190.16 Beta drivers available

[deanjo]

New drivers released today

Release highlights:

• Added GLX protocol support (i.e., for GLX indirect rendering) for the following OpenGL extensions:
  • GL_ARB_draw_buffers
  • GL_EXT_Cg_shader
  • GL_EXT_gpu_program_parameters
  • GL_NV_fragment_program
  • GL_NV_gpu_program4
  • GL_NV_register_combiners
  • GL_NV_vertex_program1_1
  • GL_NV_vertex_program2
• Added unofficial GLX protocol support (i.e., for GLX indirect rendering) for the following OpenGL extensions:
  • GL_ARB_geometry_shader4
  • GL_ARB_shader_objects
  • GL_ARB_texture_buffer_object
  • GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object
  • GL_ARB_vertex_shader
  • GL_EXT_bindable_uniform
  • GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array
  • GL_EXT_geometry_shader4
  • GL_EXT_gpu_shader4
  • GL_EXT_texture_buffer_object
  • GL_NV_geometry_program4
  • GL_NV_vertex_program
  • GL_NV_parameter_buffer_object
  • GL_NV_vertex_program4
  
  GLX protocol for GL_EXT_vertex_array was also updated to incorporate rendering using GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object. Use of these extensions with GLX indirect rendering requires the AllowUnofficialGLXProtocol X configuration option and the __GL_ALLOW_UNOFFICIAL_PROTOCOL environment variable.
• Fixed a bug that caused glXGetVideoSyncSGI, glXWaitVideoSyncSGI, and glXGetRefreshRateSGI to operate on the wrong screen when there are multiple X screens.
• Fixed glXQueryVersion to report GLX version 1.4. NVIDIA's GLX version has been 1.4 for several releases, and was already reported as 1.4 in the GLX client and GLX server version strings.
• Fixed a problem that caused window border corruption when the screen is rotated.
• Fixed a bug that causes corruption or GPU errors when an application paints a redirected window whose background is set to ParentRelative on X.Org servers older than 1.5. This was typically triggered by running Kopete while using Compiz or Beryl.
• Added support for configuring the GPU PowerMizer Mode on GeForce 8 or later GPUs with multiple performance levels via nvidia-settings and NV-CONTROL.
• Fixed a bug in VDPAU that could cause visible corruption when decoding H.264 clips with alternating frame/field coded reference pictures, and a video surface is concurrently removed from the DPB, and re-used as the decode target, in a single decode operation. This affected all GPUs supported by VDPAU.
• Fixed a bug in VDPAU that could cause visible corruption near the bottom edge of the picture when decoding VC-1 advanced profile clips whose heights are not exact multiples of 16 pixels, on G98 and MCP7x (IGP) GPUs.
• Enhanced VDPAU to better handle corrupt/invalid H.264 bitstreams on G84, G86, G92, G94, G96, or GT200 GPUs. This should prevent most cases of "display preemption" that are caused by bitstream errors.
• Fixed an X server crash when using the VDPAU overlay-based presentation queue and VT-switching away from the X server.
• Enhanced VDPAU's detection of the GPU's video decode capabilities.
• Fixed a bug in VDPAU that could cause ghosting/flashing issues when decoding H.264 clips, in certain full DPB scenarios, on G98 and MCP7x.
• Fixed VDPAU to detect an attempt to destroy the VdpDevice object when other device-owned objects still exist. VDPAU now triggers "display preemption", and returns an error, when this occurs.
• Enhanced VDPAU's error handling and resource management in presentation queue creation and operation. This change correctly propagates all errors back to the client application, and avoids some resource leaks.

The 190.16 NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Graphics Driver Set for Linux/x86 is available for download via HTTP.
The 190.16 NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Graphics Driver Set for Linux/x86_64 is available for download via HTTP.

Please see the README (x86, x86_64) for more information about this release.

Please note: This NVIDIA Linux graphics driver release supports GeForce 6xxx and newer NVIDIA GPUs, GeForce4 and older GPUs are supported through the 96.43.xx and 71.86.xx NVIDIA legacy graphics drivers. GeForce FX GPUs are supported through the 173.14.xx NVIDIA legacy graphics drivers.

Please also note: If you encounter any problems with the 190.16 NVIDIA Linux graphics driver release, please start a new thread and include a detailed description of the problem, reproduction steps and generate/attach an nvidia-bug-report.log file (please see http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=46678 for details).

[lem79]

Added support for configuring the GPU PowerMizer Mode on GeForce 8 or later GPUs with multiple performance levels via nvidia-settings and NV-CONTROL.

That sounds interesting. I wonder if that would allow a gpu-frequency-scaling applet? Might give the driver a go, see if it's possible.

[deanjo]

That sounds interesting. I wonder if that would allow a gpu-frequency-scaling applet? Might give the driver a go, see if it's possible.

You could by calling on nvidia-settings if you wished or you could simply use the control already found in the control panel. Where it is handy is for mobile users who might want to force high performance mode manually when running off battery or if you are wanting to run a gpu computing app but want to keep the power usage and heat down instead of max performance.

[lem79]

Yep. My main use for it was actually to force my GTX260 to 400/300MHz (core/memory) when my 12 workspaces get busy (compiz). The lowest power state, 300/100 doesn't quite stay smooth with that much action on the desktop. The powermizer seems to change states quicker with the 190 series driver, but still not as quick as AMD Phenom or Intel Core 2 (which are both basically instantaneous).

[lem79]

Hmm, thermal monitoring seems to have disappeared.. dunno why. Was working earlier with this same driver (190.16 Beta).

[chickenfoot]

Does this driver update include anaglyph (red/cyan) stereo support? As far as I know, this is only available in the windows drivers so far.