NVIDIA Makes Modest Update With 190.xx Linux Driver

Late last month there was a private beta driver from NVIDIA for the 190.xx Linux driver series that was leaked onto the Internet. There was no complete change-log with this leak, but we have a change-log now as NVIDIA this afternoon released its first public beta driver. The NVIDIA 190.16 Beta driver was released for Linux as their first public beta release in this forthcoming software series.

GLX protocol support was added for the following OpenGL extensions in the NVIDIA 190.xx series: 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, and GL_NV_vertex_program2. These were not the only OpenGL extensions with GLX support added, but there is quite a few unofficial ones too: 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, and GL_NV_vertex_program4.

Introduced in the NVIDIA 180.xx series was VDPAU, which is a wonderful video acceleration API for Linux, and in the 190.xx series it has matured a bit more. VDPAU is frequently tuned by NVIDIA with almost each new release it seems, and this time around there is enhanced support for handling corrupted/invalid H.264 bit-streams, enhanced detection of the GPU's video decode capabilities, and a fix for ghosting/flashing issues when decoding H.264, plus a few other VDPAU related fixes. In the NVIDIA 190.16 Beta are also a number of other fixes outside of the VDPAU realm.

OpenCL support is not mentioned in the change-log for the NVIDIA 190.16 Beta Linux driver, even though NVIDIA has its OpenCL driver ready. The full change-log and download links for this proprietary NVIDIA Linux driver update can be found on the Phoronix Forums.