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Today NVIDIA put up a rather exciting blog post talking about RTX - with Arm. Not only that, they've showcased it using Linux too which is pretty amazing.

Shown off for the Game Developers Conference, NVIDIA has announced an expansion of their RTX SDKs to support to Arm and Linux. What they've added in includes support for:

  • Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), which uses AI to boost frame rates and generate beautiful, sharp images for games
  • RTX Direct Illumination (RTXDI), which lets developers add dynamic lighting to their gaming environments
  • RTX Global Illumination (RTXGI), which helps recreate the way light bounces around in real-world environments
  • NVIDIA Optix AI-Acceleration Denoiser (NRD), which uses AI to render high-fidelity images faster
  • RTX Memory Utility (RTXMU), which optimizes the way applications use graphics memory

What they presented was an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 GPU paired with a MediaTek Kompanio 1200 Arm processor, setup with Arch Linux (likely something like Arch Linux ARM) along with testing out the likes of Wolfenstein: Youngblood.

“RTX is the most groundbreaking technology to come to PC gaming in the last two decades,” said PC Tseng, general manager of MediaTek’s Intelligent Multimedia Business Unit.“MediaTek and NVIDIA are laying the foundation for a new category of Arm-based high-performance PCs.”

Multiple companies sounded quite excited by it including Epic Games, Machinegames and Unity.

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There's also a separate post from NVIDIA to properly announce the new NVIDIA DLSS SDK, which adds full Linux support including for native x86 Linux games and Arm too. Quite an exciting move for the future of Linux. The DLSS SDK is also easier to get now, with no application to NVIDIA required as you can do a direct download now.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Lofty Jul 19, 2021
Quoting: F.UltraWell Microsoft's huge advantage is the enormous software catalogue, which is 100% x86, so to be able to maintain that advantage they have no other choice than go full on QEMU-type emulation and things will be slow.

Don't forget the progress software like Box86 is making. And software is a fast moving landscape that can change overnight, even adobe a windows/x86 stalwart is moving to ARM and runs okay with Apple's Rosetta 2 technology.

Sure your obscure programs from the early 2000's might not be there but given that most popular software is web based or cloud the gap isn't as wide as you would think.
jens Jul 19, 2021
  • Supporter
Quoting: F.UltraConsidering how quickly they managed to port Wolfenstein Youngblood to not only Linux but also ARM Linux shows that those rumours that they had DOOM running natively on Linux way back where highly likely true.

Yes exactly, having the driver ready for ARM is one thing, showing an ARM port of an AAA game is at least equally impressive (and serves indeed food for lots of rumors :)).


Last edited by jens on 19 July 2021 at 6:30 pm UTC
Purple Library Guy Jul 19, 2021
What I'm wondering is if industries like say animation might be looking at moving towards ARM and that might be part of what's driving this kind of thing.
KohlyKohl Jul 19, 2021
Quoting: benjamimgoisSuddenly arch seems the new standard ! that's an amazing time to be a linux gamer.

Nah, Arch just makes sense to use here.
KohlyKohl Jul 19, 2021
I'm surprised this is running and id Software game. I guess Linux Gaming really is becoming a big deal finally.
Cybolic Jul 19, 2021
I'm still just trying to put my head back together after hearing NVIDIA and Bethesda working together on an Arm Linux project running on Arch... and so soon after the Steam Deck announcement! I am shook I tell you, shook!
3zekiel Jul 19, 2021
Quoting: Purple Library GuyWhat I'm wondering is if industries like say animation might be looking at moving towards ARM and that might be part of what's driving this kind of thing.

I think Apple M1 showed that it is possible to live without x86 and it created some appetites ... Imagine if Nvidia does manage to buy ARM, then make some kind of laptop, with Nvidia GPU inside. They do not have to pay either for CPU, not even a license, neither for the OS. So they can capture much more value than if using x86, or third party ARM, and losedows. (a losedows OEM license costs around 50€, so it is nothing to laugh at). If you have good x86 compat layer, relying on custom ARM chip with good HW accel for it, and you ride on Valve's proton for the rest, it seems awfully possible now. From business perspective at least, it makes sense.
sub Jul 19, 2021
Quoting: 3zekiel
Quoting: Purple Library GuyWhat I'm wondering is if industries like say animation might be looking at moving towards ARM and that might be part of what's driving this kind of thing.

I think Apple M1 showed that it is possible to live without x86 and it created some appetites ... Imagine if Nvidia does manage to buy ARM, then make some kind of laptop, with Nvidia GPU inside. They do not have to pay either for CPU, not even a license, neither for the OS. So they can capture much more value than if using x86, or third party ARM, and losedows. (a losedows OEM license costs around 50€, so it is nothing to laugh at). If you have good x86 compat layer, relying on custom ARM chip with good HW accel for it, and you ride on Valve's proton for the rest, it seems awfully possible now. From business perspective at least, it makes sense.

And we're left with a system that runs with a graphics driver blob only.

*meh*
mylka Jul 19, 2021
Quoting: jens
Quoting: F.UltraConsidering how quickly they managed to port Wolfenstein Youngblood to not only Linux but also ARM Linux shows that those rumours that they had DOOM running natively on Linux way back where highly likely true.

Yes exactly, having the driver ready for ARM is one thing, showing an ARM port of an AAA game is at least equally impressive (and serves indeed food for lots of rumors :)).

switch has ARM hardware and it has AAA titles all over
afaik switch runs freeBSD which is kinda linux
so i think its not that hard to make a switch ARM TITLE run on LINUX ARM
Lofty Jul 19, 2021
Quoting: subAnd we're left with a system that runs with a graphics driver blob only.

*meh*

And runs windows games via a compatibility layer. So how much left is running FOSS, not to mention any DRM that gets added to the kernel for compatibilities sake and potentially invasive anti-cheat if it is not handled properly.

The future of Linux gaming is sounding more free and open all the time ..


Last edited by Lofty on 19 July 2021 at 10:34 pm UTC
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