The company promises "double the performance and dramatically reduce[d] game loading times."
According to the company, the R310 driver was developed in collaboration with game developers over the course of "almost a year" and "showcase the enormous potential of the world's biggest open-source operating system." Nvidia said that the driver was "thoroughly" tested with Valve's Steam for Linux.
The press release published to support the release of the driver has plenty of calming words for the Linux community, which has grown increasingly unhappy with Nvidia's tight grip on its Linux drivers. It is unlikely that Linux enthusiasts will change their mind simply because of the release of an improved driver, but those who use Linux for gaming would be silly not to take advantage of the driver.
However, Valve's quote - "Nvidia took an unquestioned leadership position developing R310 drivers with us and other studios to provide an absolutely unequalled solution for Linux gamers", attributed to the company's vice president of marketing, Doug Lombardi, may not sit so well with the Linux community, which would prefer Nvidia to be in a position to make its code accessible and give the community that "leadership" position.
