Future of GPUs
Do we have any hope for libre friendly GPUs in the near future ? I keep thinking that even if I could afford something like a Talos II that if I wanted to stay libre I would have to pair it with a GTX 780 Ti using Nouveau and that seems like such a waste of money for any GPU heavy task. I have a GTX 780 Ti using Nouveau and it can't even play Super Tux Kart maxed out. Hoping for some news I hadn't come across. I am aware of Libre-SOC but that seems a ways off from being a reality. ARM and RISC-V devices have GPUs that make the 780 Ti on Nouveau seem powerful in comparison.
But it can play Super Tux Kart when it's not "maxed out"? Sometimes we don't have the luxury of technical superiority; this may be one of those times where it's necessary to give up a little in terms of resolution or frame rate or whatever of a game for software freedom.
That is a very low price for your freedom, I recommend participate in more sacrifice like that or biggers, becouse freedom have the most high value.
Given that neither of you actually answered the initial question of whether there were any libre friendly GPUs on the horizon I'm going to assume the answer is no.
You didn't pick up on my message? It sounds like you already ***have*** one, if you "just" need to live within certain resolutions or frame rates or whatever (not playing Super Tux Kart all "maxed out", but at a lower setting.) Sometimes this is the choice we must make.
> Do we have any hope for libre friendly GPUs in the near future ?
I believe the above is a fair answer to this original question, which seemed to ignore the fact that there already are "libre friendly" GPUs, without which most of us could not even read the content of this forum.
.
Meanwhile, consider upgrading to a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650. It's the latest that works with 3D acceleration:
https://h-node.org/videocards/view/en/2260/NVIDIA-Corporation-TU117--GeForce-GTX-1650
"Meanwhile, consider upgrading to a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650. It's the latest that works with 3D acceleration:
https://h-node.org/videocards/view/en/2260/NVIDIA-Corporation-TU117--GeForce-GTX-1650"
I have little to no faith in H-Node for GPUs. You can find people saying the RX 580 and RX 590 work with 3D on the Libre kernel but I have had those GPUs and know that to be a pile of lies. I'm not about to drop $300 on a GPU to have to pay a 15% restocking fee if H-Node is wrong.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/xipwjf/nouveau_doesnt_start_on_gtx_1650/
https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/FeatureMatrix.html
Also from what I'm reading the GTX 1650 is less powerful than the 780 Ti so even if it does work it's likely I get even worse results with it.
Oh! I used to think that web was a reliable source regarding hardware running free software.
Sorry for wasting your time. It's really disheartening...
"Oh! I used to think that web was a reliable source regarding hardware running free software.
Sorry for wasting your time. It's really disheartening..."
I find it great for everything except GPUs to be fair.
That person seems to have had no problem with their Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti on Trisquel 11:
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/new-aramo-beta-iso-amd64#comment-168763
I'd rather trust h-node than reddit.
"That person seems to have had no problem with their Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti on Trisquel 11:
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/new-aramo-beta-iso-amd64#comment-168763
I'd rather trust h-node than reddit."
In this case the Reddit user was linking to the Nouveau Feature Matrix page. Trusting Reddit wouldn't be required in that case, trusting the Nouveau Feature Matrix chart would be. It's good to see someone got a 1650 working. I'm going to try to install Trisquel 11 on my 780 Ti system regardless to see what if any differences the newer stuff does for gaming. I tried it on an i7-4770 with an Intel HD 4600 and the newer Mesa seemed to help in Super Tux Kart so maybe it will for the 780 Ti as well. On the HD 4600 my Min/Max FPS on Super Tux Kart went from 36/49 on Trisquel 10.0.1 to 68/111 on Trisquel 11.
> trusting the Nouveau Feature Matrix chart
Yes, cross-checking information from freedesktop.org and h-node sounds serious. It does not mean that these have to be taken at face value either, but in general people taking the trouble to report to h-node have hands-on experience to share, even though they may make mistakes in the process.
I just tried a live Trisquel Mini Aramo on a second-hand machine with a GTX 1050 Ti on it, and I may be able to report that it works just fine. Not sure how to ascertain 3D acceleration, though. Maybe with STK? The matrix seems to say that it should work, but h-node says different.
UPDATE: as it happens, the Matrix seems to contradict the main page for Nouveau, which says: "2D/3D acceleration supported on all GPUs (except for GA10x)". Could the Matrix be lying?
STK is running at 10/11/12 fps on that dedicated GPU using nouveau from a live system. This does not sound like a great feat. I am considering suggesting removing (and reselling) the Nvivia card and using the Intel integrated graphics instead. For now I have found this about how to enable it in such settings:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000058190/graphics.html
but could not find a way to configure Trisquel to use it when both are enabled. I am finding loads of suggestions about doing the opposite, or worse, using nonfree stuff to switch from one to the other, but nothing about simply testing the integrated GPU without removing the dedicated one. Not sure where to look.
