NVIDIA driver 450.66 released for Linux, includes a useful Vulkan sync fix

More NVIDIA news for you today, not only is it possible to use GeForce NOW on Linux in the browser, we also have a new stable NVIDIA driver release.

The majority of the 450.66 driver is to add new support for multiple Quadro and Matrox GPUs, the type of stuff used in professional settings and not really for consumers. Still, NVIDIA constantly add to their Linux support which is good for the Linux industry as a whole.

Apart from that, there was one single listed bug fix. Small but it sounded quite important:

Fixed triple buffering support of Vulkan X11 swapchains when applications are syncing to vblank.

Since it made me curious how and when it might happen, I spoke to NVIDIA about this specific fix.

Here's what they sent along earlier about it:

This addresses the issue of applications being capped to half the display refresh rate (for example, capped to 30 FPS on a 60 Hz display) when 1) they are flipping sync'd to vblank 2) use more than two swapchain images (which is the case of DXVK) and 3) they render below the display refresh rate. If such application renders at 54 FPS on a 60 Hz display, it should now flip at 54 FPS instead of 30 FPS.

Damien Leone, NVIDIA

So that's another tick in the box for improved Vulkan, Linux and NVIDIA together.

You can see the 450.66 driver here. As this is a stable driver, you should be good to go on upgrading. Whenever your distribution offers packages that is. If you're on Arch, I've recently been shown the TkG installer and it worked great.

Update 20/08/20 - NVIDIA sent word that the 450 series will be the last to support these three SLI modes: AA, AFR and SFR. However "SLI Mosaic, Base Mosaic, GL_NV_gpu_multicast, and GLX_NV_multigpu_context will continue to be supported in future driver series". You can see more about their deprecation schedule here.