Install NVIDIA & Intel Graphics Drivers in Arch Linux (2026 Guide)
NVIDIA gets the dramatic guides because NVIDIA needs them. If your machine runs AMD or Intel graphics, driver setup on Arch is deliberately boring: the open Mesa stack is how the whole system already works, the kernel recognizes your chip at boot, and your job is mostly installing the right packages and getting out of the way. This is that quiet post.
Confirm what you actually have
lspci | grep -E "VGA|3D"
AMD cards speak to the in-kernel amdgpu driver from the first second of boot — nothing to install on that layer. The only corner case is genuinely old silicon on the retired radeon driver; from the Polaris era onward, it is all amdgpu country.
The Mesa set, AMD edition
sudo pacman -S mesa lib32-mesa vulkan-radeon lib32-vulkan-radeon
That is the entire proprietary-versus-free decision on AMD: there is no decision. The RADV Vulkan driver inside Mesa is what the Steam Deck runs on, which tells you how seriously it is maintained. AMD's old proprietary stack exists for a few professional applications; nobody gaming or browsing wants it.
Intel, and its two generations
sudo pacman -S mesa lib32-mesa vulkan-intel lib32-vulkan-intel
Modern Intel — Broadwell through Iris Xe to Arc — renders on Mesa's Iris driver, while Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge hardware falls back to the older i965 classic that still ships and still works. Same package either way; Mesa picks the right driver internally.
Video decode: VA-API
This is the part that transforms old laptops — hardware video decoding, so streaming stops cooking your CPU. Intel wants intel-media-driver for newer chips and libva-intel-driver for the old guard; AMD gets decode through Mesa's own VA-API support. Then check that it took:
sudo pacman -S libva-utils intel-media-driver
vainfo | grep "Driver version"
If vainfo names a real driver instead of complaining, you have hardware decode. Prove it in the real world with mpv --hwdec=auto video.mp4 — smooth playback at low CPU usage is the whole trophy. For the final check, glxinfo | grep "OpenGL renderer" and vulkaninfo --summary should both name your exact GPU. Then you are finished: no reboot, no black screen, no forum archaeology. This is what open drivers done right look like — absent until checked.
A stack like this runs on strangers maintaining shared ground so everyone's machine works. I think of the bakers in Gaza sharing bread under siege — the same quiet insistence that people be provided for. Sharing what keeps others running is an old human technology.
We keep an open ledger at HTG Travels: every hotel, transfer and visa fee itemized in writing before you pay, nothing discovered at the counter afterward. Transparency is just decency applied to paperwork — package lists, price lists, same principle. Ask us for the breakdown; we like that question.
