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NVIDIA have a new Vulkan Beta driver out for Linux fixing some regressions

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NVIDIA continue being quick to advance their Vulkan drivers as today they released an update to their special Beta branch.

440.58.01 is out which adds in support for two more Vulkan extensions with VK_KHR_shader_non_semantic_info and VK_EXT_tooling_info which sounds quite useful to help developers track down what might be causing an error.

For games this release fixes up a Vulkan swapchain recreation crash with F1 2017, Rise of the Tomb Raider and DiRT 4. NVIDIA also solved an issue with visual glitching of Vulkan applications when "falling out of flipping" with an example being when you alt+tab, however they're still investigating an issue to do with this on the GNOME desktop.

You can see their special Vulkan Beta page here.

Should I be using this? What's the difference to the normal drivers?

This is the testing area where NVIDIA put in new features, add in new Vulkan API support and more that eventually make their way into their normal drivers. Only use them if you want to test the very latest stuff. You can tell they're the Beta drivers by the extra two digits in the version number. The newest stable version of the NVIDIA drivers for Linux is 440.59 released earlier this month.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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9 comments

vipor29 Feb 16, 2020
im gonna be getting ahold of a rtx 2070 super,coming from a vega 56.plus upgrading to a 1440p display so this should be quite interesting testing this out.
kaiman Feb 16, 2020
Experiencing the swapchain recreation crash with F1 2017 firsthand, but given that the game didn't work at all with the previous beta driver, I'm in no hurry to upgrade. But seems I can stop spamming Feral whenever it does crash :-). (Which, so far, has always been _after_ it saved its state, so it's bearable, if not ideal)
Leopard Feb 16, 2020
Quoting: kaimanExperiencing the swapchain recreation crash with F1 2017 firsthand, but given that the game didn't work at all with the previous beta driver, I'm in no hurry to upgrade. But seems I can stop spamming Feral whenever it does crash :-). (Which, so far, has always been _after_ it saved its state, so it's bearable, if not ideal)

With 440.59 those games works fine. This regression belongs to previous vlk beta driver , not to stable driver.
kaiman Feb 16, 2020
Quoting: LeopardWith 440.59 those games works fine. This regression belongs to previous vlk beta driver , not to stable driver.
The popup that appeared last time it crashed specifically stated a swap chain recreation failure. But I guess it could be pure coincidence and totally unrelated. Meaning one more reason to stay off the beta driver :-).
appetrosyan Feb 16, 2020
Quoting: vipor29im gonna be getting ahold of a rtx 2070 super,coming from a vega 56.plus upgrading to a 1440p display so this should be quite interesting testing this out.

Just out of curiosity, what made you go to 2070 over 5700XT?
vipor29 Feb 21, 2020
Quoting: appetrosyan
Quoting: vipor29im gonna be getting ahold of a rtx 2070 super,coming from a vega 56.plus upgrading to a 1440p display so this should be quite interesting testing this out.

Just out of curiosity, what made you go to 2070 over 5700XT?

how is the 5700xt in linux
appetrosyan Feb 22, 2020
Quoting: vipor29
Quoting: appetrosyan
Quoting: vipor29im gonna be getting ahold of a rtx 2070 super,coming from a vega 56.plus upgrading to a 1440p display so this should be quite interesting testing this out.

Just out of curiosity, what made you go to 2070 over 5700XT?

how is the 5700xt in linux

Fine AFAIK.

Might not be perfect on Ubuntu, but even on an LTS installing a new kernel seldom presented problems.

The only edge I can think of that 2070 has over 5700xt would be Raytracing, but that doesn't work on Linux, and the fact that RTX 2070 was out far earlier than the AMD counterpart.

You do answer my question: launch day support seems to be more important than I thought...
catbox_fugue Feb 25, 2020
ive had basically no issues using the 440 drivers
vipor29 Feb 26, 2020
well im going with a 1080ti instead cheaper and i don't care about ray tracing.that should keep set on 1440p for a while.
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