Date: Sun, 7 Feb 2021 14:27:37 -0600 From: Valeri Galtsev <galtsev@kicp.uchicago.edu> To: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> Cc: Tomasz CEDRO <tomek@cedro.info>, Patrick Mahan <plmahan@gmail.com>, User Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Suggested upgrade for a GeForce GT 450 Message-ID: <6D6F7A44-AEB9-418E-A0D1-3C77A4C1FD78@kicp.uchicago.edu> In-Reply-To: <20210207204810.d575ae00.freebsd@edvax.de> References: <CAFDHx1LRvcJHNnYFJB=JQzk_p%2B17i9e2qEHZOMGRCojiyaV5aw@mail.gmail.com> <CAM8r67BBTuywp%2B2QS07sER%2BpHbAmtkETF3YdX_j_pHdpJiB6Xw@mail.gmail.com> <20210207204810.d575ae00.freebsd@edvax.de>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> On Feb 7, 2021, at 1:48 PM, Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> wrote: >=20 > On Sun, 7 Feb 2021 16:57:47 +0100, Tomasz CEDRO wrote: >> However, it turns out that nVidia in a nightmare for Open-Source, so >> you cannot do anything except what they give you with a binary blob >> driver, that is basic display stuff. If you want to do OpenCL or >> similar then forget nVidia. >=20 > That is also my individual experience with nVidia. While there > are open source drivers, they're not as good as the binary ones > supplied by nVidia, so if you expect 3D stuff to work (and most > desktop environemnts today cannot work without them), you will > have to use the original nVidia drivers, because neither "nv" > nor "nouveau" would provide more functionality and performance > than "vesa" (as "lowest common denominator") would. There is reason for that. Nvidia does not disclose much of chip = internals (like memory layout etc), so to write decent open source = driver is not possible, hence only generic functions are supported by = open source nv driver. Anything a step off usual, say dual screen with = different screen resolutions - quite often thing in the Department I = support - is not possible. You have to install Nvidia proprietary binary = driver (I often correct those who say =E2=80=9Ccompile nvidia driver=E2=80= =9D. Nope! What one is compiling is interface between proprietary binary = driver and specific kernel). >> After 20 years of being loyal customer of nVidia I have switched to >> AMD RADEON RX580 simply because they support Open-Source while nVidia >> does not. >=20 > In the past, ATi had excellent open source support for all the > features of the graphics card, and there was one (!) driver that > supported them (named "ati"). Worked out of the box, no further > fiddling with xorg.conf options or XML files... :-) Same observation here. ATI chip internals were decently described by = manufacturer in their documentation, so open source driver developers = can write excellent drivers supporting pretty much all capabilities of = the chip[set]. Such were my observations for a couple of decades, even = after AMD bought ATI. Someone, correct me if you noticed things changed, = which I hope they didn=E2=80=99t. Valeri > --=20 > Polytropon > Magdeburg, Germany > Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 > Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ... > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to = "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?6D6F7A44-AEB9-418E-A0D1-3C77A4C1FD78>