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Nvidia is looking to get even more serious about Linux with their push to put over-clocking back in the Linux driver, hooray!

Announced today is 337.12 a beta driver, so use at your own risk. Along-side the usual assortment of new GPU support it fixes bugs it finally brings back over-clocking and under-clocking:
QuoteAdded the ability to over- and under-clock certain GeForce GPUs in the GeForce GTX 400 series and later. For GPUs that allow it, an offset can be applied to clock values in some clock domains of some performance levels. This clock manipulation is done at the user's own risk. See the README documentation of the "CoolBits" X configuration option for more details.


It is good to see them push more features for Linux to be on-par with Windows, although I am not sure why they ever took this ability away.

You can find the driver here. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Hardware
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22 comments
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Xpander Apr 8, 2014
yeah finaly ...
![

i wont probably OC much though... doesnt give the needed boost anyway and when the card is getting older i will get a newer anyway.

but those who have weaker GPUs and are pretty much on the edge of droping below 30 fps for games, small boost can help to make this experience better.
PlayX Apr 8, 2014
Nice. I hope X Edgers doenst wait so long like they did for the 334.
Hopefulle the bug from 334 is gone wich makes my Desktop unusable. Graphic glitches everywhere, only Downgrade to 331 did help.
JoZ3 Apr 8, 2014
Every day I hate more my HD7850... why amd, Why????
Anonymous Apr 9, 2014
Beta? no way!
mrdeathjr Apr 9, 2014
On my side works good

on assassins creed brotherhood multiplayer online video with nvidia 337.12 drivers and this is progression with lastest wine (1.7.15 - 1.7.16) and nvidia drivers 334.21 and 337.12


Wine 1.7.15 + 334.21

View video on youtube.com


Wine 1.7.16 + 334.21

View video on youtube.com


Wine 1.7.16 + Nvidia 337.12

View video on youtube.com



and othera as shadow warrior

View video on youtube.com


most games at now works good at seem more smoothly than 334.21 on various games (i tested test drive unlimited 2, injustice god among us and maybe others, this titles maybe stay tomorrow on my channel) tested wine with this drivers 337.12


^_^
mrdeathjr Apr 9, 2014
Every day I hate more my HD7850... why amd, Why????

But this situation is mainly on linux, on wine its more critical

^_^
Anonymous Apr 9, 2014
yeah finaly ...
<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28788188/ss_09042014_00.23.41.png" class="img-responsive bbcodeimage-comment" alt="img">

i wont probably OC much though... doesnt give the needed boost anyway and when the card is getting older i will get a newer anyway.

but those who have weaker GPUs and are pretty much on the edge of droping below 30 fps for games, small boost can help to make this experience better.

On lower end cards maybe give troubles because coolers, power components, heat sink not be adequate for overclocking

But on higher cards (as yours for example) maybe is possible because coolers, power components and heat sink is more adequate for overclocking, and show many custom coolers and heat sinks of vga manufacturers for overclocking

And maybe appears better results on pc titles when high gpu use (metro maybe???) with your higher settings

^_^
Xpander Apr 9, 2014
On lower end cards maybe give troubles because coolers, power components, heat sink not be adequate for overclocking

But on higher cards (as yours for example) maybe is possible because coolers, power components and heat sink is more adequate for overclocking, and show many custom coolers and heat sinks of vga manufacturers for overclocking

And maybe appears better results on pc titles when high gpu use (metro maybe???) with your higher settings

^_^

the problem is... i really havent seen a game that doesnt run max with my relatively mid end 660Ti
on linux. that is ofc and at 1080p. Metro LL runs above 40 as well.

and yeah low end cards have cheaper coolers and power components.. thats true... but oc gain there is usualy better cause those cards perform poorly and even small step in clocks gives something...
mrdeathjr Apr 9, 2014
For disgrace on entry card level, coolers, heat sinks and power components on this vgas its only for work at stock frequencies

Back to topic maybe can try the witcher 2, this game on higher settings is too heavy

^_^
killx_den Apr 9, 2014
For disgrace on entry card level, coolers, heat sinks and power components on this vgas its only for work at stock frequencies

Back to topic maybe can try the witcher 2, this game on higher settings is too heavy

^_^

I still have 310.xx driver on Mint 15 and the witcher 2 runs smooth for me in wine on high@1080p.
I just played 10 mins and didn't try it any further because I have read about the witcher 2 port that will come to Linux ^^.

My specs:

i7 3770k
geforce 670GTX
32GB RAM
Anonymous Apr 9, 2014
Fucking shit AMD too poor to improve Linux. I hope everyone boycott AMD and so AMD will go away lol
PlayX Apr 9, 2014
So I have done a quick test with the Valley Benchmark.
My GTX560ti runs Standard on GPU 900Mhz and Memory on 2000MHz.
with this configuration I have following FPS.
331.49: min 17,5fps / max 49,1fps / avg 29,9fps
334.21: min 17,7fps / max 49,3fps / avg 29,9fps
337.12: min 16,9fps / max 49,1fps / avg 29,9fps
so nothing big has changed.
If I overclock the Card to GPU 950MHz and Memory 2200Mhz
337.12: min 17,9fps / max 53,7fps / avg 31,6fps

so 5,69% win on fps in the average.
Not worth for me ;-)

btw: the 337.12 is now in the X Edgers PPA ;-)
mrdeathjr Apr 9, 2014
So I have done a quick test with the Valley Benchmark.
My GTX560ti runs Standard on GPU 900Mhz and Memory on 2000MHz.
with this configuration I have following FPS.
331.49: min 17,5fps / max 49,1fps / avg 29,9fps
334.21: min 17,7fps / max 49,3fps / avg 29,9fps
337.12: min 16,9fps / max 49,1fps / avg 29,9fps
so nothing big has changed.
If I overclock the Card to GPU 950MHz and Memory 2200Mhz
337.12: min 17,9fps / max 53,7fps / avg 31,6fps

so 5,69% win on fps in the average.
Not worth for me ;-)

