Hey all, just got a Geforce 5070 to replace my 2070 from years ago. Ubuntu’s been pretty smooth sailing for me until now, and I’m not exactly the best at navigating this stuff.
When Ubuntu starts to boot, the GPU stops outputting display to my monitor. As though it doesn’t detect the new GPU. I tried putting the 2070 back in and downloading the 570 drivers but it didn’t change anything. I found a tutorial for what seemed to be my issue that asked me to change the kernel, but halfway through the tutorial, commands that worked on their machine started failing on mine. I wish I’d documented what the error messages were because when I went to poke around more today, I got a message about kernel panic and can’t even boot with the 2070. Where do I go from here?
SOLUTION: Went back and got an AMD GPU. Worked out of the box. Thanks to all who helped. Would have kept trying but I only have so much time for troubleshooting right now.
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I had problems with my 3080 and Ubuntu having a flickering screen. Eventually I switched from displayport cable to hdmi and that fixed the issue.
It’s a bit of a conundrum, because if you cannot figure out how to force update the kernel on Ubuntu, then it’s likely rolling release will cause you endless pain, but that’s what you need for Blackwell right now. Maybe try Tumbleweed or even one of the Arch installers such as Endeavor OS.
It might just be a card issue rather than a linux issue. I bought a new CPU a few months ago that was dead on arrival. Had to return it. Bought it brand new. So it’s something to double check.
Definitely a worthy advice. Many times it’s just bad hardware, not OS.
Is it sending HDR to a screen that can’t display it
The monitors have high enough resolution. The one I have connected now is 2560x1440.
HDR = High Dynamic Range. It’s a different color format that non-HDR displays can’t speak and output no input/blank screen/whatever the monitor does for a malformed video stream
Nvidia
fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me
Can you boot in safe mode and install the new open source drivers?
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A few things in this post are not accurate. The 5070 is supported by the nVidia Linux drivers since version 570.124.04. There’s also absolutely nothing wrong with using Ubuntu. They have a PPA for the newer nVidia drivers, which work fine with the current LTS release.
OP doesn’t say what kernel they’re running, or what version of Ubuntu. That would be useful information to have.
I was running 6.14.
I mean, there are quite a few others than Arch+family that package a very recent kernel too. Fedora as you mentioned, but also NixOS, openSUSE Tumbleweed and even Gentoo if you’re that kind of a person. I bet I missed some.
But yeah Ubuntu is not necessarily one of them
try a live usb
Which tutorial were you following?
Which version of Ubuntu are you using?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o5deOXLDpZw
Installed it new only a few months ago, it should be 24.04.3
When Linux boots, it does not always use the first port on the video card. Sometimes the bios will display on the onboard video, then when the kernel boots, it will change to a different video port. I find with multiple video ports, its best to plug in all of them till you figure out which ones work. Nvidia is not well supported, and most video cards have problems in Linux. Generally, if you have to use a proprietary driver, it will have specific issues. The free drivers will just be buggy. Best is to see what cards are known to work well. There are maintained, well there used to be, lists of hardware that works well. If you installed proprietary drivers, they are often difficult to remove. There is not always instructions on how to uninstall. So part of your problems might be the drivers.
Not to sound like a smartass, but did you check BIOS to make sure it’s everything is running properly?
One thing that comes to mind is that the 50series is only supperted by the open version of the proprietary Nvidia drivers. The closed version doesn’t support your new GPU, but would work with your old GPU. Do you know which version you installed?
You did plug in the GPU power cables as described in the manual, right?
Yeah lol the GPU is observably receiving power. Lights and fan come on as everything starts up and they stay on. The green safety light is on. I don’t think it’s a power issue.
That doesn’t exclude a power issue. A lot of cards will light up and spin up even without enough power, then stop responding once something actually tries to use its capabilities.
Fair enough then, I’ve just checked the recommended wattage. My PSU is 650W and that’s exactly what the GPU recommends.
Most GPUs will have fan spin & lights if only on pcie power (the pcie slot provides 75W without external connection), but then misbehave during display; I know it sounds stupid but make sure the 12V power connector on the top of the card is firmly plugged in, that connector in particular has a reputation for being unreliable.
You sure your PSU can handle that card? Sounds like you may not have enough wattage.
Yes, I have a 650W PSU which is the recommended wattage.
Run ‘nvidia-smi’ and post the output
Mon Aug 11 19:17:03 2025
±----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | NVIDIA-SMI 570.158.01 Driver Version: 570.158.01 CUDA Version: 12.8 | |-----------------------------------------±-----------------------±---------------------+ | GPU Name Persistence-M | Bus-Id Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC | | Fan Temp Perf Pwr:Usage/Cap | Memory-Usage | GPU-Util Compute M. | | | | MIG M. | |=========================================+========================+======================| | 0 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 … Off | 00000000:09:00.0 On | N/A | | 0% 37C P8 18W / 235W | 481MiB / 8192MiB | 2% Default | | | | N/A | ±----------------------------------------±-----------------------±---------------------+±----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Processes: | | GPU GI CI PID Type Process name GPU Memory | | ID ID Usage | |=========================================================================================| | 0 N/A N/A 2099 G /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg 143MiB | | 0 N/A N/A 2358 G /usr/bin/gnome-shell 105MiB | | 0 N/A N/A 2950 G …exec/xdg-desktop-portal-gnome 10MiB | | 0 N/A N/A 5684 G …/6565/usr/lib/firefox/firefox 167MiB | | 0 N/A N/A 8244 G /usr/bin/nautilus 13MiB | | 0 N/A N/A 8333 G …tcher-linux-x64/balena-etcher 20MiB | ±----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Well the driver is loaded, and you have processes engaged with it, so it’s functional.
If you’re losing output, maybe you have a conflict with the nouveau driver. Have you blacklisted it?
Honestly I haven’t even heard of a nouveau driver. I sure haven’t blacklisted it.
To be clear I got this output with my old GPU. Not sure how I would get to the command terminal with the new one.
You need to run these commands on the machine having the problem. Giving output from another machine doesn’t help solve anything.
If you’re getting dead output on your 5070, it means the driver is more than likely NOT loaded, so the output will be different.
Boot the 5070, and when you get a black screen, hit ALT+F2 to drop to a console shell. Login, and run ‘nvidia-smi’, and you should get something that confirms it’s loaded, or something that says it is not loaded.
If it’s not loaded, it means you haven’t installed the drivers (you sure you did?). Check your packages, make sure the driver is properly installed, then do this to blacklist the nouveau driver which may be in conflict.
Reboot. See if it works.
They didn’t run it on a different machine, they ran it with the old GPU is installed instead of the new one.
