Is the nvidia proprietary driver much faster (for me) than nv driver?

[Ian Malone]

Chris G wrote:
> I run fedora 8 and have a "XFX GeForce 7300GS, 256Mb DDR-2 display
> card".
> 
> Will using the nvidia proprietary X driver be noticeably faster than
> the 'standard' nv driver?  I don't play any games on my computer but I
> do some graphical stuff, my main uses are:-
> 
>     Web browsing using firefox
>     Lots of command line terminal windows
>     digikam photo album
>     VMWare running Windows XP as a guest system
> 
> I think the most likely area to be affected by better graphics drivers
> is the VMWare (Workstation 6.0.2 if that's relevant).  Can anyone tell
> me if I'll gain anything by moving to the nvidia drivers?
> 

Aside from the 3D and fonts issues the nvidia driver (as opposed to
nv) doesn't exhibit a particularly annoying bug with hardware
cursor support that the nv one does[1].  I've also noticed on this
FC6, non-compiz, system that Firefox rendering of sites like
www.gmap-pedometer.com is much faster with the nvidia driver
(or, that it is close to unusable with the nv driver).

[1] You can use a software cursor but this has its own problems.

-- 
imalone