Valve Brings NVIDIA Driver Support Closer to SteamOS, but Performance Still Trails Windows

Valve is making progress on NVIDIA GPU support for SteamOS, but performance work is still ongoing. According to Wccftech, some NVIDIA GPU generations are becoming compatible as Valve works to reduce one of SteamOS’s biggest hardware compatibility barriers.

Speaking to IGN ahead of the Steam Frame launch, Valve software developer Pierre-Loup Griffais said the company is working heavily on NVIDIA support and described it as a top priority.

The NVIDIA driver has been enabled in SteamOS’s main tree, but performance still remains behind the current Linux driver stack, according to the report. Valve continues to work on optimizations, so compatibility does not yet mean that NVIDIA hardware will deliver performance comparable to Windows.

The development could broaden SteamOS hardware support as more NVIDIA GPUs become compatible. However, Valve’s comments indicate that the work is still in progress, and the remaining performance gap is an unresolved part of the effort.