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Open-Source NVIDIA "Nouveau" Driver Should Trip Less Often On Some GPUs With Linux 5.7

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  • Open-Source NVIDIA "Nouveau" Driver Should Trip Less Often On Some GPUs With Linux 5.7

    Phoronix: Open-Source NVIDIA "Nouveau" Driver Should Trip Less Often On Some GPUs With Linux 5.7

    Last week there were a bunch of new improvements and features for the open-source kernel graphics/display drivers merged for Linux 5.7. There were not any feature changes on the open-source NVIDIA "Nouveau" driver front while this week at least are some fixes/workarounds so it's less buggy for some hardware...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    I stopped using the Nouveau driver for anything related to full-motion video because:
    • The system would randomly lock up when the Nouveau driver was used, and No. Nvidia binary blob did not under same conditions.
    • Full-motion video would tear or get distorted on fast forwards and rewinds. Nvidia binary blob did not under same conditions.
    • Color rendering was not always accurate for "black"; tended to be a greenish-black. Nvidia binary blob renders "black" as "black".
    And No, I do not bother with bug reports on Nouveau nor with Nvidia; way too much hassle for little to no gain.

    Ok, I hate using the Nvidia binary blobs because of the hassles of waiting for the DKMS process to compile stuff. Then there is the possibility (has not happened yet) that the blob will not compile on the target system; that's the chance that I am willing to take.

    I recognize that the Nouveau team is at the mercy of Nvidia to publish the details necessary to create the open source drivers, but principle does not triumph over performance in my use cases. I prefer that my video systems work reliably and consistently across updates.

    In the end I prefer accurate color rendering, stable fast forward and rewind frame rendering, and stable systems over the open source alternative.

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    • #3
      I find it completely annoying that while PM firmware is unnecessary for Kepler and Maxwell v1 GPUs and supported by Nouveau, for some reason automatic performance level switching is still unsupported. And that alone make nouevau absolutely useless on hardware it has good feature-wise support.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by blacknova View Post
        I find it completely annoying that while PM firmware is unnecessary for Kepler and Maxwell v1 GPUs and supported by Nouveau, for some reason automatic performance level switching is still unsupported. And that alone make nouevau absolutely useless on hardware it has good feature-wise support.
        We don't support line buffering properly, so you'd get display blinks. This is fine when it happens as a result of manually running some command. Not fine when it happens every second. Some users use hot-keys to manually flip it to higher/lower perf states depending on what programs they are using.

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        • #5
          Nouveau has been exceptionally successful where I work. Granted we don't need the very greatest performance like for games but I am very happy it exists and progresses.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by imirkin View Post

            We don't support line buffering properly, so you'd get display blinks. This is fine when it happens as a result of manually running some command. Not fine when it happens every second. Some users use hot-keys to manually flip it to higher/lower perf states depending on what programs they are using.
            Thanks for explanation!

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