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I am brand new to the world of linux and don't really know what I'm doing. I replaced my old windows 7 with ubuntu 14.04 and I'm trying to get the lay of the land. One subject that I've heard brought up repeatedly is graphics card drivers. Do I need to install one? I started up portal 2 and it played but the graphics quality seemed to be lower than usual.

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    Open the terminal and run the command: ubuntu-drivers devices to tell you the recommended proprietary graphics driver for your graphics card.
    – karel
    Feb 11, 2015 at 15:12
  • See the answers to askubuntu.com/questions/178636/…
    – user68186
    Feb 11, 2015 at 15:18

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Ubuntu comes with some preinstalled open-source graphic drivers (Xorg). They are enough for office and some games, but of course they get far less power out of your graphics hardware than a proprietary driver would do. Its advantage is that it is open-source and pretty stable, while proprietary drivers (e.g. those from nVidia) often cause problems and are complicated to install correctly.
So you have to decide between simplicity, flexibility and stability (Xorg) and advanced capabilities and best use of the card's power (proprietary).

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