Is it licensed, or simply too too complicated to pick apart?
Graphics is a complicated field, but the techniques could still be patented - surely their market status isn’t dependent on trade secrets?
[1] https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-gpu-system-processo...
For instance, AMD is known to sell the same actually-8-core chip as a 6-core if the transistor yield was poorer.
I believe this is a standard in the industry, right? You can theoretically unlock these cores yourself, but there's a decent chance it will break or cause other significant problems.
This does not follow. While GPU drivers are a huge development effort, they are also very specific to the hardware. This is even more true with modern APIs that are closer to how the hardware works.
AMD and Intel both have open source GPU drivers and they are still in business. Are you claiming that their business would be much bigger if not for those open source drivers?
AMD and Intel are underdogs, and benefit from open standards. Nvidia has an outright majority, and as a result their incompatible "standards" benefit them, because it forces everyone to choose between supporting Nvidia (and therefore the majority of their userbase), or "open standards" (a minority).
