I've had success with running sudo apt-get install nvidia-current. I feel like this is the most fool-proof way to install the nvidia drivers (and the change will be reflected in the additional drivers dialog)

If you have problems with the driver chosen by nvidia-current, you could try to select the other options from additional drivers and see if they work better.

If you still have problems, you could try the very latest drivers from the nvidia website, but this I think is a bit more complicated and I've personally never done it.

I try to stick with the apt package manager as much as possible when installing drivers and software.

Also, I would just stick with the open-source drivers if they are working, unless you have a reason to use the proprietary drivers.