Editorial: Using NVIDIA On Linux For The First Time In 10 Years

[DanL]

What I'm really saying is that if someone doesn't think that having FOSS drivers is important than he is either stupid or illiterate.

It's important to me, but it's not the whole ballgame. That doesn't make me (or anyone who disagrees) stupid or illiterate.

No personal offence intented.

Yeah, sure... Also, if you can't distinguish between then/than and think intented is a word, you might want to be careful about calling others illiterate (and use a spellchecker).

[darkbasic]

Yeah, sure...

No really, I overstated the concept way too far to let you understand my point of view, but no offence was intended.

Also, if you can't distinguish between then/than and think intented is a word, you might want to be careful about calling others illiterate (and use a spellchecker).

Both typos, but it doesn't make me less illiterate: I'm the first one to admit my English is sub-optimal. Unfortunately the spellchecker doesn't help because my main language is Italian, so it's set to Italian (which makes almost all the words underlined, quite a mess). Do you know how to set it to automatically recognize the language?

[cyberwizzard]

I am slightly surprised at the effort it takes to get the nVidia driver going on Fedora: under (K)Ubuntu its a matter of using a GUI to get all proprietary drivers set up or simply installing it using apt/aptitude. I never had to do more than reboot once for it to start using the binary driver (nowadays).

[Passso]

then this thread has so many raving linux/open source zealots, that's my last post here.

champagne

[gamerk2]

* They lie to their customers (970)

NVIDIA didn't lie; the card contained 4GB VRAM, with the last .5 simply being accessed at a slower rate. Funny that people forget that architecturally, had NVIDIA NOT done this, they would have had to ship the card with only 3GB instead.

* They have bad drivers (on windows 10, there has been only trouble)

The NVIDIA drivers tend to be very stable (at least the WHQL certified ones). DX12/WDDM 2.0 seems to be giving them some issues, but not more then I'd expect for a new API/Driver architecture. Anyone remember the initial DX10 driver releases?

* They lock customers with technology (Cuda and almost no support for OpenCL)

NVIDIA fully supports OpenCL. And before you scream "fanboy", I counter argue "Mantle". Both companies develop APIs on their own dime, and both are free to push them.

* They deliberately make games run worse on competition cards (Gameworks...example: Witcher 3)

Gameworks does not gimp performance for AMD. Not optimizing !=Gimping performance.

[vein]

NVIDIA didn't lie; the card contained 4GB VRAM, with the last .5 simply being accessed at a slower rate. Funny that people forget that architecturally, had NVIDIA NOT done this, they would have had to ship the card with only 3GB instead.

Depends on how you look at it, I supposem for me it is lying when you dont write out on the package of the card that 0.5GB is slower...since without that there is an implication of all of the memory beeing fast...

The NVIDIA drivers tend to be very stable (at least the WHQL certified ones). DX12/WDDM 2.0 seems to be giving them some issues, but not more then I'd expect for a new API/Driver architecture. Anyone remember the initial DX10 driver releases?

Well, there has been a lot fo trouble with the windows 10 drivers...so much that people are switching to AMD. I personally know several people who have done this...but since personal experience shouldn't count as evidence, you can look at the market share... ~10% increase for amd this year...

NVIDIA fully supports OpenCL. And before you scream "fanboy", I counter argue "Mantle". Both companies develop APIs on their own dime, and both are free to push them.

The difference is that mantle became vulkan and open... I would be VERY suprised if Cuda becomes open one day...

Gameworks does not gimp performance for AMD. Not optimizing !=Gimping performance.

But still...the games using gameworks mysterically run slower on AMD cards....*sigh*

Look, I just reflected on why I don't buy Nvidia and why I don't like them as a company. It is my own preference and I am sorry, but I don't think you will be able change my mind about the matter... You can buy their cards if you want to, go ahead.

[enrico.tagliavini]

For those who might evaluate the same solution as Eric: I think RPMfusion approach for the nvidia driver is better. It's easier to understand (imho), more solid and semi-offically supported by Fedora community. It's not officially part of Fedora, however the maintainer of the package is part of Fedora. Also RPMfusion has a good reputation in the Fedora community, so simply put if you have issues you have more chances of finding help. Not to bash Negativo17, it's just my personal experience.

If you want to try the nvidia driver from rpmfusion use the official guide as a reference: https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/nVidia

Also note it mentions the Secure Boot issue and the 32 bit libraries issue. There is no dkms, just akmod version of the kernel module. For an RPM distribution as Fedora this is likely the best solution (also the akmod service comes enabled by default).

Nevertheless it's still not trivial at all for the average user.

[cj.wijtmans]

For those who might evaluate the same solution as Eric: I think RPMfusion approach for the nvidia driver is better. It's easier to understand (imho), more solid and semi-offically supported by Fedora community. It's not officially part of Fedora, however the maintainer of the package is part of Fedora. Also RPMfusion has a good reputation in the Fedora community, so simply put if you have issues you have more chances of finding help. Not to bash Negativo17, it's just my personal experience.

If you want to try the nvidia driver from rpmfusion use the official guide as a reference: https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/nVidia

Also note it mentions the Secure Boot issue and the 32 bit libraries issue. There is no dkms, just akmod version of the kernel module. For an RPM distribution as Fedora this is likely the best solution (also the akmod service comes enabled by default).

Nevertheless it's still not trivial at all for the average user.

Use a better(user friendly) distro then.

[cj.wijtmans]

Depends on how you look at it, I supposem for me it is lying when you dont write out on the package of the card that 0.5GB is slower...since without that there is an implication of all of the memory beeing fast...



Well, there has been a lot fo trouble with the windows 10 drivers...so much that people are switching to AMD. I personally know several people who have done this...but since personal experience shouldn't count as evidence, you can look at the market share... ~10% increase for amd this year...



The difference is that mantle became vulkan and open... I would be VERY suprised if Cuda becomes open one day...



But still...the games using gameworks mysterically run slower on AMD cards....*sigh*

Look, I just reflected on why I don't buy Nvidia and why I don't like them as a company. It is my own preference and I am sorry, but I don't think you will be able change my mind about the matter... You can buy their cards if you want to, go ahead.

Because AMD sucks performance wise.

[AsuMagic]

But still...the games using gameworks mysterically run slower on AMD cards....*sigh*

yes because idiots complaining about performance are enabling gameworks features. nvidia is sabotaging hairworks on amd so much that you in fact get better performance on AMD than on nvidia by changing a setting in the AMD panel in TW3.