Some questions about GPU in completely free software enviroments
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I would like to ask 2 questions about graphics cards:
1.- I'm running parabola with a Nvidia GT730 on my computer and yet when I run glxinfo I get "direct rendering: Yes", but how is this posible?, I mean, wasn't it necesary to have a binary blob to get 3D acceleration? If I got all my packages through parabola repos, then why should I have such binary blob installed?.
2.- Is there an alternative for having a functional graphics card without any binary blob being required?, If I have a AMD graphics card what functionality I get without using the binary blob? Do I get OpenCL and Vulkan support? Or should I stay with my Nvidia card? Which graphics card would you recomend (appart from integrated Intel cards)?
My understanding is that Nouveau has been working on this for some time so that may be why it works for you on that particular card. The card itself still has proprietary software inside of it though so you're not entirely free of proprietary junk though.
Leaving aside the fact that without binary blobs you don't get 3D acceleration do AMD cards also have propietary software inside?
Whould I get OpenCL and vulkan with them?
"do AMD cards also have propietary software inside?"
Yes. And so I don't really have a recommendation because they all seem like a no-win situation.
I am a translator!
>My understanding is that Nouveau has been working on this for some time so that may be why it works for you on that particular card.
Yes, Nouveau is great. Almost all Nvidia gpus I tried so far work beautifully without installing proprietary firmware/drivers thanks to it. Problem is you WILL have almost every time a significantly worse performance compared to the proprietary driver. We have to thank the Nvidia chaps for this :/
>The card itself still has proprietary software inside of it though so you're not entirely free of proprietary junk though.
You are referring to the proprietary firmware embedded in the chip. Isn't this the case with ALL GPUs? (Intel old and new included)
With you GT730 you have 3D acceleration, but you need to reclock (very easy) to get full power of your GPU. If you have one of the latest kernels (after 4.4), just run some commands:
"#" means that you need to run it as superuser
# cat /sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/pstate
you will see something like that, lines beginning with "0" are states, "*" is actual state, and "DC" is actual clocks. For GT430 you will have only 3 lines, 2 states (07 and maybe 0a only")(so the line before "DC" line is your highest clock)
07: core 405 MHz memory 648 MHz AC DC *
0a: core 405-1032 MHz memory 1620 MHz
0e: core 405-1202 MHz memory 6700 MHz
0f: core 405-1202 MHz memory 6700 MHz
DC: core 405 MHz memory 648 MHz
now just run reclocking commands before gaming (in your case you only need one reclocking command, because you have only 2 states):
# echo 0a > /sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/pstate
after gaming, just downclock it:
# echo 07 > /sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/pstate
and you are done.
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