NVIDIA 190.32 Beta Brings New VDPAU Features

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NVIDIA 190.32 Beta Brings New VDPAU Features

The NVIDIA 190.xx driver series already delivers on OpenGL 3.2 support and other new features, but continuing on with beta releases, NVIDIA's Linux engineers have released a new beta (v190.32) that brings a few more features. The NVIDIA 190.32 beta was just released in time for the weekend and one of the two prominent new features is now support for controlling the GPU's fan speed from within their Linux driver. This fan speed control support for NVIDIA graphics cards is exposed through the NV-CONTROL extension with CoolBits. The other big improvement with the NVIDIA 190.32 Linux driver comes down to yet another batch of VDPAU enhancements...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NzUxMQ

[thefirstm]

It kind of sucks that the older GPUs don't support the new formats. I wonder if something like that could be implemented with CUDA?

[nico342]

They are not implemented yet..... will they are implement with "not so old" NVIDIA hardware...? Good question. That still better than ATI with their driver.

Wait & see !

[deanjo]

They are not implemented yet..... will they are implement with "not so old" NVIDIA hardware...? Good question. That still better than ATI with their driver.

Wait & see !

If the hardware engine doesn't support it, it pretty much is a no-go. Can't call on hardware that doesn't exist.

[Moustacha]

Those are all mobile cards listed (right?) so could they just be testing it on those first and then moving to the rest of the 9-series and up?
Did they even change the video decoding hardware between the G9x chips and the 200-series cards?

[deanjo]

Those are all mobile cards listed (right?) so could they just be testing it on those first and then moving to the rest of the 9-series and up?
Did they even change the video decoding hardware between the G9x chips and the 200-series cards?

They did change the video engine in the newer cards that also feature DX 10.1. You wont see those features be added to older cards.

Decoding between the 8 series to the GTX 200 series remained unchanged with the exception of the 8400GS and the IGP's.

[Moustacha]

For those interested about which cards support what, the latest README says

ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/190.32/README/appendix-a.html
ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/190.32/README/appendix-h.html


The level of support of the different formats is quite fragmented with the NVIDIA cards. *IF* we see anything in the near future with AMDs video acceleration hopefully it's not as fragmented as NVIDIA's is. Definitely does not make things easy!

[deanjo]

For those interested about which cards support what, the latest README says

ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/190.32/README/appendix-a.html
ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/190.32/README/appendix-h.html


The level of support of the different formats is quite fragmented with the NVIDIA cards. *IF* we see anything in the near future with AMDs video acceleration hopefully it's not as fragmented as NVIDIA's is. Definitely does not make things easy!


Well as newer hardware goes out it gets new capabilities and features. Would you expect a DX7 card for example to run DX10 features?

[Moustacha]

I would expect all the same-series branded GPUs to have the same features as each other

[Kano]

Those class C chips are really too rare. Also you can not buy em as PCI-E card, so very expensive if you want to test em.

[unimatrix]

How about that 2D performance nvidia? How's that coming?

[Dragoran]

How about that 2D performance nvidia? How's that coming?

Err.. what?

2D performance is fine, in fact there xrender implementation is one of the fastest if not the fastest.

[3rdalbum]

It's a bit crap that even recent Nvidia graphics cards can't get the new VDPAU features. I bought a GTX260 two months ago and it feels like my new purchase is already obsolete.

[Kano]

Well the B class it not really needed - also it has some drawbacks, but i would like to test the new divx accelleration from the C class. Not that my pcs would not be capable of it, just to try it...

[unimatrix]

Err.. what?

2D performance is fine, in fact there xrender implementation is one of the fastest if not the fastest.

Right, It's just a coincidence that it works twice as fast on Windows with the same cards.

[greg]

Right, It's just a coincidence that it works twice as fast on Windows with the same cards.

You can thank X.org for that. :)
(Also, I haven't ever seen any comparative benchmarks between Windows an X)

[thefirstm]

You can thank X.org for that. :)
(Also, I haven't ever seen any comparative benchmarks between Windows an X)

The nvidia driver replaces alot of the Xorg files with its own, overriding the default Xorg and Mesa acceleration methods with its own (that are faster and more featureful.)

[Dragoran]

The nvidia driver replaces alot of the Xorg files with its own, overriding the default Xorg and Mesa acceleration methods with its own (that are faster and more featureful.)

mesa provides opengl acceleration (i.e 3D!) which is by no why "more featureful" that nvidia's opengl implementation (not even close).

FWIW I don't have any 2D performance issues neither with a 7600 Go, nor with a 7800 GTX nor with a GTX 285.

[thefirstm]

Mesa only supports OpenGL 2 at a max, only 1.4 on most cards. (Everything but Intel). Nvidia's implementation supports OpenGL 3.2.

[deanjo]

It's a bit crap that even recent Nvidia graphics cards can't get the new VDPAU features. I bought a GTX260 two months ago and it feels like my new purchase is already obsolete.

Well the GTX 2xx series is over a year old now.

[cmetz]

Does anyone know if the G210 and/or the GT220 that are about to be released (but are now on NVidia's web site) have video "feature set C"?

[Kano]

All DX10.1 cards have it.