Why open source rocks – a new SM750 (Silicon Motion GPU) HDMI Driver

I wrote* a modern Linux driver that supports ultrawide resolutions, higher refresh, and faster performance than the original driver(s) on this cheap HDMI only variant server GPU.

I created it because I wanted my Nvidia GPUs to be compute only, and needed a cheap and small display GPU to run X11. I bought this GPU on AliExpress, after learning it had Linux support. It does, but kernel 5.x series and the sm750 driver in modern Linux only supports the older VGA/DVI variants.

Rather than send it back or throw it away, I decided to vibe code a new driver with new features, to make it usable for day to day desktop use. I've a little bit of a background in low level graphics so also added a cool little magic ordered dither (a pretty good one I think!) I devised myself, called "bbdither", and a few hacks to get 2560x1080 at 75hz on a device only officially documented as capable of up to 1920x1200 at 60hz, and PCI-E 1x speed.

Screenshots here: https://github.com/KodeMunkie/sm750hdmifb#screenshots

If you try it out, be careful - read the project disclaimer :)

*Vibe coded, as mentioned in Hackernews comments here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49415282

A GPU with HDMI and 16MB of VRAM is a very strange combination.

Hey, how did you iterate on it? Quite interested in your process here considering you say it’s vibe coded. The iteration loop is crucial for that.

Proprietary drivers for obscure hardware were the bane of my existence. Glad to see this SM750 driver open-sourced.

Hmmm... How about adding it to the Free Software Foundation's "respects your freedom" hardware list?

What kind of motherboard has no onboard iGPU these days?

Another piece of silicon saved from the landfill! Open source keeps hardware relevant way past its commercial lifecycle.

Will you upstream it?