# Cheers for Nvidia support



## captobvious (Aug 3, 2011)

I highly doubt open source drivers will ever be available, but over the past year I have noticed a increasingly faster driver release schedule from Nvidia. Going back before the 2xx.xx series of drivers, Nvidia would usually release a update every 3-6 months. This past year though it seems a new driver is available every 2-4 weeks. Kudos to Nvidia! (now I just wish CUDA support would arrive)


----------



## UNIXgod (Aug 3, 2011)

now if we could just fold on those puppies


----------



## vertexSymphony (Aug 4, 2011)

Yes, it's good to have support of the platform. It would be better if CUDA/OpenCL could be made available without using the linuxulator.

About having FOSS drivers, well, I do have some hope. As far as I know, there's a developer working in the porting of some linux-only technologies that these drivers needs (KMS & GEM) to improve the Intel driver situation. I don't know the implementation details, but this could open the door to have the other drivers more easily ported.

It would be awesome to have such drivers, because they could enable FreeBSD to do GPGPU computation without a *proprietary* technology such as CUDA running through the linuxulator (even that is somewhat unsupported as far as I know)

I'm kinda expecting more from nVIDIA and their very showcased unified driver architecture. But it's good to have working drivers 

Cheers ~


----------



## xibo (Aug 4, 2011)

Using nVidia since more then a decade, had Windows, Linux/GNU, SunOs/(Open)Solaris/OpenIndiana, FreeBSD - all worked. I ran into some issues with Detonator 56.somethingsomething ages ago on Linux/GNU; FreeBSD-8 crashes at random when using VDPAU (never tried on OpenIndiana and works on Linux/Windows).

I agree open source drivers would be nice, but am happy with nVidia nevertheless ^-^



> Nvidia would usually release a update every 3-6 months. This past year though it seems a new driver is available every 2-4 weeks


Could be Linux breaking its API every 2-4 weeks


----------



## jalla (Aug 4, 2011)

xibo said:
			
		

> FreeBSD-8 crashes at random when using VDPAU (never tried on OpenIndiana and works on Linux/Windows).



That's not true in general. I've used VDPAU extensively for a long time with various cards, a GT9500 in particular. Mostly I have had no problems with it.

I had some serious problems though with a GT240. It caused random crashes every 1-2 days, but I couldn't relate it directly to the use of VDPAU.


----------



## MasterOne (Aug 4, 2011)

I am not quite up to date with recent development, so which hardware is best supported by FreeBSD: Intel, ATI or Nvidia?

I wanted to invest in a new machine, and was thinking about a ZOTAC mini-ITX motherboard, so it would be nice to know which graphics hardware to prefer.


----------



## captobvious (Aug 4, 2011)

MasterOne said:
			
		

> I am not quite up to date with recent development, so which hardware is best supported by FreeBSD: Intel, ATI or Nvidia?



Maybe the question should be reversed: Which company supports FreeBSD. FreeBSD will run Xorg on any hardware, but for hardware accelerated openGL, my bias is towards Nvidia's favor. I usually modify my Makefile in /X11/nvidia-driver to the most recent driver version on the Nvidia webpage and 

[CMD=make]makesum[/CMD]

to update the SHA256 checksum and download the driver.

-CaptObvious, Forever the FreeBSD noob


----------



## YZMSQ (Aug 17, 2011)

Well, never heard a word about Nouveau driver through this thread. It's said to be well improved these days on Linux.


----------



## jrm@ (Aug 17, 2011)

vertexSymphony said:
			
		

> It would be better if CUDA/OpenCL could be made available without using the linuxulator.



You have opencl working with the linux compatibility layer?  Was it difficult?  Did you follow a guide or just tackle it youself?


----------



## freethread (Aug 17, 2011)

mingrone said:
			
		

> You have opencl working with the linux compatibility layer?  Was it difficult?  Did you follow a guide or just tackle it youself?



I agree with vertexSymphony. Install a linux distribution and troubles goes out or install FreeBSD with linux compatibility layer and troubles goes out, this is not a good reason for who install FreeBSD for its own architecture. This does not mean that linux, the kernel, is worst than FreeBSD, it's close but not the same thing. So it's licit to


			
				vertexSymphony said:
			
		

> It would be better if CUDA/OpenCL could be made available without using the linuxulator


----------



## ronaldlees (Apr 28, 2013)

freethread said:
			
		

> I agree with vertexSymphony. Install a linux distribution and troubles goes out or install FreeBSD with linux compatibility layer and troubles goes out, this is not a good reason for who install FreeBSD for its own architecture. This does not mean that linux, the kernel, is worst than FreeBSD, it's close but not the same thing. So it's licit to



I wonder if you've ever worked with BrookGPU + OpenGL?  It seems that it compiles natively on FreeBSD 9.1 and it appears to be somewhat CUDA-ish.  It's probably too primitive for your aims, I suspect.


----------



## zspider (Apr 29, 2013)

In the days when I had a dedicated Nvidia GPU, I was pleased with the FreeBSD driver and the resulting performance. So yes, cheers for Nvidia support.  May it never end.


----------

