NVIDIA 435.17 Linux Beta Driver Adds Vulkan + OpenGL PRIME Render Offload

[steven36]

NVIDIA introduced their 435 Linux driver series currently in beta form with the release of the 435.17 Linux build. With this new driver comes finally the best PRIME/multi-GPU support they have presented to date.

 

The NVIDIA 435.17 driver has a new PRIME render offload implementation supported for Vulkan and OpenGL (with GLX). This PRIME offloading is about using one GPU for display but having the actual rendering be done on a secondary GPU, as is common with many of today's high-end notebooks that have Intel integrated graphics paired with a discrete NVIDIA GPU.

For the NVIDIA PRIME render offload support, they require some recent commits to the X.Org Server that sadly isn't in any released version but will be there for the eventual xorg-server 1.21 release. In the meantime, NVIDIA is providing an Ubuntu PPA with a patched X.Org Server build.

This offload support also requires some fiddling to the xorg.conf configuration and environment variables for activation, but after that should be much better PRIME support than the previous options.

The NVIDIA 435.17 Linux driver also has experimental support for run-time D3 power management for Turing notebook GPUs, a variety of bug fixes, support for changing the Digital Vibrance on Turing hardware, and drops non-GLVND OpenGL support.

More details on the NVIDIA 435.17 Linux beta driver via the NVIDIA DevTalk.

 

Source

[BimBamSmash]

I suppose this is good news for rendering and other professional lines of work?

 

As an average user, the only thing that crosses my mind when it comes to graphics is gaming. I don't know what the above means for gaming, if anything, but all is for nothing until the folks behind OpenGL gave the API a major overhaul too.

 

Maybe I am wrong and the API is rock solid already. But I cannot help but notice the same game looks and plays better on DirectX than OpenGL, even when the game has an official Linux port that doesn't make use of Wine.

[steven36]

On 8/15/2019 at 5:17 AM, BimBamSmash said:

I suppose this is good news for rendering and other professional lines of work?

 

As an average user, the only thing that crosses my mind when it comes to graphics is gaming. I don't know what the above means for gaming, if anything, but all is for nothing until the folks behind OpenGL gave the API a major overhaul too.

 

Maybe I am wrong and the API is rock solid already. But I cannot help but notice the same game looks and plays better on DirectX than OpenGL, even when the game has an official Linux port that doesn't make use of Wine.

What it does is the on-demand PRIME render offload, you'll be able to run specific application on the discrete NVIDIA GPU, while using the integrated GPU for everything else, saving battery power. It's a big deal it took NVIDIA 7 years  to make this driver .(Better late than never) but you have to have a laptop with new hardware to use this driver.

 

 Here is and Example how this will be useful for games

This is a beta driver and it includes quite the highlight with the addition of PRIME render offload support for Vulkan and OpenGL. This is where you might have your Intel GPU running most normal applications, with an NVIDIA chip then powering your games. It's usually found in Notebooks and it's been a source of annoyance for NVIDIA Notebook owners for a long time, so it's really pleasing to see proper progress like this.

 

Most all Steam Windows games can run on Linux now , Meaning people who use Linux who actually buy there games not pirate them have very little reason to dual boot or use a Windows VM with a GPU Passthrough  anymore.  Gaming is not windows savior Enterprise is .  Windows 10 has never been about making Windows more consumer friendly  so you can play games  on it. Many people on old hardware is stuck on Windows 10 with DX 11 . Microsoft rather sell you and XBox .  Windows 10 is Anti Counsumer and all about Enterprise . Because consumers  have not bought much PCs since 2011 .  PC gameing is a tiny niche market that helps hardware vendors regradless of the OS you game on more than it helps Microsoft .

 

PC Gaming Is Dying? Someone Tell the Gamers.

According to a recent report from John Peddie Research, by 2022, 20 million PC gamers will have switched to console or cloud-gaming services. Prophetic commentary on the state of console and PC gaming has come to pass, and we are all but doomed. Where do we find purpose in this new world? How do we live with the fact that such a sizeable chunk of our glorious PC community is no longer with us, taken to the unwashed world of console hell forever? We are truly in a dark-age of technology.

The so-called “death” of PC gaming is nothing new. This time, it’s not tablets or the rise of mobile gaming that’ll replace our computers. Peddie claims that stagnation in PC performance will lead gamers to toss their towers in the trash.

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/pc-gaming-not-dying,39205.html

 

Linus Torvids  says the same thing is going to happen to PCs

https://devops.com/linus-torvalds-sees-lots-of-hardware-headaches-ahead/

 

Gaming is a very fragmented  market already and is only going get worse.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinanderton/2019/06/26/the-business-of-video-games-market-share-for-gaming-platforms-in-2019-infographic/#689a5b867b25