A First Look At The 2010 Linux Graphics Survey Results

In terms of what graphics card brands are most popular or common on Linux is always an interesting question in our annual survey. Of Phoronix readers, NVIDIA commands 38.1% of the GPU market, ATI/AMD controls 35.4%, Intel handles 23.8%, VIA takes just over 1%, and the other vendors each take less than 1%. Compared to our 2009 Phoronix results, NVIDIA's market-share decreased a bit from 40% while ATI/AMD increased from 33% and Intel is right around the same at 24~25%. In 2008, NVIDIA's market-share was at around 40% too while Intel increased the most from 2008 to 2009.

In terms of the video drivers in use, the results are somewhat interesting. For those with NVIDIA hardware, only about 5% are using the open-source Nouveau driver stack while practically all the rest are using the proprietary driver. Nouveau handling about 5% of NVIDIA Linux users right now is somewhat impressive seeing as their KMS/DRM code was only merged into the mainline Linux kernel earlier this year and most Linux distributions aren't even shipping the Nouveau Gallium3D driver yet. The open-source ATI driver stack continues to be increasingly popular with Linux users with there being more Phoronix readers using the open-source driver than there are using the proprietary Catalyst driver. While most are using the xf86-video-ati DDX, the deceased RadeonHD driver still is found on about 4% of the Linux installations. Between the VIA drivers for the ~1% of Linux users stuck with such hardware, OpenChrome is the most popular driver. Sadly, 1.5% of Linux users are still using the VESA X.Org driver for whatever reason.