Nvidia cares about Linux gaming now?

Nvidia has increased its involvement in Linux gaming, according to a forum post that cites the company's long history in Linux and Unix professional rendering and compute work, including a 2004 Sun Microsystems graphics alliance and a 2026 Red Hat collaboration on rack-scale AI. The post points to Blender benchmark data showing the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 scoring 6112 on Linux versus 5754 on Windows, while Intel Arc Pro B70 Graphics scored 3868 on Windows and 3647 on Linux and AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT scored 3392 on Windows and 3238 on Linux. The author argues Nvidia is the only GPU vendor with more optimized Blender rendering performance on Linux than on Windows and asks why the company's Linux gaming involvement has grown despite its past resistance to some open source efforts and standards.

I’m sorry but this is inaccurate. NVIDIA has been quite involved in Linux and even UNIX for a long time, but more on the professional rendering and compute side, as opposed to gaming. Example, from 2004: Sun Microsystems and NVIDIA Form Professional Graphics Alliance | Animation World Network https://www.awn.com/news/sun-microsystems-and-nvidia-form-professional-graphics-alliance Example, from 2026: Red Hat Expands Collaboration with NVIDIA to Pair Enterprise Open Source with Rack-Scale AI for Faster, Production-Ready Innovation https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/red-hat-nvidia-pair-enterprise-open-source-rack-scale-ai-faster-production-ready-innovation The story behind this case is also quite interesting, and somewhat related, which I would recommend you to read: Inside Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device ever - Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/inside-nvidias-10-year-effort-to-make-the-shield-tv-the-most-updated-android-device-ever/ It’s also interesting how NVIDIA is the only GPU vendor with more optimized Blender rendering performance on Linux than on Windows: | Device Name | OS | Median Score | |---|---|---| | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 | Linux | 6112 | | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 | Windows | 5754 | | Intel Arc Pro B70 Graphics | Windows | 3868 | | Intel Arc Pro B70 Graphics | Linux | 3647 | | AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT | Windows | 3392 | | AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT | Linux | 3238 | True, they used to not play nice with some open source efforts and standards in the past, as we all know well. But that is not the topic of this thread. The topic here is to document the observation that they’ve in fact noticeably increased their involvement in Linux gaming, and to speculate on why this may be the case as this is contrary to popular assumptions/past behaviour. Hoping to promote an informative, quality discussion that contributes knowledge, as opposed to the usual Internet-arguments.