NVIDIA 173.14.12 Linux Driver

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NVIDIA 173.14.12 Linux Driver

Yesterday KDE 4.1 was released and there are widely known 2D performance problems with the GeForce 8 and 9 series, which are especially exhibited when using the K Desktop Environment. So you think NVIDIA would address this issue in their next driver update? Guess again. Early this morning NVIDIA had released a new driver as version 173.14.12. This is the first NVIDIA Linux driver release in a month and a half, but its change-log is quite slim.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12666

[Regenwald]

well, i think it's a good sign that they invited you. this shows that they know you and the phoronix site, they know what amd is actually doing in the linux segment and they know your impact on the linux (graphic) scene. hopefully, they "need" you to spread good news^^. moreover it's a sign that they keep looking at linux market, looking what their competitors are doing such as intel, via and amd.
at least that's my interpretation/hope, so let's be optimistic

[Fixxer_Linux]

at least that's my interpretation/hope, so let's be optimistic

I have the same hopes. Especially since ATI has an open-source strategy, and that the linux market growths everyday.
I still don't understand why they wouldn't release a GPU registrer documentation, as such information doesn't change the business.
That's not because you make the GPU registrers public that you widespread the secrets of manufacturing a GPU. They really have nothing to lose.
I guess they'll finished to understand that and get on rails for a real open-source strategy.

Meanwhile, I'll go for ATI cards and I'll say to all people asking my advice to rather buy ATI than Nvidia.

That's the problem with the linux guys : as they are often "geeks", many people that don't know computer very well are coming to them for getting a buying advice...

[_txf_]

not only that...

On embedded devices linux is popular due to its modular nature. Recently nvidia launched its Tegra embedded SoC processors, god knows that embedded developers will despise having to use a binary blob which they cannot optimize or pretty much do anything. So nvidia is going to have to open up somewhat even if it is for a different device than the desktop gpus

[Greywhind]

I'm considering buying a laptop with a 9800M GT (released just two weeks ago, or less). Does anyone know whether the current NVidia driver for LInux will work with that graphics card? I can't seem to find any information on their website or on other sites and forums.

[Dragoran]

Before anyone asks, this is a bugfix release to address issues in 173.14.09. It does not contain the performance improvement work that's going into the 177.* driver series.

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/show...92&postcount=2

More infos:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/show...71&postcount=7

[deanjo]

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/show...92&postcount=2

I think you can safely guess as to when some people's performance issues are going to be addressed.

In another thread,
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=117035

I posted about it somewhere, but I can't find the post now. Anyway, a number of improvements to the RENDER acceleration on GeForce 8 and higher GPUs are being developed for the 177.* and 180.* driver series. These include support for the various repeat modes, transforms, and convolution filters, as well as acceleration for trapezoid rendering. In addition, resizing windows in KDE 4 hits a number of particularly slow fallbacks that we're working to avoid. The official release notes will mention these improvements when they're ready for prime-time.

[jkxathome]

I 've re-run my previous Xrender benchmark batch. Here 's the results:

http://www.larsen-b.com/Article/299.html

[Spydr4590]

Recently tried this driver and a few other 173 ones. Lots of graphics freezing. I recompile driver after each update, this helped with a few less crashes. I got feed up so I installed some 177 drivers, no more issues or crashes.

The crashes were mainly using the desktop.