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Comment by outworlder | Hacker News Reader

> I am pretty sure my next GPU is going to be AMD due to this behavior by Nvidia.

I was thinking about buying NVIDIA for the next GPU based on performance numbers alone.

However, against it there's:

1) Terrible Linux support(and history). This is specially important now that most of Steam's library runs on Linux without issues. It was eye-opening to see Cyberpunk running almost perfectly on DAY ONE with the same performance as Windows. In the case of AMD, with open source drivers.

2)Control freak shenanigans (see also: this thread). This is doing nothing to address the GPU shortage. It's just dishonest market segmentation.

3)Their completely unacceptable behavior regarding reviews. They were punishing reviewers that didn't place enough emphasis in ray tracing. They would be blacklisted just by saying it's not important (which I happen to agree with). They handled the situation horribly.

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4) Crippling the ability to GPU passthrough (subpoint of (2), I suppose)

All I can say is that that company well deserved Linus Torvald's famous middle finger: "NVidia has been the single worst company we've ever dealt with, so NVidia F--- YOU!"

And they certainly haven't disappointed since back then.

Petty.

To give them credit when it’s due, they recently lifted this limitation.

Too late for me. I bought an AMD GPU last year.

> It was eye-opening to see Cyberpunk running almost perfectly on DAY ONE with the same performance as Windows.

I'm looking at Cyberpunk right now (because it is on sale) and Steam says it is windows only. Most of my Steam library doesn't work on linux, what are you running differently? I'm only just getting back into games after a long hiatus.

Windows-only games can run on the Linux version of Steam using a feature built into the app called Steam Play, which allows games to be run on unsupported platforms using compatibility layers. Steam comes bundled with the Proton compatibility tool, a fork of Wine maintained by Valve. It has very high compatibility, as long as you aren't looking to play competitive multiplayer titles.

Here's a community maintained compatibility list: https://www.protondb.com/

Thanks!!!! I found the option. I've heard great things about proton just didn't realize I had to flip a switch.

You might want to look into GloriousEggroll, it tends to have better support for media and such.

https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/wiki

And just proving why I love Hacker News. I'm going to test proton out a bit then I'll check this out. I appreciate all the links and help

Pretty much the only non-native games I can not run on my Linux computer are the ones that incorporate anticheat detection. I just use Proton, as it is built in to Steam. Origin games do cause some headaches, but usually because of the origin client, not because of the game. Examples of "heavier" games that run fine for me at highest settings (radeon 580): subnautica, tomb rader, mass effect (andromeda), alyx, population one.

1) I have NVidia RTX 2060 in my Linux laptop (Lenovo Legion) and NVidia RTX 3070 in my Linux Ryzen desktop.

Previously had 1060 in Intel Linux desktop.

Zero issues.

I'm on the same boat, however, it's a bit unclear if parent is complaining [also] about their open source support. Their antagonistic position towards open source (AFAIK there's no comparison to AMD<>Nvidia open source drives) is a big issue for me.

> about their open source support.

Which support?

They have an official closed-source driver. That's what they support.

Parent is complaining that when they run an unsupported third-party driver, it doesn't work as well as the actually supported driver.

I think these distinctions are important, becaues NVIDIA is not telling anyone that they have (1) an open source driver, and (2) that this driver is well supported.

Their supported driver works great.

OTOH AMD does have an open-source driver that they support. In my experience, this driver works much worse than NVIDIA's proprietary driver. You can't use AMD GPUs for compute, etc.

At the end what this means is that users currently have to make a choice. Do you want a GPU driver that works well, or a GPU driver that's open source?

I don't like to have to make this choice, and every individual weight these values differently.

> I think these distinctions are important, becaues NVIDIA is not telling anyone that they have (1) an open source driver, and (2) that this driver is well supported.

this is not correct. this is an extract from an nvidia presentation:

> We'll report up-to-the-minute developments on NVIDIA's status and activities, and possibly (depending on last-minute developments) a few future plans and directions, regarding our contributions to Linux kernel; supporting Nouveau (the open source kernel driver for NVIDIA GPUs, that is in the Linux kernel), including signed firmware behavior, documentation, and patches; and NVIDIA kernel drivers.

Now, even putting this aside, the situation is not so black-and-white.

I wasn't able to boot Ubuntu with my latest Nvidia card. The closed-source driver can work perfectly, but it doesn't boot a Ubuntu image. I don't remember the details, but I think rebuilding the image with closed-source drivers didn't produce a functioning system, and if memory serves me well, I had to go as far as booting with another card.

Therefore, a closed-source only approach does actively damage the open source world in a concrete way.

Second, the nv driver story (obfuscating the code) is really deplorable, and there's no excuse for being explicitly antagonistic.

All in all, I think that being fiercely closed-source (they'd be good friends with the GNOME devs...) in a open source world, can't avoid doing concrete damage.

> this is an extract from an nvidia presentation:

Where do they say that they provide official support for Nouveau ?

They contribute patches to it. They contribute patches to a lot of open source projects. There is a big difference between contributing a patch, and "officially supporting" a project.

The driver you are using is a BLOB that comes from closed source. Many people who use Linux are against that, and would rather have open source drivers (which I think nvidia used to have but discontinued?).

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