Valve has debuted early Nvidia GPU driver support on the main SteamOS development tree, marking an important technical milestone for users of the Linux-based operating system. According to the company’s software developer Pierre-Loup Griffais, some generations of GeForce graphics cards can now run directly on SteamOS, but performance is still not there yet.
For a long time, AMD hardware has been a top choice for Linux and, by consequence, SteamOS users, at least for those wanting a working system without too much tinkering. Installing almost any Linux distro, including major ones like Ubuntu, Fedora, or Arch, comes by default with full AMD GPU hardware acceleration. You didn’t need to download extra repositories or run installer scripts. This made AMD the go-to option for Valve when developing its Steam Deck and Steam Machine, and for any users looking to build their own SteamOS gaming PC.
While Nvidia has made strides recently, transitioning its driver stack so Linux can manage its GPUs much like Intel or AMD’s models, and contributing source code and documentation to the Mesa NVK project, its hardware still isn’t quite running optimally yet. Furthermore, the official closed-source drivers provided by Nvidia for Linux users are usually behind their Windows counterparts when it comes to game support, bug fixes, and features.
However, Valve is making strides in this area as it aims to expand SteamOS to more PC hardware, specifically Nvidia GPUs. When asked about the progress on Nvidia driver support, Pierre-Loup Griffais told IGN that “we’ve done a few things like we’ve enabled the driver now in the main tree of SteamOS.” Griffais added that “you can get things to light up on certain generations, but in terms of the performance difference between that driver and where the state of the art is, there’s definitely still a little bit of a rift that we’re trying to work on, but it’s getting better day-to-day.”
Since Valve relies on Arch Linux, and its rolling release model, as the base layer for SteamOS, so it can instantly push out the latest graphics drivers and crucial game optimisations, supporting Nvidia GPUs could benefit a lot of people. With Nvidia GPUs powering 72% of Steam-surveyed machines, proper support could drive SteamOS and Linux’s overall adoption.
One it gets past this step, Valve would then need to convince anti-cheat makers to better support Linux, and gamers would have little reason to continue dealing with Windows.
