Valve is getting closer to native Nvidia GeForce RTX GPU support
SteamOS can now run on machines with Nvidia GPUs, but its performance isn’t there yet
Alongside Valve’s Steam Machine hardware, the company made SteamOS available to everyone. This gave PC builders the option to build unofficial Steam Machines using their own hardware. However, the catch was limited hardware support, with only AMD Radeon GPUs being officially supported. Now, an Nvidia driver has been enabled within Valve’s main branch of SteamOS. However, that doesn’t mean that SteamOS is truly Nvidia GPU-ready.
Adding Nvidia GPU support to SteamOS is now a priority for Valve. Achieving this will allow SteamOS to become more broadly used, making it a more viable gaming alternative to Windows. Nvidia dominates today’s GPU market, and Valve’s lack of Nvidia GPU support is holding SteamOS back.
Right now, the performance of Nvidia GeForce GPUs in SteamOS isn’t “state of the art”. Valve is now working to unlock the full performance of Nvidia GeForce RTX hardware within SteamOS. Doing so will make SteamOS truly GeForce-ready. Currently, it is unknown when Valve’s official Nvidia GPU support will be ready.
Yeah, we’re working on it hard. It’s definitely at the top of our list. It’s one of those things just like FEX and working on the Qualcomm driver, it just takes years.
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We’ve done a few things like we’ve enabled the driver now in the main tree of SteamOS, so 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.
Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais to IGN
AMD Radeon remains the best option for home-built Steam Machines
Valve built SteamOS around AMD hardware. Valve’s Steam Deck and Steam Machine both use AMD Zen-based CPUs and Radeon graphics. As a result, SteamOS runs best on AMD hardware, but Valve’s gaming ambitions extend beyond its own devices.
Valve wants OEMs and PC enthusiasts to build their own Steam Machines. That means that SteamOS will need to support a larger variety of hardware configurations. That includes Nvidia GPU support.
Progress is being made on official Nvidia GeForce GPU support within SteamOS. Valve currently has no timeline for when SteamOS will be GeForce-ready. Gamers can rest assured that Valve’s SteamOS will not remain an AMD-dominated platform. Support for more hardware options is coming.
Join the discussion on Valve’s progress towards enabling NVIDIA RTX GPU support for SteamOS on the OC3D Forums.
