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Nvidia Vulkan Driver updated

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Heads up Vulkan testers, Nvidia has updated their beta Vulkan driver for Linux. It should work better with newer kernels too.

QuoteFebruary 23rd, Windows 356.43, Linux 355.00.28

Add support for 64-bit vertex attribute formats
Improve performance of vkBindBufferMemory, vkBindImageMemory and vkCreateGraphicsPipelines
No longer enumerate Fermi based GPUs in vkEnumeratePhysicalDevices
Improved compatibility with recent Linux kernels


Go to Nvidia's site here for the details. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: NVIDIA, Vulkan
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Keyrock Feb 24, 2016
-double post disregard-


Last edited by Keyrock on 24 February 2016 at 5:57 pm UTC
Guest Feb 24, 2016
Quoting: omer666
Quoting: dubigrasuI have some promising results with this new driver, as in Vulkan is already faster:

OpenGL
Average: 81.4 FPS (86.1 w/o extremes)
Extremes: 254.6 max, 30.6 min
Highs: 523 in 3.5 seconds (150.4 FPS)
Lows: 738 in 14.5 seconds (51.0 FPS
30-60 FPS: 14%
+ 60 FPS: 86%
Vulkan
Average: 88.6 FPS (89.3 w/o extremes)
Extremes: 405.7 max, 9.0 min
Highs: 74 in 0.5 seconds (144.2 FPS)
Lows: 64 in 1.5 seconds (42.5 FPS)
+ 60 FPS: 100%

That was the Talos Principle benchmark BTW.
Great results indeed!

Funny, I just noticed that I had the Steam FPS counter activated. With it I have 56.1 FPS with Vulkan (Talos Benchmark 60sec). When deactivated the Benchmark counts 70.9 FPS. In OpenGL mode there is almost no difference in FPS. So however it does that, its not good for Vulkan performance in the Talos principle.
linux_gamer Feb 24, 2016
Quoting: KeyrockStill no vulkan driver in an Ubuntu 15.10 PPA *sniff sniff* :(

Oh well, by the time there is any compelling reason to run a Vulkan driver, 16.04 might already be fully released and I'll be runningsudo do-release-upgrade. :P
Indeed strange to see the actual version being treated worse than the LTS version which is almost 2 years old and should be most stable and secure but not experimental.
dubigrasu Feb 24, 2016
Quoting: webcreatureFunny, I just noticed that I had the Steam FPS counter activated. With it I have 56.1 FPS with Vulkan (Talos Benchmark 60sec). When deactivated the Benchmark counts 70.9 FPS. In OpenGL mode there is almost no difference in FPS. So however it does that, its not good for Vulkan performance in the Talos principle.

Indeed, the Steam Overlay affects Vulkan performance. I disable it entirely for my tests.
Guest Feb 24, 2016
Quoting: dubigrasuIndeed, the Steam Overlay affects Vulkan performance. I disable it entirely for my tests.

What I find interesting is the difference between GL and Vulkan..
drmoth Feb 25, 2016
Quoting: webcreature
Quoting: dubigrasuIndeed, the Steam Overlay affects Vulkan performance. I disable it entirely for my tests.

What I find interesting is the difference between GL and Vulkan..

It's probably not that interesting. I don't understand the inner workings of Vulkan, but very likely the overlay screws with the communication with the GPU right now. That's probably something Valve will fix in the longer term.
tuubi Feb 25, 2016
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Quoting: dubigrasuIndeed, the Steam Overlay affects Vulkan performance. I disable it entirely for my tests.
Is the overlay composited on top of the game using OpenGL? If that's the case, do OpenGL-based desktop compositors have an effect as well?
TheRiddick Feb 25, 2016
'Looks at AMD390x card in computer', sigh....
Eike Feb 25, 2016
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Quoting: Cybolic
Quoting: dubigrasuI have some promising results with this new driver, as in Vulkan is already faster: [...]

That was the Talos Principle benchmark BTW.
Considering that Talos isn't event optimised yet, but basically just running on a wrapper, that's quite impressive!

I still think you missunderstood the usage of "wrapper" in this context. They wrapped the engine around Vulkan, which is totally reasonable, not e. g. Vulkan around OpenGL or something. In the end, the engine will still sit on Vulkan. Or be "wrapped around it" if you want to express it that way.
Guest Feb 25, 2016
Quoting: Eike
Quoting: Cybolic
Quoting: dubigrasuI have some promising results with this new driver, as in Vulkan is already faster: [...]

That was the Talos Principle benchmark BTW.
Considering that Talos isn't event optimised yet, but basically just running on a wrapper, that's quite impressive!

I still think you missunderstood the usage of "wrapper" in this context. They wrapped the engine around Vulkan, which is totally reasonable, not e. g. Vulkan around OpenGL or something. In the end, the engine will still sit on Vulkan. Or be "wrapped around it" if you want to express it that way.

Well, it still uses only one thread for pretty much the whole game, which is the opposite of what you want to get out of Vulkan.. Even with GL it uses two threads. So there should be room for optimizations..


Last edited by on 25 February 2016 at 3:19 pm UTC
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