The Open-Source NVIDIA/Nouveau vs. NVIDIA Linux Driver At The End Of 2019 - Poor But A Lot Of Hope

[hotaru]

selects i9 processor.

there's your problem right there. Dell knows that anyone who chooses an i9 cares more about showing off how much money they wasted than about actually using the computer.

[loganj]

yoshi314 so thats nvidia problem? since others are not able to do what they did it somehow became nvidia's problem. the way i see it its like all people blaming nvidia for what others can't achieve. they gave you the hardware and provided the driver for it but somehow its still not good because they don't open their drivers/whatever like amd did. but if you look at amd, navi still has no support for opencl even after so many months from its release. no wonder you have to stick with nvidia. is amd opencl also proprietary software?

[bridgman]

yoshi314 but if you look at amd, navi still has no support for opencl even after so many months from its release. no wonder you have to stick with nvidia.

???

Navi has had OpenCL support for Linux since launch day.

The only thing missing right now is official ROCm stack support for Navi, although kernel support is upstream and userspace is running internally.

yoshi314 is amd opencl also proprietary software?

The ROCm stack version of OpenCL is open source; the packaged version included with AMDGPU-PRO is not, although >95% of the packaged OpenCL code is the same as what we *do* release in open source form as part of ROCm OpenCL and AMDVLK Vulkan.

The only closed source bit left AFAIK is the glue code between the OpenCL runtime and PAL, but since we are gradually moving to using ROCm for all the compute paths that last bit will become obsolete over time anyways.

https://github.com/RadeonOpenCompute...OpenCL-Runtime

[loganj]

bridgman ok. sorry for talking bs. i thought that navi does not has opencl support under linux. all i found about it was under windows. i have to admit i didn't search too deep since i don't own any amd cards. and thanks for info about ROCm and AMDGPU-PRO.

[CochainComplex]

CochainComplex OneTimeShot but again you are not forced to buy it. im sure you can build your own station (like i always do) or find a station with amd gpus. some vendors even let you configure your station before purchase. i'm pretty sure you have alternatives to nvidia.

In my company I have to choose Dell - which isnt that bad but for mobile workstations there is not a lot to choose if you want the most powerfull ones (eg Precission 7X40 - least powerfull gpu amd then 4 more powerfull choices ..nvidia).

p.s.: if I have the abiltiy to build my own rig it is the first thing i would do use amd cards. But with notebooks you have a rather reduced set of options to build it by your own

[CochainComplex]

there's your problem right there. Dell knows that anyone who chooses an i9 cares more about showing off how much money they wasted than about actually using the computer.

well ..my company has a contract with Dell. I can not choose another supplier.

[loganj]

CochainComplex is that your own company? cool. plus do you use linux there? also, at my office (where we use only a linux server) we use to buy dell too and the guys from IT were in contact with the guys from dell for the configuration of the stations. Anyway we gave up dell and switch to a regional brand. Why people thinks that dell is the only one on the market?

[CochainComplex]

yoshi314 so thats nvidia problem? since others are not able to do what they did it somehow became nvidia's problem. the way i see it its like all people blaming nvidia for what others can't achieve. they gave you the hardware and provided the driver for it but somehow its still not good because they don't open their drivers/whatever like amd did. but if you look at amd, navi still has no support for opencl even after so many months from its release. no wonder you have to stick with nvidia. is amd opencl also proprietary software?

There are a few market principles - Monopoly (Pseudo-Monopoly) arent good for anyone. Thats the issue. One might mention the Windows Monopoly here.
Since you are here - I would assume you are using Linux and you also suffer from the Windows Dominance at one or another point.

The most recent AMD/Intel showdown on the CPU market has shown what a good competition can change even if you dont like the competitor.

Intels Monopoly had to:

- lower Prices
- increase Corecount
- accelerate 7nm approaches

This is what Intel Fanboys gain because of a strong competitor.

And btw sometimes Monopoly is not gained by classic free market principles - just to spin you imagination ...https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/b...14compete.html

[CochainComplex]

CochainComplex is that your own company? cool. plus do you use linux there? also, at my office (where we use only a linux server) we use to buy dell too and the guys from IT were in contact with the guys from dell for the configuration of the stations. Anyway we gave up dell and switch to a regional brand. Why people thinks that dell is the only one on the market?

sorry engl is not my native tounge - I mean the company I m working for. it is a physics research institute with around 3000 employes. I have no idea what kind of contract they have with dell. But it is rather difficult to get a "out of line" device unless it is some special measurement equipment. I tried to but a mobile workstation is too ordinary to justify the extra paperwork.

[loganj]

CochainComplex im using both windows and linux at home. mostly linux since d9vk started to work for the game that i play. at work there is no way to use linux. our software has no linux version and im pretty sure there will not be a linux version for the next 10 years if not forever.
now to come back to the topic. i use nvidia 970 card for a few years now. before i was with intel gpu on 3570k and before that radeon card i forgot the number and before that a geforce. cpus are the same i had amd, intel, intel, and now amd.
i dont really care who makes the driver as long as it works. and nvidia works on linux pretty well. i don't have to switch countless versions of drivers like you need to do for amd in order to work. its only 1 and works. the only downside of nvidia proprietary driver is that its not always ready for new kernels. but as i said before i think that the problem is not necesary on nvidia side only as is on kernel side also since kernels keep changing without a care for backward compatibility for drivers. like their saying "its not opensource, we don't care"
there are so many hardwares that have no opensource drivers and its funny to see how people keep barking at nvidia for not helping the "community". why people act like this without thinking.
for now im still waiting for "something" to convince me to buy an amd gpu. but for now i prefer to pay 100$ more and have better performance and at a lower power consumption than amd. maybe next amd gpu can actually be at on par with middle nvidia cards in both performance and power consumption