Nvidia submits patches to open source driver
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Nvidia submits patches to open source driver
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Re: Nvidia submits patches to open source driver
#2On a somewhat related (non-mobile) note, I really regret buying my AMD 5870 three years ago. Things have changed quite a bit in that nvidia has done some serious work on their Linux binary drivers, while AMD's has been utterly unimpressive, if not embarrassingly bad.
I understand that Linux has been a lesser priority for both companies, which is understandable. It's not going to make them the truckloads of money that the rest of their market segments will. But to do silly things like release official Linux binary drivers without so much as a changelog just reeks. They got enough bad blood from that to start releasing drivers with changelogs again, but support for kernels/xorg server versions still typically lags far behind nvidia's. And I can't do something as simple as run multiple monitors without seeing all kinds of weird graphical artifacts with high frequency.
My next card with be an nvidia if things continue on their current trajectory. I know that their binary drivers aren't perfect, but compared to AMD...
Edit: Also, I can't use the OSS drivers, so they don't weigh into my buying decision at all. Good on AMD for doing better there, but the binary drivers are the only ones that can run my setup.
Re: Nvidia submits patches to open source driver
#3On a somewhat related (non-mobile) note, I really regret buying my AMD 5870 three years ago. Things have changed quite a bit in that nvidia has done some serious work on their Linux binary drivers, while AMD's has been utterly unimpressive, if not embarrassingly bad. I understand that Linux has been a lesser priority for both companies, which is understandable. It's not going to make them the truckloads of money that…
It has been interesting to watch the effect of Linus telling Nvidia to f*ck off.
Re: Nvidia submits patches to open source driver
#4On a somewhat related (non-mobile) note, I really regret buying my AMD 5870 three years ago. Things have changed quite a bit in that nvidia has done some serious work on their Linux binary drivers, while AMD's has been utterly unimpressive, if not embarrassingly bad. I understand that Linux has been a lesser priority for both companies, which is understandable. It's not going to make them the truckloads of money that…
The sad part is that, being on console hardware for a long time with chip derived from their main lines (and being in all 3 "main" consoles of this new generation), AMD obviously already has some great drivers for *nix systems, so it's not like they can't do it or would have to start from scratch.
How much of that is legal impossibility, secrets protection or simply not caring enough, well ...
Re: Nvidia submits patches to open source driver
#5Note that this is Tegra related, which might explain their new-found eagerness to help (unlike desktop, they don't fully "own" the mobile high performance chips market yet, and it moves very fast)
Still, a great news
Re: Nvidia submits patches to open source driver
#6On a somewhat related (non-mobile) note, I really regret buying my AMD 5870 three years ago. Things have changed quite a bit in that nvidia has done some serious work on their Linux binary drivers, while AMD's has been utterly unimpressive, if not embarrassingly bad. I understand that Linux has been a lesser priority for both companies, which is understandable. It's not going to make them the truckloads of money that…
Just to be clear you are taking about binary drivers for desktops/laptops and this news is totally about mobile (Tegra). It is commonly agreed upon knowledge that on PC platform ATI's binary drivers suck compared to Nvidia's.
However in my experience ATI's GPU docs project plus the resources they invested in getting OSS driver to properly support ATI hardware means that normal users shouldn't really need to install binary drivers if they have a recent ATI GPU. And it works good enough for 3D and power management is supported so laptops benefit too.
Nvidia's patches referenced here are for Tegra which is strictly a mobile chip - nothing to do with desktop/laptop. In desktop/laptop department NVidia's OSS support is still non existent and Nouveau doesn't work as well as OSS ATI driver due to lack of documentation.
Re: Nvidia submits patches to open source driver
#7On a somewhat related (non-mobile) note, I really regret buying my AMD 5870 three years ago. Things have changed quite a bit in that nvidia has done some serious work on their Linux binary drivers, while AMD's has been utterly unimpressive, if not embarrassingly bad. I understand that Linux has been a lesser priority for both companies, which is understandable. It's not going to make them the truckloads of money that…
Just to be clear you are taking about binary drivers for desktops/laptops and this news is totally about mobile (Tegra). It is commonly agreed upon knowledge that on PC platform ATI's binary drivers suck compared to Nvidia's. However in my experience ATI's GPU docs project plus the resources they invested in getting OSS driver to properly support ATI hardware means that normal users shouldn't really need to install b…
I only have limited experience with AMD chips: helping friends and family get Ubuntu running on their desktops and laptops. I have been sticking to Nvidia for the past 10 years whenever a Linux box is involved. I have to say that while the AMD/ATI OSS drivers do work, getting them working can be an exercise in the mystical arts.
