This is the easiest way of getting everything working right, and it is all done through a GUI, no need to mess with xorg.conf file manually, so it is ideal for Linux noobs.
Ok, ready? Let's get started.
Firstly, if this is a new Mint install, run all updates before installing the vidio drivers to avoid having to reinstall them due to a kernel update
First, to install the drivers, i recommend using EnvyNG, if you are using Mint6, you will not have a gui for it, so do this, open a terminal and enter
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sudo envyng -t
if you are on Mint5, then you have a gui for EnvyNG, just select it from the menu,
and then install the drivers for your card, most like just use the recommended ones. after the install, reboot your computer.
If you decide you want to install the drivers manually, (I DO NOT recommend this for new users) you can download the drivers at the Nvidia web site, or if you want the beta drivers, you can go to the Nvidia Advanced Driver Search and get the betas. Download the drivers you want/need, and place them in your home folder, I recommend renaming them to something easy to remember, as the name is long, (NVIDIA-Linux-x86-177.82-pkg1.run) and you have to type it in a console to use it, (I rename mine to n.run for example). then, once all that is done, open a terminal and enter this
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sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop
Now once logged in, you want to install the drivers, cd to where you saved the the driver install, eg: if you saved it to you Desktop, you enter
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cd /home/<your user name>/Desktop
To install the driver enter this into the command line
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sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-177.82-pkg1.run
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sudo sh n.run
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sudo reboot
Once your system reboots, login as usual. You will notice that your resolution is set at 800x600, this is an easy fix.
Hit alt+F2, and enter this
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gksu nvidia-settings
In the menu on the left, select "X Server Display Configuration",
then in the main pain, you will see an option for resolution,
set that to whatever your screen resolution should be through the drop-down menu, and hit apply.
Then a box will come up asking if you would like to keep the current settings, if they are correct, just select ok. once all this is done, click on "Save to X Configuration File"
a dialogue box will come up, just select ok to everything in there. Now your settings have been saved to your xorg.conf, and you didn't have to do any dirty config inside the file, it is all done for you through a gui, and now when you reboot, your settings will be the same as you just set them to. I hope this helps.