NVK Open-Source Vulkan Driver Development Progressing On Nearly Decade Old GTX 980M

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NVK Open-Source Vulkan Driver Development Progressing On Nearly Decade Old GTX 980M

Development of the NVK open-source NVIDIA Mesa Vulkan driver is being done in part on a nearly decade old GeForce GTX 980M mobile graphics processor since at the moment it's one of the more recent NVIDIA GPUs that can be re-clocked using the existing Nouveau kernel driver code...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/GeForce-GTX-980M

[X_m7]

Oh, I didn't know that the Maxwell 2 GPUs can also be reclocked (according to the comments on Mastodon the bit that needs signed firmware is fan control, which is why the reclocking support is not upstream), interesting.

Either way, glad to hear that development on NVK is going well, and the fact that a 980M is being used here gives me some hope that my old 960M (Maxwell 1) won't be left behind.

[Mangix]

they can be reclocked but the fan cannot be controlled. not a problem for laptops where the EC controls the fan.

[bple2137]

Yep, that's the way. NVIDIA's gpu-open doesn't seem to progress and the closed driver is still kinda junk. NVIDIA should just join efforts on making Nouveau+NVK a thing or at least stop preventing it.

[jojo7887]

It's good progress and I really admire the effort being put here. With AMD being such in good shape and Intel becoming a secondary option I don't see myself buying a new NV gpu for a long while though.

I still own a GT 1030 which I could throw in a test build.

[Developer12]

Yep, that's the way. NVIDIA's gpu-open doesn't seem to progress and the closed driver is still kinda junk. NVIDIA should just join efforts on making Nouveau+NVK a thing or at least stop preventing it.

Nvidia aren't doing ANYTHING to prevent it.

You might have noticed that this card is incredibly old and is ONLY NOW getting a vulkan driver. The one, singular reason this is happening at all is that nvidia are finally playing ball.

None of this work on a vulkan driver has been even remotely worth the effort for such an old card, *unless* that vulkan work also benefits a modern card too. Nvidia are now finally releasing signed firmware for reclocking on modern cards, along with an open source reference implementation.

[bemerk]

Still wonder why they don't do the same fornolder cards. Nobody would get hurt if a full package is available

[piotrj3]

Nvidia aren't doing ANYTHING to prevent it.

You might have noticed that this card is incredibly old and is ONLY NOW getting a vulkan driver. The one, singular reason this is happening at all is that nvidia are finally playing ball.

None of this work on a vulkan driver has been even remotely worth the effort for such an old card, *unless* that vulkan work also benefits a modern card too. Nvidia are now finally releasing signed firmware for reclocking on modern cards, along with an open source reference implementation.

It has nothing to do with Nvidia playing the ball. Maxwell 2 GPUs had reclocking support, what they didn't have is fan control (so potentially you turn gpu into reactor that melts). But on laptop fan control is up to EC hardware that does the job regardless if linux has support for fan control or not. Because Turing+ GSP support stuff isn't existing in kernel GTX980M that Ekstrand has is perfect test rabbit for new drivier.

But long term we still will need that fan control for non-laptop Maxwell/Pascal GPUs and that is something we don't have solution yet. And for Turing+ we need that GSP hardware support integrated in kernel.

[Anux]

NVIDIA should just join efforts on making Nouveau+NVK a thing or at least stop preventing it.

All their customers paying insane amounts of money making them the number one in market share. It would be stupid to do anything if the customers are allready fine.

The only way Nvidia might change its attitude is if they loose many customers.

[Developer12]

It has nothing to do with Nvidia playing the ball. Maxwell 2 GPUs had reclocking support, what they didn't have is fan control (so potentially you turn gpu into reactor that melts). But on laptop fan control is up to EC hardware that does the job regardless if linux has support for fan control or not. Because Turing+ GSP support stuff isn't existing in kernel GTX980M that Ekstrand has is perfect test rabbit for new drivier.

But long term we still will need that fan control for non-laptop Maxwell/Pascal GPUs and that is something we don't have solution yet. And for Turing+ we need that GSP hardware support integrated in kernel.

Then tell me why this card didn't get a vulkan driver 10 years ago? it has nothing to do with this card having existing reclocking support.

The only reason this driver exists is because MODERN cards are getting reclocking support NOW (thanks nvidia!), and they're the real target of this work.