So Effing tired of nvidia and its drivers

General system Gaming, sound and video
1

I’m writing here because I am really wondering if I am doing something wrong

For the last month (exactly since 2025.11.06) since nvidia pushed their 580.105.08.X (starting with 1) until today with (latest is 580.105.08.4 from 2025.11.24) i have been unable to set my second monitor which is on HDMI to 4k, and is instead maxed out at 1080p only

I’ve tried downgrade for nvidia and nvidia-utils, but now it breaks (im guessing it doesnt work with the latest kernel and all the other system updated) and im so sick of being stuck

Am I doing something wrong? There are a bunch of threads on the arch forums and on nvidia’s own forums of people complaining about this, but nothing that seems to be as loudly enough as I would have thought, so I’m genuinely wondering if there was something i missed

If you have any ideas, i’d appreciate it. And thanks for listening to my rant

2

What GPU do you have?

3

Post the output of inxi -Ga to see full video/monitor/GPU/driver info.

4

Please show the output of command

nvidia-inst --test
5

You might want to post/follow the discussion here: https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/580-release-feedback-discussion/341205. At first glacne, I did not see anything directly related to your issue.

6

I suggest voting with your dollars. My AMD 9070xt and all previous AMD GPU’s have been fantastic experiences. Maybe it’s time to tell Nvidia to kick rocks and support those who support you?

7

GeForce GTX 980 Ti

8 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 530 vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915
    v: kernel arch: Gen-9 process: Intel 14n built: 2015-16 ports: active: none
    empty: DP-4,HDMI-A-2,HDMI-A-3 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:1912
    class-ID: 0380
  Device-2: NVIDIA GM200 [GeForce GTX 980 Ti] vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: nvidia v: 580.105.08 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm
    non-free: 550-580.xx+ status: current (as of 2025-11; EOL~2026-12-xx)
    arch: Maxwell code: GMxxx process: TSMC 28nm built: 2014-2019 pcie: gen: 3
    speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: DP-2,HDMI-A-1
    empty: DP-1,DP-3,DVI-I-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:17c8 class-ID: 0300
  Device-3: Sunplus Innovation Streaming Webcam
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
    mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 1-11:8 chip-ID: 1bcf:c002 class-ID: 0102
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.21 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.9
    compositor: cosmic-comp driver: gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: 1
  Monitor-1: DP-2 model: Philips PHL 275S1 serial: UK02206038821 built: 2022
    res: 2560x1440 dpi: 109 gamma: 1.2 size: 597x336mm (23.5x13.23")
    diag: 685mm (27") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 2560x1440 min: 640x480
  Monitor-2: HDMI-A-1 model: Philips PHL 275S1 serial: UK02206038820
    built: 2022 res: 2560x1440 dpi: 109 gamma: 1.2 size: 597x336mm (23.5x13.23")
    diag: 685mm (27") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 640x480
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: intel iris drv: nvidia platforms: device: 0
    drv: nvidia device: 1 drv: iris device: 3 drv: swrast gbm: drv: iris
    surfaceless: drv: nvidia wayland: drv: nvidia x11: drv: nvidia
    inactive: device-2
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 580.105.08
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
    memory: 5.86 GiB
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.328 layers: 7 device: 0 type: discrete-gpu name: NVIDIA
    GeForce GTX 980 Ti driver: nvidia v: 580.105.08 device-ID: 10de:17c8
    surfaces: N/A
  Info: Tools: api: eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr

notice that i have two exact same monitors, but DP-2 shows
modes: max: 2560x1440 min: 640x480

while the HDMI one shows
modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 640x480

9

oh, i intend to, 100%

10

With an older GPU like that, I would consider using nvidia-all to get a working driver for your GPU:

11

i dont have nvidia-inst installed and dont use it

12

I know there’s a long long way to go to really break nvidia into being a good guy. But I can’t imagine the effort is worth any possible “better experience” than what I get. I wish you good luck!

13

Install it and use it.

14 
2025-11-29 23:35:51: Note: 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GM200 [GeForce GTX 980 Ti] [10de:17c8] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
2025-11-29 23:35:51: Note: Currently installed packages related to Nvidia:
2025-11-29 23:35:51:       egl-gbm 1.1.2.1-1
2025-11-29 23:35:51:       egl-wayland 4:1.1.20-1
2025-11-29 23:35:51:       egl-x11 1.0.3-1
2025-11-29 23:35:51:       libvdpau 1.5-3
2025-11-29 23:35:51:       libxnvctrl 580.105.08-1
2025-11-29 23:35:51:       linux-firmware-nvidia 20251125-1
2025-11-29 23:35:51:       nvidia 580.105.08-4
2025-11-29 23:35:51:       nvidia-inst 25.10.2-1
2025-11-29 23:35:51:       nvidia-settings 580.105.08-1
2025-11-29 23:35:51:       nvidia-utils 580.105.08-4
2025-11-29 23:35:51: Info: nvidia-inst version 25.10.2-1
2025-11-29 23:35:51: Info: Command line: nvidia-inst --test
2025-11-29 23:35:51: Info: Selected mode: nvidia (Nvidia's proprietary closed source)
2025-11-29 23:35:52: Info: Installing packages: nvidia-dkms nvidia-hook
2025-11-29 23:35:52: Info: Removing packages: nvidia
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COMMANDS TO RUN:
    pacman -Rs --noconfirm --noprogressbar --nodeps nvidia
    pacman -Syuq --noconfirm --noprogressbar --needed nvidia-dkms nvidia-hook
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
15

I would use nvidia-all to install 580.94.11 and see if that works better. If not, you could try 575.64.05.

There is no real need to run the latest driver with that card since maxwell is only getting critical security updates at this point. That pretty much means it isn’t getting updates at all.

16

I did, it installed the same driver which made no difference

17

yeah, i know… thats what im going to try and do

disappointing that newer drivers break older cards though.

18

I finally did a “downgrade” to 580.95 on all nvidia related packages and that worked (because of course it would)

so ill keep that as the setup for the time being

ill mark the discussion as “solved” but yeah… nvidia? never again

20

:thinking:

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti was released in 2015. It’s a 10 year-old card.

Found this, almost word for word, on several different Reddit posts regarding your card…

For Arch Linux, the correct proprietary driver is nvidia (or nvidia-dkms for non-standard kernels). Since the GTX 980 Ti is a Maxwell-based card, it uses the standard nvidia or nvidia-dkms package, not the legacy or open-source versions. You will also need to install nvidia-utils and nvidia-settings.

EDIT:
I had similar issues last year with a new-to-me custom built PC. It had an 11 year old Nvidia Quadro K2200. Drivers were NOT the issue. An ancient Nvidia card was. I purchased a new-ish RTX 3060 Ti which was released in 2020. All is good now…

╰─❯ pacman -Q | grep -i nvidia
lib32-nvidia-utils 580.105.08-3
lib32-opencl-nvidia 580.105.08-3
libva-nvidia-driver 0.0.14-1.1
linux-firmware-nvidia 1:20251125-1
nvidia-open-dkms 580.105.08-4
nvidia-settings 580.105.08-1.1
nvidia-utils 580.105.08-4
opencl-nvidia 580.105.08-4
╰─❯