NVIDIA has officially released the proprietary driver NVIDIA 595.58.03, marking the first stable release of the new 595 branch. This latest driver is now available for Linux (ARM64, x86_64), FreeBSD (x86_64), and Solaris (x86_64) platforms. The NVIDIA 595.x branch is the thirteenth stable branch since NVIDIA began opening kernel-level components to the public. The source texts of key kernel modules, including nvidia.ko, nvidia-drm.ko, nvidia-modeset.ko, and nvidia-uvm.ko from the new NVIDIA branch, along with their common components, are hosted on GitHub. However, firmware and libraries used in the user space, such as CUDA, OpenGL, and Vulkan stacks, remain proprietary.
Core changes in the NVIDIA 595.58.03 driver include:
- Added support for Vulkan extensions VK_EXT_descriptor_heap and VK_EXT_present_timing.
- Added support for DRI3 1.2 interface (Direct Rendering Infrastructure).
- Implemented support in the nvidia.ko module for independent control of saving video memory contents when the system enters sleep mode, enabled by using the “NVreg_UseKernelSuspendNotifiers=1” setting.
- Activated the “modeset=1” parameter in the nvidia-drm.ko module, enabling DRM Kernel Mode-Setting (KMS) technology for screen mode switching at the kernel level.
- Enhancements to allow nvidia-smi to reset the GPU state when the nvidia-drm module is loaded with modeset=1 and no other processes are utilizing the GPU.
- Added a new application profile CudaNoStablePerfLimit, enabling CUDA programs to enter the P0 PState power saving mode.
- Introduced support for rollback to system memory usage in case of insufficient free video memory to prevent freezes on Wayland-based composite servers.
- Declared Wayland 1.20 (2021), X.Org as the minimum supported versions, along with Server 1.17 (2015) and Glibc 2.27 (2018).
/Reports, release notes, official announcements.