The initial benchmarks that Phoronix and other Linux tech sites ran on the new Maxwell cards from NVIDIA were using the proprietary binary drivers, the same as with all AMD cards. Unlike AMD who have always released signed binary-only firmware blobs which could not be reverse engineered and modified for use, previous generations of NVIDIA cards did not require signed firmware images, only a lot of dev work. Maxwell is locked down and the current open sourced Nouveau driver can now only be used to set up display outputs, it has no ability to use the card for hardware accelerated graphics.
NVIDIA states that the new requirement is to prevent shady characters from modifying slower cards to look like new Maxwell GPUs but Phoronix feels that they have gone overboard. It is sad to see NVIDIA taking a step backwards in supporting the open source community, mimicking AMD's procedure of only offering binary-only firmware blobs though AMD is at least updating the blobs and open source driver relatively frequently. That said, the new Maxwell cards do perform very well with the proprietary Linux driver so users should not feel they have to avoid NVIDA; unfortunately for developers the same is not true.
"While NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 900 series is dominating for Linux gamers with excellent performance with their $1000+ GPU as well as great Linux OpenGL/OpenCL performance out of their lower-cost GPUs with excellent power efficiency, that's only when using the proprietary driver… NVIDIA's newer GTX 900 / Maxwell hardware is less open-source friendly than their previous generations of hardware. "
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- iFixit: Apple's 12in MacBook is near impossible to repair @ The Inquirer
- Talk is FINNISHed: Nokia to buy Alcatel Lucent for €15.6 billion @ The Register
- Businesses are not using apps from the Windows Store @ The Inquirer
- Calling Out a GAO Report That Says In-Flight Wi-Fi Lets Hackers Access Avionics @ Slashdot
- Kwikset SmartCode 916 Electronic Deadbolt @ Benchmark Reviews
- Win an MSI GS60 Ghost Pro laptop @ KitGuru
So that means we’ll have
So that means we’ll have newer images of Torvalds giving the one penguin salute! Just F-U Nvidia, you have one shady character in that CEO(3.5 = 4), and other nefarious schemes!
Cry moar Linux users! You’re
Cry moar Linux users! You’re countless desktop distros have gone nowhere in the last decade or more. If anything, you should be pissed at yourselves for not making your software more user friendly if you insist it’s soooo much better than Windows. I would compare Linux to the province of Quebec. They are part of the tech community, but insist on being independent. Reap what you sow loners.
Good for Quebec, and how
Good for Quebec, and how about all those French nuke plants, and those assembly lines for thermo-nukes! that should keep Redmond and its merchant princes at bay. There will be Steam OS, and there are plenty of User friendly Linux distros. No one is going to jump on the windows 10 bandwagon, with the hardware’s Secure boot off switch disabled for that M$ OS hardware lock-in. At least the Frencies Know how to bust a monopolistic TRUST, and M$ has no where to go but down, the internet runs on penguins, as do that majority of supercomputers. M$ is what’s killing the PC market, trying to force an Apple style closed ecosystem on to the third party OEM PC/laptop market, and by default a lot of independent minded PC/Laptop users, who will say not to any new PC/Laptop hardware with the UEFI Secure Boot off switch disabled. No to 10 or any M$ OS after that!!!
Enjoy you servitude, you M$ minion!!!
Oh yes and a big Bird to
Oh yes and a big Bird to Nvidia’s CEO! Straight from Linus, to Jen-Hsun Huang’s arithmetically challenged face!
I’m not very familiar with
I’m not very familiar with Canadian politics, but Linux is indeed better than Windows by itself and the way it is designed to give freedom.
I’ll keep using Linux and enjoy it’s security, freedom and customization that you either can’t get with windows (or at least not easily). And it’s not that I just don’t want to pay for windows, I actually have windows 8.1 on another partition that I use to play windows exclusive titles and exclusive software that need hardware acceleration and don’t perform well in wine or in a VM.
Also, my netbook has a 1.4GHz celeron and 2GB of soldered RAM and can’t be upgraded. Guess what, with Arch Linux w/ LXDE it does the basic tasks that it’s supposed to do very easily. Thanks to great memory compression, the fact that Arch and LXDE are so lightweight and still have a lot of functionality, 2GB is enough. Try to use a windows laptop with 2GB of RAM and see how awful it will be.
That is the main reason why I
That is the main reason why I wont be buying a Nvidia card next
That’s why noone takes linux
That’s why noone takes linux users seriously – you have one gpu manufacturer who provides you with proper support so you will ignore it because it’s not open.
Is there anyway we could pay
Is there anyway we could pay to have good laugh at Nouveau developers for one full min. please please make it happen
and at the Linux so called
and at the Linux so called “OPEN” comunity
Am down for that, and am sure
Am down for that, and am sure all the windows users are up for it also roflmao
Wow a triple nested sock
Wow a triple nested sock puppet! AND WinBlows chunks. Steam OS and the possibility of running only the absolutely necessary functionality for the games, binary blobs or not! Enjoy your resources hogging WinBlows with all its TIFKAM tiles still there stealing processing cycles, while Steam OS will only be using what is absolutely necessary resources wise, with the remainder of the CPU cycles available to Vulkan, and the gaming engine for the game, and gaming only. DX12 will be left with a shortage of CPU cycles, with the WinBlows bloat siphoning of more of the available processing power to run all that baked-in WinBlows spyware, and crApp store services. With all the new graphics APIs able to make use of all the CPU processor/processor threads, it’s Steam OS that will offer the most amount of available processing power for the games themselves.
Sooner or later you M$ slaves
Sooner or later you M$ slaves and Nvidia fanboys/fangirls will realize that no price tag can be attached to software freedom.
Many users come to google+ and tell their stories of freedom from M$ shackles.
Linux can save your data when your windows dies. Linux gives you freedom to choose and do whatever you want to do. Linux is not perfect, but it gets the job done.
Linux is now a dominate server OS and within a decade it will control 100 of millions of desktops and laptops.
That’s not important.
What’s
That’s not important.
What’s important is that by selling a mid range card with a high end price, nvidia brought a mid range power consumption to the high end.
They also brought mid range performance to high end, but well, apparently it’s much better to pay a 150W mid range card 550€ than 250€.
That’s why Ryan Shrout, as the nVidia de facto advanced marketing team, found the GTX 900 series to be the best cards ever made.