NVIDIA Firmware Blobs Get Updated To Help Some Pascal GPUs With Nouveau

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NVIDIA Firmware Blobs Get Updated To Help Some Pascal GPUs With Nouveau

An updated firmware configuration should help some GeForce GTX 1000 "Pascal" users with their limited open-source driver support, but the situation remains a mess. Besides the fact of being binary blobs, it's more complicated this time around with the interfaces changing for what is expected by the Nouveau DRM kernel driver...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Pascal-Firmware-Fixes-Nouveau

[tildearrow]

But if/when NVIDIA will help straight out this situation remains to be seen.

The answer is "never". No matter what we do, NVIDIA isn't willing to change its closed-source game.

[schmidtbag]

The answer is "never". No matter what we do, NVIDIA isn't willing to change its closed-source game.

Eh, I'd rather say "not in the foreseeable future". Nvidia will take the path of least resistance and most profitability. Although not often, Nvidia has made contributions to Nouveau for Tegra. I'm sure they did this because they realize that Linux is a decent sized marketshare for their development platforms, but, not large enough for them to create a fresh new blob for it. So, since Nouveau already had a head-start, it makes sense Nvidia would pitch in wherever necessary for that.

So what this means is if their desktop GPUs are losing enough Linux sales due to their poor regard for open-source demands, I'm sure they will start contributing more toward Nouveau. But as it stands right now, they know people are not buying their products due to their open-source efforts (or lack thereof) and their sales are strong enough that you couldn't convince them otherwise. This is not going to change any time soon, but, it's not an impossibility, hence me saying "not in the foreseeable future".

[cl333r]

The answer is "never". No matter what we do, NVIDIA isn't willing to change its closed-source game.

It will when Intel or AMD offer competitive solutions. AMD's open source driver still can't compete with Nvidia's binary in terms of hw video decoding, speed etc and despite all these years AMD's open source driver can't beat its own closed source driver in all areas. When this changes I'll surely move to AMD, or Intel. Keep in mind we use Nvidia not because Nvidia is terrorizing us into using its products.

[win32pro]

I do have some big hopes for Intel.

[aufkrawall]

AMD's open source driver still can't compete with Nvidia's binary in terms of hw video decoding

How would that be the case? Are you aware that Polaris simply lacks VP9 support in hardware?

[tildearrow]

So what this means is if their desktop GPUs are losing enough Linux sales due to their poor regard for open-source demands, I'm sure they will start contributing more toward Nouveau.

They won't. Let me quote this:

desktop

Even if they lose 100% of their desktop Linux users, they won't open-source anything since over 95% of their sales are to Windows users, so it's not that much of a loss for them.
What would make more sense is if they lose a notable amount of their workstation users, but that's not gonna happen as workstation users will demand "certified" drivers and related, which means proprietary.

[Danniello]

I do have some big hopes for Intel.

Intel GPU with good performance and unlocked vGPU GVT-g support (in another words - VM with native DX11/12 support) - it would be great!

[tildearrow]

AMD's open source driver still can't compete with Nvidia's binary in terms of hw video decoding

More like AMD's hardware can't compete with NVIDIA's in terms of video decoding/encoding. Where's my 4:4:4?

[entropy]

AMD has followed the FOSS route for quite some years by now.
Maybe it's time to draw a conclusion.
What issues did AMD face by opening up the documentation and provide FOSS drivers for their GPUs?

I don't see what's keeping Nvidia from following that route.
What's there to fear?