total time: 6.51

What does this mean? Is this good or do you see some error?

Thanks for your help.

[oshunluvr]

Under 7 is real good. My 8800GT gets low 6's to high 5's if it's running overclocked.

I think your problem isn't with the driver per se. What video program are you using and does the lock-up occur with any video type or just a specific one? Anything left in .xsession-errors after a freeze?

It would also be helpful to better (more detail) describe the nature of the freeze (keyboard dead? Mouse?) and any other info possibly useful.

[DeMus]

Maybe the term freeze is not used correctly here. What happens is that during watching a movie the moving picture stops for a second, maybe less, maybe more, and then continues. The sound goes on normally. It is not that the whole computer freezes. CPU activity is around 30%.
This happens with both smplayer and with VLC.

Last night I installed the latest nvidia driver using jockey. I just watched a movie and I must say it is better now. Until now no more freezes, but maybe it is too early to tell. I will keep monitoring it and should it be good, or still bad, I will come back.
Till now, thanks for all the help.

[oshunluvr]

I would open a terminal and run top, then launch vlc and wath a movie keeping both windows visible. It seems like some other process might be the culprit. When the video halts - look and see what is taking your CPU/MEM.