It's still a rather uncertain time to be a PC gamer. While graphics card prices are continuing to come down for both AMD and Nvidia products, there's also the ongoing supply issues that have been plaguing the market for what feels like ages now. That aside, however, both companies, along with newcomers Intel, are still keen to keep pushing out new hardware despite the shortages, and it's now looking like team green is moving into more open-source territories for the first time.

According to a recent blog post on the company website, as spotted by PC Gamer, Nvidia has just released some open-source GPU kernel modules for use in Linux-based operating systems. The post goes on to say that this represents a "significant step towards" making its graphics cards better suited for the alternative system. As a result, this could be the start of Linux users being able to use team green's products with greater ease. The report from PC Gamer goes on to say that, traditionally, users would have to stick with Nvidia's "proprietary drivers," which have not always been reliable.

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This is likely to be good news for those who prefer Linux operating systems to Windows but still want to do some gaming. With the Steam Deck possibly influencing a rise in Linux usage, it seems that more people are turning to Windows alternatives, and the fact that Jensen Huang and co are making the move shows that there is room for it. Of course, it's also likely a way to muscle in on AMD's turf, which already has an open-source policy on not just on graphics cards, but its competitive FidelityFX Super Resolution upscaling AI as well.

Rendered image showing a motherboard with green "nodes" around an Nvidia chip.

Alongside this, there's also been speculations about Nvidia's upcoming RTX 4090 graphics card. A recent leak has suggested that the company's next flagship GPU could sport 24 GB of GDDR6X VRAM on a 21 Gbps memory clock. That puts it on par with the current RTX 3090 Ti, which is the world's most powerful card on the market. However, the issue of supply vs. demand is still something that is weighing heavily on the industry and surrounding community.

With Intel's CEO saying the chip shortages could go on until 2024, things might not be getting much better, even if prices are continuing to come down. In general, though, the decision for Nvidia to start embracing Linux is no doubt a good sign, increasing support for those who use its products on non-Windows systems.

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Source: PC Gamer, Nvidia