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Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

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Re: Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

#51

Post by dogma1138 »

andromeduck wrote: post #47
dogma1138 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and no, while opt-in is important for privacy and other concerns the problem is that virtually no one opts in.

Real issue here though is it doesn't seem like they have an opt out option.

There is, don't install Geforce Experience, GFE has always sent some data to NVIDIA now they are also collecting driver telemetry.

GFE requires a separate installation and for you to signup and login.

This isn't a service required for you to get GPU drivers.

The only thing you lose is NVIDIA's screen capture software and game optimization (and some deals sometimes).

You can still use your card to the fullest without it.

Source: I have the latest drivers and don't have GFE, the telemetry software is part of the update core which is currently installed with GFE.

Re: Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

#52

Post by andromeduck »

wwalexander wrote: post #33
KirinDave wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Firstly for all the previous things they have done, for example their lack of driver support for free operating systems which is why Linus said this It is not Nvidia's job to prop up the desktop linux ecosystem. It's wise not to invest time in that ecosystem, as far as I can tell. It's got an ongoing history of disappointing its customers and vendors over and over. And we get good enough computational support ever…

NVIDIA could release documentation on their hardware that would make it easier for Nouveau developers to do their work, but they don't. Nobody is asking for free labor on a low-marketshare OS.

Unlikely to happen without major business motivation/incentives to do so. Right now outside that small community, nobody really cares if it's open source or not as long as it works well and it does.

Re: Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

#53

Post by swiley »

eswat wrote: post #35

Maybe I haven’t looked hard enough, but I’m surprised this and the forced login for GeForce Experience didn’t make a bigger wave amongst gamers, who’ve historically been very vocal about questionable decisions that provide far more value to the business than to the gamers.

I think most of the people who care about this sort of thing don't play games much anymore or are just used to it. Most games do something similar now.

Re: Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

#54

Post by andromeduck »

z3t4 wrote: post #11
EpicEng wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why, exactly?

Nvidia do not want to support linux nor themselves or let anyone else do it.

They've had the best 3D drivers on Linux for years. There were issues with Optimus and Ion but IIRC a lot of it was legal and issues with Linux's driver infra back then meant it required far more effort than it was worth at the time.

Re: Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

#55

Post by Coding_Cat »

existencebox wrote: post #32
lightedman wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" AMD's cards simply cannot compete with Nvidia for GPGPU type scenarios" Really? Which brand of GPU pretty much ran Bitcoin during its inception, again?

You're absolutely right, HOWEVER, I would call that the exception rather than the rule, as IIRC it was largely due to AMD supporting some operators in a more native/optimized form than Nvidia did at the time, than any sort of true general purpose superiority. Given how quickly mining moved to ASICS I wouldn't use that as an advocation that they're (ASICS) superior to Nvidia for GPGPU functionality. (Special-purpose s…

Per dollar, AMD performs much better than nVidia for a significant number of cases[1] and they have much larger memory. However, this is comparing an equally optimized implementation. Unfortunately nVidia simply has much more optimized content availible.

https://streamcomputing.eu/blog/2016-05-06/noticeable-proces...

Re: Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

#56

Post by andromeduck »

ajnin wrote: post #34
existencebox wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I welcome the capitalistic response, I'm worried it won't be enough. As much as I'd love true competition in the GPU/CPU space, it doesn't exist. AMD's cards simply cannot compete with Nvidia for GPGPU type scenarios, and even in its basic capacity, often have known heat/perf issues. Now that may be worth it for now to make a statement against the telemetry, but what if (less if and more when IMO) AMD then…

AMD are already doing sneaky things with their driver autoupdate on Windows, they put the checkbox below the "upgrade" button, prechecked and with a large spacing so it is likely you don't see it immediately and click "upgrade" before you realize it, and they also present the checkbox at least twice, rechecking it if you unchecked it previously. So I fear that after that move by Nvidia they'll feel empowered to push…

What was the checkbox for?

Re: Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

#57

Post by frik »

webkike wrote: post #39
nobodyshere wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I simply uninstalled the whole thing. Will download drivers manually now. Same for razer synapse. Anything that requires me to have an account for no obvious reason has no place on my system.

Likewise. I originally downloaded GeForce experience when I was installing my drivers. When I noticed login was required I uninstalled and downloaded the drivers manually.

Probably many experienced user do that. Same with Windows since XP. Yet the companies don't learn and use such biased telemetry data for statistics and decide based on them. I wonder if Office and Windows UI got worse and worse, because of reading to much into telemetry data? The WindowsVista devs wrre pretty open in their official blog about it back then. And remember how it tanked, and that was just a small thing compared to the big failure of Win8/10 UI. Such companies need a CEO or CTO who tests their products themself like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates did, it worked fine as long the were the leader.

Re: Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

#58

Post by idobai »

KirinDave wrote: post #19
bnmillar wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firstly for all the previous things they have done, for example their lack of driver support for free operating systems which is why Linus said this, their lack of Free Software drivers, their tight lockdown on proprietary technologies like PhysX that hurts portability and hurts non-Nvidia users and finally default collection of telemetry data is a highly unethical practice and the inclusion of the extra code to do i…

> Firstly for all the previous things they have done, for example their lack of driver support for free operating systems which is why Linus said this It is not Nvidia's job to prop up the desktop linux ecosystem. It's wise not to invest time in that ecosystem, as far as I can tell. It's got an ongoing history of disappointing its customers and vendors over and over. And we get good enough computational support ever…

> It's wise not to invest time in that ecosystem, as far as I can tell.

It'd be wise to educate yourself before forming a claim.

> It's got an ongoing history of disappointing its customers and vendors over and over.

Not so much as m$ and apple.

> The way you talk makes it sound like it's a religious or political debate.

This reflects you even more.

> Isn't Hacker News a place where we're supposed to keep politics at bay and focus on the technology?

Then why you bash linux instead of those pseudo-intellectual alternatives?

Re: Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

#60

Post by lsmarigo »

eswat wrote: post #35

Maybe I haven’t looked hard enough, but I’m surprised this and the forced login for GeForce Experience didn’t make a bigger wave amongst gamers, who’ve historically been very vocal about questionable decisions that provide far more value to the business than to the gamers.

historically been very vocal about questionable decisions that provide far more value to the business than to the gamers.

Maybe true historically - but in recent years publishers have figured out a formula to subvert criticism (review embargos, sponsored reviews, reddit astroturfing). There's no action after the complaining, it's all bark, they still buy the game, little bit of heat on reddit/twitter but then you still set sales records. See The Division, No Man's Sky.

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