Dennis HilkLinux diagnosticsDE

NVIDIA graphics

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 reference

A checked GTX 980 ID with separate evidence for a working display, kernel binding and 3D acceleration.

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On this page
  1. Overview & identity
  2. Driver & binding
  3. Firmware
  4. Read-only diagnostics
  5. Limitations & related issues
  6. References

Overview & identity

The vendor reference row 13C0 identifies a GTX 980 label; the same README also contains other device IDs under similar labels. This curated match deliberately covers only 10de:13c0, with no inference about an OEM board or mobile product.

Curated identifiers
pci 10de:13c0

A numeric match establishes a candidate family within the reviewed evidence. Marketing names, board variants, subsystem conditions and successful operation remain separate questions.

Driver & binding

The running driver may be Nouveau or NVIDIA. If Nouveau initializes a display but an application reports software rendering, inspect userspace selection separately instead of assigning the problem to the PCI match. Open and proprietary NVIDIA kernel-module flavors are a separate vendor policy decision.

  • nouveau — kernel driver/module candidate
  • nvidia — kernel driver/module candidate

Detected, bound, operational: learn the difference

Firmware

Device/revision dependent

Firmware requirements depend on the bound implementation. This reference row alone is not a firmware manifest, and the vendor open-module GSP policy must not be retroactively applied to every older device. No exact filename has been established for this selected product and driver combination.

Inspect firmware packaging on your distribution

Read-only diagnostics

Run one displayed command at a time. Replace uppercase placeholders with the affected device, interface or module from your own output. Commands are never executed here. Read-only output can still contain private identifiers.

Read the numeric PCI identity and binding

lspci -nnk -s BDF

Replace BDF with the address of the GeForce GTX 980 display function. No sudo is normally required for this summary. The numeric vendor/device pair is the evidence for identity; “Kernel driver in use” is evidence of the current binding. A “Kernel modules” list is only a list of candidates.

Confirm the owner of this PCI function

readlink /sys/bus/pci/devices/BDF/driver

Use the full domain:bus:slot.function address in BDF, for example the form shown by lspci -D. This read-only symlink normally needs no elevated privileges. Its last component names the bound driver. An absent link can also mean an unbound, removed or guest-assigned function; it does not prove that no Linux driver exists.

Read initialization and failure context

journalctl -k -b --no-pager

Keep nvidia/NVRM and Nouveau messages separate and correlate them with the selected PCI function; an Xid is a runtime error report, not a driver-installation verdict. This reads the current boot only. Correlate the PCI address and timestamps before connecting a message to this GPU. Journal access depends on local group permissions; a permission error is not a hardware result.

Read the vendor-driver userspace observation

nvidia-smi --query-gpu=pci.bus_id,name,driver_version --format=csv

This read-only query requires the NVIDIA userspace utility and a working NVIDIA driver connection, but normally no sudo. Match the returned PCI bus ID to BDF. A missing command or a driver/library error is distinct from an absent GPU; this query is not suitable for a Nouveau-only binding.

Limitations & related issues

The ID does not establish clock policy, firmware authentication state or a reliable gaming result. A working display path and a working 3D acceleration path are different observations.

These guides are linked for relevant observations, not as known defects of every device in this family.

Choose a hardware diagnostic workflow · Inspect a log excerpt in Fix Lab

References

Source review records a checked implementation or document, not a reproduced hardware test. Version-specific tables do not establish a minimum kernel or guaranteed operation.