Saturday, September 18, 2010

Linux Out Performs Windows in OpenGL

Late last year I did a posting detailing how Windows 7 crushed Ubuntu 9.10 in the area of 3D performance. Nine months later I am happy to say:

Linux out performs Windows 7 in OpenGL benchmarks!

Using the Unigine benchmarks Windows 7 on my system obtains the following average frames per second:

Tropics - 30.5 FPS
Sanctuary - 35.2 FPS

Of all the Linux distros I recently tested, Chakra Linux performs the best in these benchmarks with the following average frames per second:

Tropics - 38.0 FPS
Sanctuary - 38.3 FPS

Whew! Chakra's scores are just higher than Windows 7s' scores and they are leaps and bounds above the level Ubuntu 9.10 performed at on my same hardware. I am always pleasantly surprised at the rapid development of technology in the world of Linux and these improved scores are evidence of just how quickly this world moves.

~Jeff Hoogland

Please note while these benchmark scores presented are accurate to the best of my abilities, they only represent my personal hardware and software configurations. Your results on your own system(s) may vary (and if they do, please share them!).

16 comments:

  1. Cool, what are the specs of the machine? Driver versions on Windows 7, and Chakra? Kernel version?

    Do you have Compiz and Aero disabled on both platforms during the test? Are the same versions of the software used?

    Are you in high performance mode in Windows 7, and do you have your CPU governor set to "performance" in Chakra? What tweaks if any did you apply to both platforms?

    Lots of potential here. :D

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  2. Doesn't this mean that openGL on linux, and directx on windows would perform about the same, theoretically?

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  3. NOTE: I just saw your previous blog entry so you can disregard a few of my questions. :D

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  4. Haha do any of your questions still remain FEWT? Both where vanilla installs (Chakra and Win7) with just added video drivers. Win7 didn't even have a real time anti-virus installed.

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  5. Hmm....
    IS there a vanilla Win 7?? ;)

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  6. Isn't that because opengl support in win7 is done via an emulation layer?, i.e. opengl runs atop direct-x

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  7. It would be nice if you could include the Win7 benchmarks into the graphs of all the Linux distros in your prior article.

    Can't really compare Win7's FPS to Ubuntu, Fedora, and the others' raw benchmark scores.

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  8. Windows 7 didn't even have anti-virus installed . . ha ha. Your benchmark used a rather non-typical windows configuration. :-P

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  9. This is definitely good news, but I wonder how Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" Beta would perform with OpenGL (or that matter Clutter) compared to Win7. I bet it would perform very well. Have you tried testing Clutter on Chakra? How well does it perform?

    I do know that Clutter is much cleaner than OGL (after all, it's a GL fork designed to wrap a clean API around GL's complexity) and so would be an easier method for programming games, perhaps easier even than DirectX.

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  10. Ubuntu and Nvidia is a very bad combination for some reason...
    Check here to see what I mean...
    http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=fedora12_ubuntu910&num=2

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  11. Just a tip for everyone doing benchmarks: please include a standard deviation (from a repetition of the test) in every testresult. The results are utterly meaningless without.

    Also: Yay Linux!

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  12. For people not having checked all links in the post:

    The Hardware: While my hardware is not fastest in the world it is (as of posting this) relatively new and decently quick. Processor - Intel p9700 2.8ghz Dual Core, RAM - 4gigs of DDR3, Video Card: nVidia 260m with 1gig DDR3 dedicated memory (Running the latest stable nVidia driver on both Linux (190.42) and Windows (195.62)).

    Obtained from : http://jeffhoogland.blogspot.com/2009/12/windows-7-vs-ubuntu-910-3d-benchmarks.html

    Unless, of course, in the past 9 months, there have been updates... *whistles*

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  13. Jeff, not many. That was a well written breakdown. The only question is: WereAero and Compiz disabled during the test?

    You may have inspired me to play around with Chakra. :D

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  14. @roldfre Never see an online benchmark done in terms of SD. Wanna link me to one?

    Sorry for not posting the details of the hardware, but yes it is the same as nine months ago. This was really more of a follow up post to my other two (which I linked back to) So since I didn't have any new data to present I figured I wouldn't re-list my system specs.

    @FEWT Both where disabled yes. Chakra is wonderful... It is going to mature into a top distro IMO

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  15. @Jeff91

    Just because crappy online benchmark groups don't do it doesn't mean you can't be the superior choice!

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  16. can a person in a window less laboratory find by experiments performed entirely in the laboratory whether or?

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