--- title: NVK holiday update: What we've achieved, and where we're... description: NVK, the open-source Vulkan driver for NVIDIA GPUs in Mesa, has made dramatic progress through 2023. Starting from a bare-bones Vulkan 1.0 implementation, the... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/nvk-holiday-update-what-we-ve-achieved-and-where-we-re-headed-mvkepqsfo twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: NVK holiday update: What we've achieved, and where we're headed | daily.dev og:description: NVK, the open-source Vulkan driver for NVIDIA GPUs in Mesa, has made dramatic progress through 2023. Starting from a bare-bones Vulkan 1.0 implementation, the... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/nvk-holiday-update-what-we-ve-achieved-and-where-we-re-headed-mvkepqsfo og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/MvkEPQSfo.png og:image:alt: NVK holiday update: What we've achieved, and where we're headed og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # NVK holiday update: What we've achieved, and where we're headed **[Collabora Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/collabora)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary NVK, the open-source Vulkan driver for NVIDIA GPUs in Mesa, has made dramatic progress through 2023. Starting from a bare-bones Vulkan 1.0 implementation, the project now has ~80 Vulkan extensions, a new state-of-the-art shader compiler delivering 10-20% speed gains, and Vulkan 1.0 conformance submission. Performance has reached 40-60% of the proprietary NVIDIA driver on several games, with NVK actually beating the proprietary driver on A Hat in Time (210 FPS vs 165 FPS). On the kernel side, Red Hat contributed a new userspace API for memory management and GSP firmware support, enabling proper power management for Turing (RTX 2000-series) and newer GPUs. Plans for 2024 include a pipeline rewrite to achieve Vulkan 1.3 conformance (targeting March), dropping the experimental flag and shipping NVK by default in distros like Fedora 40, improving D3D12 support via VKD3D-proton, and a major performance push. Maxwell GPU support is also in progress. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How does NVK performance compare to the proprietary NVIDIA driver for gaming? NVK currently hits 40-60% of proprietary NVIDIA driver performance on several games, translating to 60-90 FPS with a decent card at non-4K settings. On A Hat in Time specifically, NVK outperforms the proprietary driver on some GPUs, achieving 210 FPS versus 165 FPS. The new shader compiler alone has delivered 10-20% speed improvements on a number of games. _Linux gamers tracking NVK's performance gap against the proprietary driver will find ongoing benchmarks and updates on daily.dev._ ### What kernel version do I need to get full NVK performance with GSP firmware on NVIDIA GPUs? Full NVK performance requires a Linux 6.7 kernel with GSP firmware enabled. You must also set the kernel parameter `nouveau.config=NvGspRm=1` to activate GSP firmware support. The new userspace API for memory management shipped in Linux 6.6, while kernel support for GSP firmware is included in Linux 6.7. GSP firmware itself is available in recent linux-firmware packages. _Developers setting up NVK on their rigs can track kernel and Mesa release news on daily.dev._ ### When will NVK be out of beta and shipped by default in Linux distributions? NVK will drop the `-experimental` Meson config flag once the pipeline rewrite is complete and remaining bugs are fixed, signaling distributions to ship it by default. Fedora 40 is the first named target, with the pipeline rewrite and Vulkan 1.3 conformance submission aimed for February-March. Spring or fall distro releases are expected to include the necessary Linux 6.7 kernel and GSP firmware support. _Developers waiting to deploy NVK in production Linux environments can follow distro packaging milestones on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [NVK Vulkan Performance Improving With Mesa 26.2 Against NVIDIA Proprietary Driver](https://daily.dev/posts/nvk-vulkan-performance-improving-with-mesa-26-2-against-nvidia-proprietary-driver-j2mn4fgyd) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [NVK's Cooperative Matrix Support Proving Competitive With Official NVIDIA Driver](https://daily.dev/posts/nvk-s-cooperative-matrix-support-proving-competitive-with-official-nvidia-driver-4og32rzfq) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Open-Source NVIDIA Vulkan Driver "NVK" Merges Mesh Shader Support](https://daily.dev/posts/open-source-nvidia-vulkan-driver-nvk-merges-mesh-shader-support-657asbxwp) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#nvidia](https://daily.dev/tags/nvidia), [#vulkan](https://daily.dev/tags/vulkan), [#mesa](https://daily.dev/tags/mesa) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/nvk-holiday-update-what-we-ve-achieved-and-where-we-re-headed-mvkepqsfo) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"NVK holiday update: What we've achieved, and where we're headed","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/nvk-holiday-update-what-we-ve-achieved-and-where-we-re-headed-mvkepqsfo","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/nvk-holiday-update-what-we-ve-achieved-and-where-we-re-headed-mvkepqsfo"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T08:55:02.510Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T09:22:44.765Z","description":"NVK, the open-source Vulkan driver for NVIDIA GPUs in Mesa, has made dramatic progress through 2023. 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