NVIDIA's new open-source Nouveau driver for Linux: no issues with HDMI 2.1, unlike AMD

NVIDIA's new open-source Linux graphics driver "Nouveau" won't have issues with HDMI 2.1 integration, unlike AMD that was knocked back from getting its issues on Linux with Radeon GPUs sorted.

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The HDMI Forum is the organization responsible for the HDMI standard, recently rejecting AMD's request for public access -- open-source level -- HDMI 2.1 functionality. AMD has had issues with Linux drivers for Radeon for years now, but NVIDIA has just breezed through, it seems.

Alex Deucher from FreeDesktop.org said: "The HDMI Forum has rejected our proposal unfortunately. At this time an open source HDMI 2.1 implementation is not possible without running afoul of the HDMI Forum requirements."

Red Hat developer and Nouveau contributor Karol Herbst said that the new driver is in the early stages to support HDMI 2.1, since the graphics driver isn't open-source, NVIDIA's internal development team has been involved in the process.

• Read more: HDMI Forum rejects AMD's proposal for open source HDMI 2.1+ support, Linux issues persist

Karol Herbst from Mastadon said: "Even though AMD might not be able to add support for HDMI 2.1, nouveau certainly will as NVIDIA's open source driver _also_ supports HDMI 2.1 so there is no reason to believe that at least some drivers can't support HDMI 2.1. It's quite backwards, but apparently having all the logic inside firmware (like NVIDIA does) will probably help us implementing support for HDMI 2.1."

NVIDIA doesn't have HDMI 2.1 integration into its Linux driver just yet, but it's coming... and its competitor is left out in the cold, with no path forward to have HDMI 2.1 compatibility with Radeon graphics cards running Linux.