Linux Graphics Survey: NVIDIA Leads, Intel Catching Up
More than 14,000 users participated in this year's Linux graphics survey from Phoronix. The results of the study are now out.
The Phoronix study shows that NVIDIA still holds the lead in video adapters in use at 41%, in front of ATI/AMD at 32% and Intel at almost 22%. Nevertheless, NVIDIA's lead is down six percentage points from last year's survey, essentially giving these point to Intel, because ATI/AMD's share basically stayed the same. Most NVIDIA users rely on its proprietary driver for lack of a free alternative. Only about one in 10 users are satisfied with the free NV driver without 3D acceleration. ATI's share splits into three drivers, fglrx (proprietary), radeonhd (new and free) and ati/radeon (old and free), with about half the users going with the proprietary solution.
Phoronix was interested not only in the statistics for graphics hardware and drivers, but also wanted to know what interested users the most. At almost 28%, kernel mode setting was by far the most desirable, followed by video improvements (21%) and DRI2 (20%) at second and third places. The kernel-integrated mode setting should provide significant acceleration improvements for Linux video support. Intel has already built its first code segments into Kernel 2.6.28, with the complete framework to appear in Kernel 2.6.29. Even ATI/AMD wants to integrate better video support in the kernel over the next months, although NVIDIA's support may suffer because of recent problems with the Nouveau project.
Even though 14,000 users participated in the study and 56% considered themselves mainstream users, the Phoronix Graphics Survey is far from representative of all Linux users. Around 40% of the respondents admitted having setups with two or more monitors and the same percentage configured the X Server with the usual manual changes to xorg.conf. The complete study is available as HTML on the Phoronix homepage.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you've found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Zorin OS 17 Beta Available for Testing
The upcoming version of Zorin OS includes plenty of improvements to take your PC to a whole new level of user-friendliness.
-
Red Hat Migrates RHEL from Xorg to Wayland
If you've been wondering when Xorg will finally be a thing of the past, wonder no more, as Red Hat has made it clear.
-
PipeWire 1.0 Officially Released
PipeWire was created to take the place of the oft-troubled PulseAudio and has finally reached the 1.0 status as a major update with plenty of improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Rocky Linux 9.3 Available for Download
The latest version of the RHEL alternative is now available and brings back cloud and container images for ppc64le along with plenty of new features and fixes.
-
Ubuntu Budgie Shifts How to Tackle Wayland
Ubuntu Budgie has yet to make the switch to Wayland but with a change in approaches, they're finally on track to making it happen.
-
TUXEDO's New Ultraportable Linux Workstation Released
The TUXEDO Pulse 14 blends portability with power, thanks to the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS CPU.
-
AlmaLinux Will No Longer Be "Just Another RHEL Clone"
With the release of AlmaLinux 9.3, the distribution will be built entirely from upstream sources.
-
elementary OS 8 Has a Big Surprise in Store
When elementary OS 8 finally arrives, it will not only be based on Ubuntu 24.04 but it will also default to Wayland for better performance and security.
-
OpenELA Releases Enterprise Linux Source Code
With Red Hat restricting the source for RHEL, it was only a matter of time before those who depended on that source struck out on their own.
-
StripedFly Malware Hiding in Plain Sight as a Cryptocurrency Miner
A rather deceptive piece of malware has infected 1 million Windows and Linux hosts since 2017.