I use either prime-run or DRI_PRIME=1
When Void releases a new iso with 6.18 as current and 6.12 as lts, if itās still broken Iāll report it as a bug. I could also report it on Arch.
Worst case: switch to current kernel, just do not have good GPU acceleration.
I have a newer laptop which has a more recent supported GPU, I just prefer using this one (larger better screen) so itās really no big deal.
Wellā¦the forum here is one of the, if not the best, of Linux forumsā¦Do not be a stranger & stay in touch!!!
I rebuild laptops (refurbished off of eBay) & have been seeing HPās with newer nVidia hardware in 17.3 in showing up in the $100 to $200 rangeā¦some with touch screens & other nice bitsā¦.
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That is a fact!!! This forum is one of the best 
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I was just cruising & found this one (needs some repairānew top panel (keyboard & panel) & a batteryā¦not very hard to doā¦.) https://www.ebay.com/itm/365988161088
That one has a backlight keyboardā¦..
The ābigā problem that the ānewerā HP laptops have is being very weak around the screen hinges with the bottom case offā¦you will find lots of them with ābrokenā screen hinge mounting areas ā¦..
I normally get very good with Super Glue Gel & small needle-nose pliersā¦..if itās one of mineā¦.
Iāve heard good things about it. I suppose Iāve also heard bad things and indifferent things like all linux distros. Thereās so many good ones to choose from today, whatever you pick will likely be great.
(sent from Debian)
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Update: I did a clean install of pure Arch and have the 470xx drivers installed without errors. Iād like to say they are working, but alas, glmark2 score is half that of the same on Void, so I still have some issues to sort out 
void the gap!
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After deleting Win10, I was wondering what to do with the now empty driveā¦ and then Ganymede dropped. yeah, dual boot: Void and EOS I could not stay away.
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Freedoooom!
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I suspect your journey into the Void may turn out to be shorter than expected 
Iāve been in a very similar situation myself. I still own an ASUS gaming laptop with a GTX 950M, which ended up in a comparable dead zone after NVIDIA effectively dropped proper support for older mobile GPUs and later āopenedā the drivers in a way that didnāt really help legacy hardware.
One thing worth mentioning though: Age of Empires II DE is not particularly GPU-demanding. On older NVIDIA mobile chips, it can actually run reasonably well using the nouveau driver, especially when using OpenGL and keeping expectations realistic.
You obviously wonāt get Vulkan, advanced power management or peak performance ā but for AoE II DE, that usually isnāt required. Stability tends to matter more than raw FPS here.
Void Linux with the 470 driver is a perfectly valid solution right now, but long-term itās still tied to an aging, frozen driver stack. Nouveau, while imperfect, at least continues to move forward with the kernel and Mesa.
In any case: enjoy the Void
And who knows ā we might see you back sooner than you think.
To be fair, this isnāt really an Arch or Void problem ā itās an NVIDIA problem.
Legacy GPUs being tied to frozen proprietary drivers, which then break as kernels move forward, is something weāve all seen before. The distribution just ends up being the messenger. Linus summed it up rather clearly years ago, and unfortunately that assessment hasnāt aged badly.
Running an old kernel + legacy driver can work for a while, but itās essentially locking your system to a snapshot in time. Itās a valid workaround, but not a sustainable solution.
Thatās exactly why I eventually stopped fighting it and switched to an AMD-based ASUS ROG laptop. Same Linux stack, same workloads ā and suddenly no driver drama, no kernel pinning, no surprises. It just works.
Given how affordable decent used hardware has become, especially on the second-hand market, I personally find it hard to justify clinging to unsupported NVIDIA mobile GPUs if Linux is meant to be a daily driver rather than a maintenance project.
Of course everyoneās situation is different ā but if āsleeping well after updatesā matters, modern AMD hardware makes Linux life a lot calmer.