intel arc gpu firmware

[ChuckFeed]

will intel arc GPUs work without loading any external proprietary firmware?

in other words, will they work on debian without nonfree/contrib enabled, or on something with the FSF's stamp of approval on it like guix?

im looking to buy a gpu that wont cause any trouble and AMD needs firmware for 3d rendering, nvidia needs firmware for post-kepler cards to even have hardware acceleration (even in nouveau), so the only known working thing is either GTX780ti cards (or older), or integrated intel GPUs. (?)

[whispous]

Do you mean drivers? Firmware is not quite the same thing as drivers.

[ChuckFeed]

12 minutes ago, whispous said:

Do you mean drivers? Firmware is not quite the same thing as drivers.

no, i mean firmware.

specifically, external firmware, not firmware thats read only and etched onto the chips on the GPU itself.

i mean firmware that gets loaded onto the card from external sources (e.g. kernel), just like most wifi card firmware.

the drivers are just mesa or nouveau for nvidia gpus, and nouveau needs firmware blobs on post-kepler gpus as well.

go try to boot debian or some other fully free distro without binary blobs and see what happens, you won't have working hardware acceleration using a post-kepler nvidia gpu until you the required install proprietary firmware.

now my question is, how is the status with intel GPUs?

i don't want to buy a gpu just to find out i bought hardware thats designed to be defect