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c/linux4noobs · by 58008@lemmy.world · 7d

Questions about NVIDIA GPUs and HDR from a pre-Linuxer

As I understand things, or least how I've understood them over the last year or so, NVIDIA GPUs are comparatively less-supported on Linux than AMD ones. Is this still the case, and if so, is there hope for near-future improvements in this department? Has NVIDIA made any moves that indicates they're gonna try to make things better in terms of drivers? And out of curiosity, what is it that AMD has done that NVIDIA hasn't? Is it really just down to the drivers?

On a similar topic, how is HDR support on Linux? I've read that Wayland has support for this (I sound like I know what Wayland is, but I really don't) but that streaming services and DRM-protected content won't work with HDR. I personally don't care about the streaming side of it, I'm more concerned about gaming and watching local video files or 4K Blu-ray discs (I use a tool to strip out the DRM from such discs on-the-fly, so no worries there).

So, in sum (and to make it easier to reply!):

  1. Is NVIDIA still lagging behind AMD in terms of GPU support on Linux?
  2. Why is (or was) AMD better-supported?
  3. How is the current HDR implementation? Particularly as it relates to gaming and watching videos/discs locally.

Thank you kindly!

9 points · 5 comments · view on lemmy.world

5 Comments

ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 7d

If you've got a relatively recent gpu, NVIDIA is fine on Linux these days. It's changed a lot in the last two years specifically.

HDR works fine outside of games, but is limited on the number of Wayland compositors that support it. KDE plasma and Gnome are the only two I know of. Most of the others don't.

HDR can work with games, but it involves a bit more playing around under the hood with gamescope. But that's an issue with steam/wine, that impacts NVIDIA and AMD.

I've been running an NVIDIA setup with two HDR monitors on KDE for a couple of years now, and it's perfectly fine these days. It wasn't when I started :)

herrvogel@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 7d
  1. Yes. Nvidia drivers are usable enough, but they regularly cause power management related issues for me. I gave up on sleep because of Nvidia drivers. One update breaks it and then the next update fixes it, only for the next update after that to break it again. Never had any issues before the current Nvidia GPU.
  2. Their drivers are simply better integrated into the OS and better developed for Linux. That's all really. AMD drivers have more effort put into them.
  3. Bad. Not good. Expect tons of compatibility issues and straight up impossibilities and jumping through hoops.
WolfLink@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 7d

I have an Nvidia GPU and I’ve been able to get HDR working on Linux (Bazzite gnome) with some tweaking for specific games. I haven’t really tried watching movies with it yet.

Telorand@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 7d
  1. I run an Nvidia GPU daily, with little to no issues. I can stream via OBS, I can play nearly all of my games (with very, very few exceptions), and I can still use features like raytracing. Note that I don't do anything with CUDA, so I can speak to that if that's something you plan to utilize.
  2. AMD has a more open driver implementation, making it way easier for Linux devs to integrate and improve things for the end user. There's currently an open source community project called NVK that is likely to supersede the closed-source Nvidia drivers, but that's still a few years away from being fully at parity (though it's making big strides relatively quickly).
  3. I don't have HDR, so I do not know. My vague memory indicates support stems from Window Manager support (i.e. the engine that draws windows and determines their behavior), so look into which window managers implement HDR.
Cort@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 3h

My 3070 worked fine with hdr in kde arch for over a year.

I will say though HDR isn't something you should turn on unless you have a display that does good HDR, otherwise everything looks washed out.