Best distro for 6800GT?

[SquireSCA]

I have tried Linux many times, with some success, but in the end, the ATI drivers, or lack of them actually, pushed me to go back to NVidia. So I scrapped my R9800 Pro for a PNY Verto 6800GT from Fry's, who had them on sale for $329.

I have many versions of Linux here, but I am wanting to know the one that has the best and most straight-forward install procedure for NVidia drivers. I don't want to have to rewrite the OS to get the card to do 3D.

I have Mandrake 10 and 10.1, plus SuSe 9.1 Pro, and a ton of Live-CD's that I could probably install to the HD.

What do you guys suggest for a sorta Linux newbie?

If I can easily get Linux set up and configured and play some of my games, then I can leave WinXP behind for good, at least 90% of the time anyway...

[Pierre04]

Hey SquireSCA,

You and I run pretty close... I used to be ONLY ATI, now running the eVGA nVidia 6800 under Mandrake 10.0 Official on an NForce 3 chipset mobo. Runs GREAT for me. Some error messages on shut down with the nForce LAN, but otherwise it been sooooo much easier than running the ATI install attempts.

Had the nVidia card up and running in 2 hours (yes, I am a total NoOb with Linux).

Stick with the Mandrake 10.0 - I am reading that the 10.1 RC versions are great for learning troubleshooting skills at this point. Personally, if it's not "Official" version, I ain't interested.

HTH, Good Luck...