Open-Source Driver Flips On OpenGL ES 3.1 For Select NVIDIA GeForce 200 Series GPUs

Sadly there isn't much to report on at this time around improved open-source "Nouveau" driver support for the recent GeForce RTX 20 and RTX 30 series while even the GTX 900 and GTX 1000 series graphics processors are in poor shape for this unofficial driver. But when it comes to the aging GeForce 200 series, select models there are finally seeing OpenGL ES 3.1 supported by this open-source driver.

Mesa 21.2 with the latest Git development code for the Nouveau NV50 Gallium3D driver has exposed OpenGL ES 3.1 for select GeForce 200 series GPUs. Receiving GLES 3.1 support in the GeForce 200 series are the DirectX 10.1 class GPUs, which amount to the GT21x GPUs as with the GeForce GT 210/220/240 where as the other 200 series parts were only at DirectX 10.0.

This long overdue OpenGL ES 3.1 support for the DirectX 10.1 class GPUs with the Nouveau NV50 Gallium3D driver was worked on in recent weeks by Ilia Mirkin via nv50, st/mesa: expose ES 3.1 on the NVIDIA DX10.1-class GPUs, make st/mesa not over-expose functionality. Ilia commented in the MR, "From running the tests, there appear to still be some graphics/compute pipeline interop issues. However all the features, except for "advanced" textureGather, are supported by the hardware / fallbacks."

That open-source OpenGL ES 3.1 support for these 2009 era GPUs will be found in next quarter's Mesa 21.2.