Optimus support for Linux

[DBO72]

Originally Posted by pootle

[...]Why should you assume that a laptop will support linux when there is no support stated on the product page? I'll bet it doesn't support CP/M, OSX, Windows 98 or VMS either.

The very same NVIDIA-card will work well with Linux if the Laptop does not support Optimus. If you examine the technical specification of a desired Laptop, up to now, it was sufficient to check if the chips are supported by the manufacture (or by the Linux community). Now the things are different, you would find that NVIDIA officially offers Linux-driver for the GPU, however in the small print you can NOW find that the GPUs are only supported if the Laptops has no optimus feature.

This is not funny. And if you read for the first time that a notebook has a special energy-saving feature which only works with WIN7, you do not think that this will make it impossible to use the GPU with Linux.

[pootle]

Originally Posted by DBO72

This is not funny. And if you read for the first time that a notebook has a special energy-saving feature which only works with WIN7, you do not think that this will make it impossible to use the GPU with Linux.

I certainly would not assume it was going to work.

[DBO72]

Originally Posted by pootle

I certainly would not assume it was going to work.

Direcrtx, SLI, CUDA, PhysX, 3D-Vison, HDMI 1.4, Blue-Ray support .... are all features which were at the beginning or still be or will always be windows only. None of these features made it impossible to use the dGPU on Linux. Unfortunately, in this sense, Optimus is different.

[Deanjo]

Originally Posted by DBO72

Direcrtx, SLI, CUDA, PhysX, 3D-Vison, HDMI 1.4, Blue-Ray support .... are all features which were at the beginning or still be or will always be windows only.

Wrong, CUDA was announced for Win/Lin/OS X all at the same time. Out of the features that you list only SLi came later to linux. The rest will more then likely always remain Windows only features for various reasons (DRM or not applicable for example).

[DBO72]

Originally Posted by Deanjo

Wrong, CUDA was announced for Win/Lin/OS X all at the same time. Out of the features that you list only SLi came later to linux.

Ok.

Originally Posted by Deanjo

The rest will more then likely always remain Windows only features for various reasons (DRM or not applicable for example).

Yes, I agree and I am personally not very interested in them. But does it change the statement that modern cards support (many) windows-only features which do no not break Linux support? In this sense, unfortunately, Optimus is different.

[kRogue]

Physx is also for Linux too.

[artem]

Originally Posted by kRogue

Physx is also for Linux too.

That's obviously a product of your imagination. PhysX is not available for Linux, nor it's been ever available.

BTW, DirectX is available for Linux via gallium, but since Wine developers aren't going to use it anytime soon, let's say it's also a Windows only technology.

[Civilus]

artem

That's obviously a product of your imagination. PhysX is not available for Linux, nor it's been ever available.

It is avaliable on Linux. Google for it.

[artem]

1. There are no applications using PhysX on Linux.
2. The last available version of PhysX is 2.8.0, released November 2007. The current versions of PhysX are available only for Windows.

Do a bit of research before making such statements. If you think for a second, you'll understand that PhysX for Linux is an abandoned/unsupported product which never gained any traction.

I'd say even more. On Windows PhysX is also a semi-abandoned technology - even though NVIDIA tries hard to peddle it to consumers and developers, there are only few game titles using it. In fact I don't know any modern popular game except Mafia 2 where PhysX was used. Unless NVIDIA changes its stance and makes PhysX an open architecture based on computer shaders (it is what it is, if I'm not mistaken, but code safeguards don't allow it to be running on AMD/ATI hardware) PhysX is destined to die a slow and painful death. I don't quite understand why Mr. Jen-Hsun Huang fails to see PhysX gloomy prospects.

[Licaon]

Originally Posted by artem

1. There are no applications using PhysX on Linux.
2. The last available version of PhysX is 2.8.0, released November 2007. The current versions of PhysX are available only for Windows.

Do a bit of research before making such statements. If you think for a second, you'll understand that PhysX for Linux is an abandoned/unsupported product which never gained any traction.

I'd say even more. On Windows PhysX is also a semi-abandoned technology - even though NVIDIA tries hard to peddle it to consumers and developers, there are only few game titles using it.

1. true
2. well, not really: 2.8.3.3 ( 2010-08-03 ) is available on Linux too

16 games are few true, but it's not yet dead

[artem]

16 games is ... nothing. PhysX was introduced years ago, and even if we only count triple A titles, then less than 1% of games are using PhysX.

Anyway this topic is about Optimus not being supported on Linux. Let's stick to it.

[Jupp3]

Originally Posted by AaronP

We have no plans to support Optimus on Linux at this time.

Are there any plans to add support in the future? Would be nice to know if we should sell our nvidia optimus laptops and replace them with already working ones.