14 DAY TRIAL // Nvidia published today a new Beta graphics driver for Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris operating systems, adding support for various new Nvidia GPUs, improving compatibility with newer kernels, and fixing a bunch of issues.
Let's start with the newly implemented support for some of Nvidia's recently announced GPUs, as the Nvidia 381.09 Beta graphics drivers appear to offer out-of-the-box support for Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, Nvidia Quadro M520, and Nvidia TITAN Xp for VR gaming, but also restores support for the Nvidia GRID K520 GPU.
As mentioned before, recent kernels are supported by the Nvidia 381.09 Beta driver, though the release notes don't mention anything about the version number, so we can only guess that they're talking about Linux kernel 4.11, which is still in development but expected to launch at the end of the month.
Another interesting feature is the implementation of the "ResamplingMethod" MetaMode option, which promises to add support for bicubic resampling methods when using scaling screen transformations. Moreover, Nvidia 381.09 Beta disables the OpenGL threaded optimizations introduced in version 378.09, by default.
Vulkan improvements, bug fixes
Support for the next-generation Vulkan API appears to be a top priority on Nvidia's list of improvements for their graphics drivers targeted at Linux and UNIX-like operating systems, and Nvidia 381.09 Beta adds support for eight new Vulkan extensions.
These include VK_EXT_acquire_xlib_display, VK_EXT_display_control, VK_EXT_display_surface_counter, VK_EXT_direct_mode_display, VK_KHX_external_memory, VK_KHX_external_memory_fd, VK_KHX_external_semaphore, and VK_KHX_external_semaphore_fd.
As usual with any new Beta, this Beta addresses a bunch of issues that the Nvidia engineers discovered since the last stable release. Nvidia 381.09 Beta fixes a kernel crash, a bug that broke audio over DisplayPort, as well as a bug that resized X screens to 640x480 when using the "UseDisplayDevice" "none" option.
It also looks like the X driver's splash screen logo and its corresponding xorg.conf options have been removed, and a bug that left DisplayPort and HDMI audio muted, causing the display to remain blank, got fixed. Support for VDPAU applications was also improved, and some other crashes and hangs were fixed.
Check the full changelog attached below for more details, and you can download the Nvidia 381.09 Beta graphics driver for GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris operating systems right now from our website, but please try to keep in mind that this pre-release version shouldn't be used in production machines.