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0 pointsnative_samples3y ago0 comments

Yes. Drivers represent enormous amounts of work and large parts of the overall development/IP effort in a GPU. Asking why nVidia don't open source it is like asking why they don't just open source the entire GPU. Answer: because then they'd have a much smaller and less valuable business, if they even had a business at all.

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account423y ago

> because then they'd have a much smaller and less valuable business, if they even had a business at all.

This does not follow. While GPU drivers are a huge development effort, they are also very specific to the hardware. This is even more true with modern APIs that are closer to how the hardware works.

AMD and Intel both have open source GPU drivers and they are still in business. Are you claiming that their business would be much bigger if not for those open source drivers?

Qwertious3y ago

>AMD and Intel both have open source GPU drivers and they are still in business. Are you claiming that their business would be much bigger if not for those open source drivers?

AMD and Intel are underdogs, and benefit from open standards. Nvidia has an outright majority, and as a result their incompatible "standards" benefit them, because it forces everyone to choose between supporting Nvidia (and therefore the majority of their userbase), or "open standards" (a minority).

native_samplesOP3y ago

Apparently nVidia believe that is the case, and they are the market leaders, so - yes?

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