The most recent issue was getting my brother's HP laptop to run Ubuntu. The OS installed but would not launch the X server. The fact that there are multiple different drivers possible for his card made matters much more confusing and neither the official docs nor the Ubuntu forums provided any ready-made answers past "install package X" which we did. I was able to get it to work but it took hours.
On the other hand the Nvidia binary blobs just work. You install it and start the X server. That's it. They don't seem to be bothered by the kernel upgrades when running Ubuntu either.
As far as I'm concerned, just buy Nvidia. Welcome your binary blob overlords and don't waste time on getting things working. I do of course wish that Nvidia just open sourced their current drivers, but for me usability of the system out of the box is worth much more than having or not having yet another binary blob.
Re: Nvidia submits patches to open source driver
#8On a somewhat related (non-mobile) note, I really regret buying my AMD 5870 three years ago. Things have changed quite a bit in that nvidia has done some serious work on their Linux binary drivers, while AMD's has been utterly unimpressive, if not embarrassingly bad. I understand that Linux has been a lesser priority for both companies, which is understandable. It's not going to make them the truckloads of money that…
The sad part is that, being on console hardware for a long time with chip derived from their main lines (and being in all 3 "main" consoles of this new generation), AMD obviously already has some great drivers for *nix systems, so it's not like they can't do it or would have to start from scratch. How much of that is legal impossibility, secrets protection or simply not caring enough, well ...
The PS4 is the only console ever to have an AMD GPU that runs a conventional Unix (FreeBSD). Obviously Microsoft's consoles wouldn't, and Nintendo uses their clunky "IOS."
In any case, the interface exposed by most consoles to game developers is significantly lower level than anything resembling a desktop graphics driver, especially since each platform only has to support a single GPU configuration, so I highly doubt there's any useful (for our purposes) code tied up in there.
Re: Nvidia submits patches to open source driver
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just to be clear you are taking about binary drivers for desktops/laptops and this news is totally about mobile (Tegra). It is commonly agreed upon knowledge that on PC platform ATI's binary drivers suck compared to Nvidia's. However in my experience ATI's GPU docs project plus the resources they invested in getting OSS driver to properly support ATI hardware means that normal users shouldn't really need to install b…
I only have limited experience with AMD chips: helping friends and family get Ubuntu running on their desktops and laptops. I have been sticking to Nvidia for the past 10 years whenever a Linux box is involved. I have to say that while the AMD/ATI OSS drivers do work, getting them working can be an exercise in the mystical arts. The most recent issue was getting my brother's HP laptop to run Ubuntu. The OS installed…
That's odd. What laptop was that? There really shouldn't be any reason for all but newest ATI GPUs to not work out of box.
With nvidia the terrible stability and kernel upgrade hassles plus the need to externally install the drivers means it should be much uglier an experience than out of box ATI OSS drivers. Anyway as long as it works...
Re: Nvidia submits patches to open source driver
#10On a somewhat related (non-mobile) note, I really regret buying my AMD 5870 three years ago. Things have changed quite a bit in that nvidia has done some serious work on their Linux binary drivers, while AMD's has been utterly unimpressive, if not embarrassingly bad. I understand that Linux has been a lesser priority for both companies, which is understandable. It's not going to make them the truckloads of money that…
As someone who has bought both brands recently-ish, I have to say I would VASTLY prefer AMD over Nvidia for Linux compatible graphics cards. I found that the community-provided AMD drivers where leagues ahead of Nvidia proprietary and community drivers (in terms of shear usability).
Here's a thread where I test my Nvidia 670 and my AMD 6870 in Linux. I explain why I like one over the other:
http://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/1vpngo/which...