UPDATE: these UEFI/BIOS menus are getting cluttered these days. There was an extra option to set the integrated graphics as primary VGA, hidden deeper than expected. I got 33/37/39 fps on STK *at max details* on a live Trisquel Mini Aramo. Reselling definitely seems to be the better recommendation.
> You can find people saying the RX 580 and RX 590 work with 3D on the Libre kernel
I am reading this about the RX 580: "3D acceleration works, but performance is very poor, so don't expect to run high-end graphics without the binary blob". That could explain why you may have a different point of view, but it does not sound accurate to call it "a pile of lies". Maybe you were referring to something else on h-node?
"I am reading this about the RX 580: "3D acceleration works, but performance is very poor, so don't expect to run high-end graphics without the binary blob". That could explain why you may have a different point of view, but it does not sound accurate to call it "a pile of lies". Maybe you were referring to something else on h-node?
https://h-node.org/videocards/talk/en/2024/token/1/1/Advanced-Micro-Devices-Inc.-AMD-ATI/undef/undef/undef/video-card-works/rx"
I own an RX 590 and RX 580 and when I try them on Trisquel 10.0.1 I can't even do basic things like adjust resolution or refresh rate. These basic things I can do on any Intel GPU I have tried and my GTx 7xx series cards I own. The only cards I have tried that give me this issue on Trisquel are ones with closed source blobs needed from the kernel for firmware. So when people say on H-Node that something works when I know for a fact it does not then either they are lying or they had to do something very specific in order to get it to work and in that case why not share what it is ?
I see. Yes, it seems that people sometimes find it difficult to ascertain the freedom status of the drivers they are using. I can sympathize with that. In the above discussion, I believe the user says they are in fact using the (nonfree) ATI driver. Have you tried to edit that h-node entry?
"h-node.org isn’t the prettiest resource out there, but perhaps this can be changed." From this related discussion: https://issues.guix.gnu.org/36786.
I am a translator!
I know nothing about GPUs but I recently saw some chat on #parabola on libera.chat asking about Radeon RX580.
There is an unsolved issue about it https://labs.parabola.nu/issues/2816 so apparently it does not work.
On the chat, it was mentioned that the RX 570 could be the most powerful GPU that is supported but it was perhaps not up-to-date information so it was suggested to try asking on #libreplanet, #radeon, #intel-gfx. For the two last, I am not sure whether it would be on libera or on OFTC.
The nick of the interested user is penaiple (sometimes with [m] suffix).
I play Robots up to amazingly overcrowded levels with the most resource intensive theme, which I believe to be stormclouds. No problem. I believe I am using some sort of integrated graphics. Should I also be worried about the future of GPUs?
If it's any consolation, I have a Dell Latitude 5520 with the Intel Iris XE GPU and Super Tux Kart runs beautifully at 1900X1080.
I run Trisquel 11 on this device.
Hope that helps
grimlok
"If it's any consolation, I have a Dell Latitude 5520 with the Intel Iris XE GPU and Super Tux Kart runs beautifully at 1900X1080.
I run Trisquel 11 on this device.
Hope that helps
grimlok"
That does help considering System76 offers laptops that use Iris XE and offer Coreboot which I am interested in. I know their system would run Trisquel with exception to possibly the wireless. What settings do you use for Super Tux Kart at 1080 ?
When I wrote that post I used the default settings, but I have just tried it with all effects on and everything on high and it still runs well.
I can't tell you specific fps, because I am unsure how to enable that in STK.
This was done also while running 3 monitors of varying resolutions. (1920x1080, 1660x1050, and 1024x768)
grimlok
"When I wrote that post I used the default settings, but I have just tried it with all effects on and everything on high and it still runs well.
I can't tell you specific fps, because I am unsure how to enable that in STK.
This was done also while running 3 monitors of varying resolutions. (1920x1080, 1660x1050, and 1024x768)
grimlok"
Not that I expect you to go back and check but so you know for the future you can enable the option to display the framerate in STK by going into Options>Interface and checking the "Display FPS" box. It will then display the min/avg/max framerate at the top middle of the screen. Thanks for trying it at max details. Trisquel 11 is already a good step forward since it uses a newer Mesa than 10. I have seen increased frame rates on my GTX 780 Ti on Nouveau as well as my Intel HD 4600. The 780 Ti went from a Min/Max of 12/84 to 66/92 on lowest settings at 1080P going from Trisquel 10.0.1 to Trisquel 11. Going to try my Intel HD 530 sometime soon as well as seeing if that one works with the Vulkan beta for STK.