Technically, the Steam Machine supports HDMI 2.1. However, Valve and AMD are not allowed to offer an open-source driver for it.

The HDMI Forum, responsible for the HDMI specification, continues to stonewall open source. Valve’s Steam Machine theoretically supports HDMI 2.1, but the mini-PC is software-limited to HDMI 2.0. As a result, more than 60 frames per second at 4K resolution are only possible with limitations.

  • Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
    6·
    10 hours ago

    Can the HDMI standard not be implemented in hardware somehow, and then the open source software just talks to that hardware?

    It seems ridiculous that you can make a device that works fine under HDMI 2.1 but you can’t access it with open source code.

    • carpelbridgesyndrome@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      7 hours ago

      That’s the problem. Open source software doesn’t work with the NDA. Nvidia does it with an embedded processor and closed firmware, Intel does it with an embedded Displayport to HDMI converter, AMD does it in the driver. Steam uses AMD chips and open source drivers so they can’t get it to work.