NVIDIA 560 Linux Driver Beta Released - Defaults To Open GPU Kernel Modules

NVIDIA today released their first Linux beta driver in the new R560 driver release branch. Coming days after their NVIDIA 560 Windows driver, out this morning is the NVIDIA 560.28.03 beta Linux driver.

As expected, with the NVIDIA 560 Linux driver for Turing and newer GPUs with the GPU System Processor (GSP), the NVIDIA Open GPU kernel modules are preferred by default on driver installation rather than the proprietary kernel modules. The NVIDIA proprietary kernel modules will continue to be supported for older GPUs and those specifically wanting to use the proprietary kernel modules. NVIDIA's user-space components remain the same and are closed-source, but great to see the NVIDIA open-source kernel driver bits being mature enough to now be preferred over the proprietary ones on supported GPUs.

With the NVIDIA 560.28.03 Linux driver, Variable Rate Refresh (VRR) is now working for notebooks on the open kernel modules as a previously missing feature now addressed.

Also notable with the NVIDIA 560 Linux driver is the EGL_KHR_platform_x11 and EGL_EXT_platform_xcb EGL extensions now being supported on XWayland.

The 560 driver also adds a PipeWire backend to NvFBC so that it works with most Wayland compositors supporting screencasting via the XDG Desktop Portal. There is also support for multiple concurrent clients to the NvFBC direct capture.

Some other NVIDIA 560 Linux driver changes include DRM-KMS explicit sync support via the IN_FENCE_FD mode setting property and support for VRR on Wayland with pre-Volta GPUs. There is also an update to glXWaitVideoSyncSGI() so it's more efficient and should help reduce frame stutter with some KDE configurations.

Downloads and more details on today's NVIDIA 560.28.03 Linux driver release via NVIDIA.com.