Modern Linux and unsupported nVidia GPU's

(Video cards / chips in other words)

You may already know that AMD / ATI GPU are most often problematic in many modern Linux distros. This is mostly due to AMD's failure to update their driver.
There are free drivers that do work and often used by default installs of Linux, in most cases. The AMD proprietarty drivers often do not work well.

That said,
Intel and nVidia are the most recommended and usually less problematic GPU's.
For Linux many drivers available for these, both free and propriety.

Now less known to new people is that older nVidia cards are now often not supported by the newer nVidia proprietary drivers.

So when you are thinking of running Linux on that old Gaming PC or laptop, it pays to do you research about what Distro (Linux Distribution) have drivers that support it, especially for gaming.

Here's quote from a page from the AntiX - MX Wiki Unsupported Nvidia GPUs - which gives some good information.

Quote

Section:
Hardware

On this page:

173xx series
96xx series
71xx series
Links

173xx series

The following set of Nvidia GPUs are no longer supported in Debian Jessie, MX-15 or antiX-15 by the 173xx series proprietary nvidia driver (or any other series of the proprietary nvidia driver). They are still supported by the nouveau and vesa drivers.

NVIDIA GPU product Device PCI ID
GeForce PCX 5750 0x00FA
GeForce PCX 5900 0x00FB
Quadro FX 330/GeForce PCX 5300 0x00FC
Quadro FX 330/Quadro NVS 280 PCI-E 0x00FD
Quadro FX 1300 0x00FE
GeForce FX 5800 Ultra 0x0301
GeForce FX 5800 0x0302
Quadro FX 2000 0x0308
Quadro FX 1000 0x0309
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra 0x0311
GeForce FX 5600 0x0312
GeForce FX 5600XT 0x0314
GeForce FX Go5600 0x031A
GeForce FX Go5650 0x031B
Quadro FX Go700 0x031C
GeForce FX 5200 0x0320
GeForce FX 5200 Ultra 0x0321
GeForce FX 5200 0x0322
GeForce FX 5200LE 0x0323
GeForce FX Go5200 0x0324
GeForce FX Go5250 0x0325
GeForce FX 5500 0x0326
GeForce FX 5100 0x0327
GeForce FX Go5200 32M/64M 0x0328
Quadro NVS 55/280 PCI 0x032A
Quadro FX 500/FX 600 0x032B
GeForce FX Go53xx 0x032C
GeForce FX Go5100 0x032D
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra 0x0330
GeForce FX 5900 0x0331
GeForce FX 5900XT 0x0332
GeForce FX 5950 Ultra 0x0333
GeForce FX 5900ZT 0x0334
Quadro FX 3000 0x0338
Quadro FX 700 0x033F
GeForce FX 5700 Ultra 0x0341
GeForce FX 5700 0x0342
GeForce FX 5700LE 0x0343
GeForce FX 5700VE 0x0344
GeForce FX Go5700 0x0347
GeForce FX Go5700 0x0348
Quadro FX Go1000 0x034C
Quadro FX 1100 0x034E
96xx series

The following set of Nvidia GPUs are no longer supported in Debian Jessie, MX-15 or antiX-15 by the 96xx series proprietary nvidia driver (or any other series of the proprietary nvidia driver). They are still supported by the nouveau and vesa drivers.

NVIDIA chip name Device PCI ID
GeForce2 MX/MX 400 0x0110
GeForce2 MX 100/200 0x0111
GeForce2 Go 0x0112
Quadro2 MXR/EX/Go 0x0113
GeForce4 MX 460 0x0170
GeForce4 MX 440 0x0171
GeForce4 MX 420 0x0172
GeForce4 MX 440-SE 0x0173
GeForce4 440 Go 0x0174
GeForce4 420 Go 0x0175
GeForce4 420 Go 32M 0x0176
GeForce4 460 Go 0x0177
Quadro4 550 XGL 0x0178
GeForce4 440 Go 64M 0x0179
Quadro NVS 0x017A
Quadro4 500 GoGL 0x017C
GeForce4 410 Go 16M 0x017D
GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X 0x0181
GeForce4 MX 440SE with AGP8X 0x0182
GeForce4 MX 420 with AGP8X 0x0183
GeForce4 MX 4000 0x0185
Quadro4 580 XGL 0x0188
Quadro NVS 280 SD 0x018A
Quadro4 380 XGL 0x018B
Quadro NVS 50 PCI 0x018C
GeForce2 Integrated GPU 0x01A0
GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU 0x01F0
GeForce3 0x0200
GeForce3 Ti 200 0x0201
GeForce3 Ti 500 0x0202
Quadro DCC 0x0203
GeForce4 Ti 4600 0x0250
GeForce4 Ti 4400 0x0251
GeForce4 Ti 4200 0x0253
Quadro4 900 XGL 0x0258
Quadro4 750 XGL 0x0259
Quadro4 700 XGL 0x025B
GeForce4 Ti 4800 0x0280
GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X 0x0281
GeForce4 Ti 4800 SE 0x0282
GeForce4 4200 Go 0x0286
Quadro4 980 XGL 0x0288
Quadro4 780 XGL 0x0289
Quadro4 700 GoGL 0x028C
71xx series

The following set of Nvidia GPUs are no longer supported in Debian Jessie, MX-15 or antiX-15 by the 71xx series proprietary nvidia driver (or any other series of the proprietary nvidia driver -- actually, they haven't been supported since the Debian Lenny Release). They are still supported by the nouveau and vesa drivers.

NVIDIA chip name Device PCI ID
RIVA TNT 0x0020
RIVA TNT2/TNT2 Pro 0x0028
RIVA TNT2 Ultra 0x0029
Vanta/Vanta LT 0x002C
RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro 0x002D
Aladdin TNT2 0x00A0
GeForce 256 0x0100
GeForce DDR 0x0101
Quadro 0x0103
GeForce2 GTS/GeForce2 Pro 0x0150
GeForce2 Ti 0x0151
GeForce2 Ultra 0x0152
Quadro2 Pro 0x0153


Link - nVidia - What's a legacy driver?

Other places to look for driver related stuff:

DistroWatch

google or wikipedia

ubuntu https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport

Ubuntu 16.04 ships with X.Org version 7.7. https://www.x.org/wiki/Projects/Drivers/

X.org - Details on supported graphics hardware and pointing devices https://www.x.org/wiki/FAQ/

https://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/

https://wiki.archlinux.org/
has pages on laptops too - just note that Arch is now supporting only x64 now and dropping 32bit support