Good date and good comparative, on my case on wine some titles can better as assasins creed posted up, shadow warrior mantain equal but finish farcry 3 test yesterday and on my opinion performance low a bit, stay more smoothly on 334.21

^_^
Millan Apr 9, 2014
What I really want to see among the Nvidia driver features is shadowplay (GPU level video capture + encoding)

Is there any info on if/when might that come to Linux?
Kevin Apr 10, 2014
I really hope they add the ability to downsample in future Linux drivers. That's one feature from their windows drivers I would love.
Xpander Apr 10, 2014
made some tests also

Stock 660 TI
![

+100mhz core and +100mhz memory

![


no big changes imo ... that again proves my point that OC is quite useless for Mid/High end GPU's

also at +150mhz core it just downclocked itself automatically, but the framerates werent that much better anyway till that point
mrdeathjr Apr 10, 2014
made some tests also

Stock 660 TI

+100mhz core and +100mhz memory

no big changes imo ... that again proves my point that OC is quite useless for Mid/High end GPU's

also at +150mhz core it just downclocked itself automatically, but the framerates werent that much better anyway till that point

Good test at your max fps up, but you must test with cpu at stock frecuencies vs overclocked frecuencies

Both overclocking shows results but if only with oc your card give 5fps, not bad on wine maybe change something

For example: cpu stock + VGA stock
cpu stock + VGA overclocked
cpu overclocked + VGA stock
cpu overclocked + VGA overclocked

This is very interesting because on your hardware is possible use overclocking thanks to your vga components

And shows if wine depend more cpu frecuency than vga frecuency or both or another situation

Other test if you can make and its very usefull, is testing how many cores affect wine performance, if your mainboard support (you can disable cores: for example test 1 core to 4 cores (disable cores not modules on your fx), most people have machines on this cpu range) and add stock and overcloked states for see how affect frecuency and cores on wine

And possible add test of different resolutions since lower 1024 if you prefer until 1080p, this test is important for how affect cpu performance on cores (single, dual and quad) and frecuency: stock and overclocked

If you have can test the witcher 2, farcry 3, shadow warrior, skyrim with mods, fallout 3 with mods and many other titles

If you make this tests, its very appreciated thanks for hardware components allow this tests without problems (on my case only have some idea about lower resolutions and dual core cpu with moderate values) and give more information about this situation for most people (this information lack this days)


^_^
Xpander Apr 10, 2014
well yeah CPU doesnt really make difference in Valley, because its focused on GPU testing

on wine ofc it does... but GPU not much.

nowadays most games are on shader units.. instead of raw core clocks.
oldschool games might get improvements..but then again oldschool games run superbly anyway with stock clocks

edit: i will try to do some more wine tests if i have time.. but on wine CPU frequency is most important... core count isnt that important unless you run CSMT.
GPU performance on wine is bottlenecked by all kinds of direct3d bugs.. but with CSMT enabled (forcing rendering to other core) it can improve a lot..cause it takes heat off from the 1 and only core that wine wants to use.
Anon Apr 10, 2014
I really hope they add the ability to downsample in future Linux drivers. That's one feature from their windows drivers I would love.
I really hope they add the ability to downsample in future Linux drivers. That's one feature from their windows drivers I would love.
I really hope they add the ability to downsample in future Linux drivers. That's one feature from their windows drivers I would love.

Assuming I'm reading what you want correctly, you can do this with xrandr already, Kevin. I can't remember if this is the precise syntax but it's something like this:

xrandr --output <output> --mode <native resolution> --scale-from <resolution you want to downscale from>

E.g. to scale from 4k to 1440p to the first DVI-D output:

xrandr --output DVI-D-0 --mode 2560x1440 --scale-from 3840x2160

I remember it being a bit buggy in that it might not properly go back to my native resolution after but it does work. It's slow as you'd expect but I suspect it will be doable as a last resort AA for lighter games.
mrdeathjr Apr 10, 2014
well yeah CPU doesnt really make difference in Valley, because its focused on GPU testing

on wine ofc it does... but GPU not much.

nowadays most games are on shader units.. instead of raw core clocks.
oldschool games might get improvements..but then again oldschool games run superbly anyway with stock clocks

edit: i will try to do some more wine tests if i have time.. but on wine CPU frequency is most important... core count isnt that important unless you run CSMT.
GPU performance on wine is bottlenecked by all kinds of direct3d bugs.. but with CSMT enabled (forcing rendering to other core) it can improve a lot..cause it takes heat off from the 1 and only core that wine wants to use.


For disgrace many issues on direct3d to solve:


-d3dcaps not have complete (this affect various games as saint row the third)

-shadows give problems on many games (the suffeing ties that bind and others) and affect performance


-some light effects give trobles on some games (lantern bug on alan wake)

see around 11 minut

View video on youtube.com


-and other many graphics issues


On input mouse movement have problems on some games is partially solved when you use on windowed but various games dont work still with windowed mode case binary domain and anothers

View video on youtube.com


And other issues in ther areas

Respect CSMT, step by step more close to wine vanilla integration (few a few many thigs are included actually on vanilla) only remains wait

And overhead still is bigger depend game on d3d is appear major difference as farcry 3 and many others


^_^
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