NVIDIA 381.26.20 Vulkan Linux Driver Brings Full-Screen Flipping

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NVIDIA 381.26.20 Vulkan Linux Driver Brings Full-Screen Flipping

While NVIDIA's Vulkan Linux driver performance has already been very good, it's potentially even better now with the newest NVIDIA Vulkan beta driver...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NVIDIA-Vulkan-381.26.20

[timofonic]

Let's see if they don't add one of their infamous "optimizations" in the driver. Have anyone researched it?

[MartinPL]

Waiting for some tests

[aufkrawall]

It is already known that Nvidia implements "hidden black magic" also into their low level API drivers as well, which may be confusing or annoying for developers. It's not directly relevant for endusers though, afterall there will always be IHV exclusive quirks.

[bug77]

It is already known that Nvidia implements "hidden black magic" also into their low level API drivers as well, which may be confusing or annoying for developers. It's not directly relevant for endusers though, afterall there will always be IHV exclusive quirks.

I thought Vulkan was lower level precisely because the "black magic" realm is now in the hands of developers. Can you share a little more, I'm not familiar with what's "already known".

[stqn]

I thought Vulkan was lower level precisely because the "black magic" realm is now in the hands of developers. Can you share a little more, I'm not familiar with what's "already known".

I’ve read that they replace shaders for popular games with more efficient ones.

[bug77]

I’ve read that they replace shaders for popular games with more efficient ones.

That's what profiles did since day 1, that's neither back magic nor Nvidia specific.
If you can make it look perceptually the same and use less HP while doing it, you've just found yourself an optimization.

[Vash63]

That's what profiles did since day 1, that's neither back magic nor Nvidia specific.
If you can make it look perceptually the same and use less HP while doing it, you've just found yourself an optimization.

This isn't quite accurate - Nvidia's shader replacements don't look perceptually the same. They look exactly the same. If they did not it would be failing many automated IQ tests (see the Quack 3 controversy from ~2001)

[timofonic]

This isn't quite accurate - Nvidia's shader replacements don't look perceptually the same. They look exactly the same. If they did not it would be failing many automated IQ tests (see the Quack 3 controversy from ~2001)

So how do they do it? :O

[Vash63]

So how do they do it? :O

They wholesale replace the shader code with something tuned for their architectures. There are many ways to build a function that still takes the same input and provides the same output yet performs very differently, especially when dealing with code that's going to execute directly on their hardware.