Old Laptop: CPU vs. GPU Performance for Darktable and OpenCL

Software darktable
1

I have an old HP laptop 8570w with a Quadro K2000M GPU. Until today, I was using Windows 10, but PC and Darktable kept getting slower over time. Today, I tried Linux Mint 22, and it’s working unbelievably well. However, I noticed that OpenCL is not being used. I discovered that Mint 22 does not support the dedicated driver for my old GPU ( https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=427111). I could go back to Mint 21.3, where support for my GPU is still available, but before doing so, I’m wondering if the issue on Windows 10 was my old GPU itself and not Windows 10.

Is it better to use my old GPU with OpenCL on mint 21.3 or rely solely on the CPU on linux 22?

2

Give Fedora a try using the rpm fusion nvidia drivers.

3

I am completely new to the Linux world, and I read that Fedora is much more advanced compared to the beginner-friendly Mint…

4

Which Nvidia driver do you have installed? On Ubuntu 24.10, I had to install install nvidia-driver-550-server to restore support for my older 1060 card.

NVidia says you need a 390-series driver for the K2000M. You could try adding this PPA: Proprietary GPU Drivers : “Graphics Drivers” team, and install the older driver. It should give you the required pieces, see here:
https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+sourcepub/15363115/+listing-archive-extra