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Questions about NVIDIA GPUs and HDR from a pre-Linuxer (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 weeks ago by 58008@lemmy.world to c/linux4noobs@lemmy.world
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As I understand things, or least how I've understood them over the last year or so, NVIDIA GPUs are comparatively less-supported on Linux than AMD ones. Is this still the case, and if so, is there hope for near-future improvements in this department? Has NVIDIA made any moves that indicates they're gonna try to make things better in terms of drivers? And out of curiosity, what is it that AMD has done that NVIDIA hasn't? Is it really just down to the drivers?

On a similar topic, how is HDR support on Linux? I've read that Wayland has support for this (I sound like I know what Wayland is, but I really don't) but that streaming services and DRM-protected content won't work with HDR. I personally don't care about the streaming side of it, I'm more concerned about gaming and watching local video files or 4K Blu-ray discs (I use a tool to strip out the DRM from such discs on-the-fly, so no worries there).

So, in sum (and to make it easier to reply!):

  1. Is NVIDIA still lagging behind AMD in terms of GPU support on Linux?
  2. Why is (or was) AMD better-supported?
  3. How is the current HDR implementation? Particularly as it relates to gaming and watching videos/discs locally.

Thank you kindly!

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[-] Telorand@reddthat.com 2 points 2 weeks ago
  1. I run an Nvidia GPU daily, with little to no issues. I can stream via OBS, I can play nearly all of my games (with very, very few exceptions), and I can still use features like raytracing. Note that I don't do anything with CUDA, so I can speak to that if that's something you plan to utilize.
  2. AMD has a more open driver implementation, making it way easier for Linux devs to integrate and improve things for the end user. There's currently an open source community project called NVK that is likely to supersede the closed-source Nvidia drivers, but that's still a few years away from being fully at parity (though it's making big strides relatively quickly).
  3. I don't have HDR, so I do not know. My vague memory indicates support stems from Window Manager support (i.e. the engine that draws windows and determines their behavior), so look into which window managers implement HDR.
this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2026
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