Ex windows user here. I really like my Linux installation, but I don’t know where the drivers are at, or if I should worry about it.
It feels great to have one less thing to worry about (I use an AMD GPU), but GPU drivers in Windows seem to have their own release cycle, fixing game compatibility and bugs, while in Linux it also feels like we have to wait for a next kernel release to get that fix.
Or maybe it’s mesa? I don’t really understand that.
TL;DR: where are the open source drivers at? Mesa or the kernel? And also, is the release cycle the same or close to Windows counterpart? Or it just doesn’t matter?
Ok, I think I get it. But let’s say that AMD releases a windows driver with a fix for a new game. How much should I wait for that same fix to arrive in arch? Will it arrive as a new kernel? As a new mesa version? Or something else?
That fix for the windows game won’t necessarily be a fix for your distro. What distro are you running and what do you want to do with your system?
Arch (btw), and gaming mostly.
I don’t get why you’re mentioning the distro, though.
To give you an example, the latest Windows driver says it adds support for some games: https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-23-11-1
But for Linux…
I could be wrong here, but perhaps those game “updates” are just adding profiles specific for those games into GeForce Experience/Adrenalin. I’ve never needed a game specific update driver for Nvidia, and from what I’ve heard on the AMD side of things - generally you don’t either. Every now and then a new Mesa build might make things work for a game better however, which is why they mentioned the distro (although I think the Steam Flatpak tends to include the newest Mesa anyways).
Since neither manufacturer has a dashboard for Linux, there are no updates needed.
Most game support related updates come from Proton/WINE/etc on the Linux side of things, not the drivers in my experience. Have a look at the Proton release notes, and you’ll see game specific updates generally landing there