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NVIDIA Performance On Linux, Solaris, & Vista
AtomBOB suggests a Phoronix review comparing the performance of a Quadro graphics card on Windows Vista Ultimate, Solaris Express Developer, and Ubuntu Linux. The graphics card used was a NVIDIA Quadro FX 1700 mid-range workstation part. The cross-platform benchmark used was SPECViewPerf 9.0 from SPEC. Quoting Phoronix: "Using the Quadro FX1700 512MB and the latest display drivers, Windows Vista wasn't the decisive winner, but the loser... Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 5 with the 169.12 driver had overall produced the fastest results within SPECViewPerf. In only three benchmarks had Solaris Express Developer 1/08 outpaced Ubuntu Linux, but with two of these tests the results were almost identical.""
Vista has a new driver architecture and it is goiing to take some time for MS to improve the graphic subsystem performance. It will also take NVidia a while to optimise their code for Vista.
Even then, the Vista architecture might just have some inherent issues that are hard to code around.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
If you're a quattro user, your OS choice would surely be on software available for whatever particular professional application you are using the card for. As a sound designer, that would be for me, XP. I don't think many professionals are ready to jump to vista quite yet so I'm surprised that they have not included it. We are, after all, looking for stability.
I record my sleeptalking
Its an OpenGL test. The perf. difference between OpenGL and DirectX Nvidia implementations has always very large -- even in Windows XP.
What?! Windows did not have the best NVIDIA performance?!
This is a new one. No, really. Usually NVIDIA makes their Windows drivers their best drivers, and Linux is supported as an afterthought because they can make a few percentage points more in sales this way, and because it discourages reverse engineering their hardware, since those who would take the time and effort to do so won't on account of there being a working solution.
In other words, I am surprised that although Windows Vista has been such a mess in terms of compatibility and speed, that even the NVIDIA benchmarks put it last.
I read Slashdot every day, and until this moment I had never even heard of PCLinuxOS. I had to look it up.
Ubuntu, however... Ubuntu, my parents have heard of.
Don't know what metric Distrowatch uses, but it seems to be flawed.
Granted, I don't use Linux as a day-to-day OS, but I have some Linux apps I like which I run via Ubuntu in VMware Fusion. As a casual user, of the distros I've tried, Ubuntu wins hands-down. It's still too hard to set up for my parents, say, but not so hard that I don't just say "fsck it" and delete the partition, as I have done with all the others.
One more step towards Desktop Linux. But we need some real games to use these 3D capabilities!
Persian Project Management Software as a Service
Matrox had their lesson trying to sell their excellent cards to gamers. Everyone came to forums and whined about seeing "30 fps" while their friends have "120 fps". Some sane people tried to tell the specs of human eye but it didn't matter.
,his game got locked to 30 fps :)
I bet there are rich but non techie guys buying Quadro for gaming right now. I know a one bought ATI FireGL along with 15K RPM SCSI disk and couldn't sleep because of noise. Not just that
These are the same people who when asked what kind of computer they have answer with "black". Also, not many people can associate the maker of the softare they use with the actual software application. You ask them which browser they use and they will say "I don't know. I just click on the blue 'e'." despite the fact that the title bar says "Internet Explorer" 100% of the time the application is open. So I hope you don't expect them to know Microsoft created it if they don't even know its name.
As far as marketing capabilities, I hardly ever see a Microsoft commercial. When I do they don't ever specify any particular product in the commercial. How does that really sell Windows or Office? All the marketing seems to happen behind the scenes from the point of view of the end consumer using deals that happen between OEMs and Microsoft salespeople.
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
I'm as much for open source as the next guy, but for the love of all that is holy, what are you talking about? If marketing can be open sourced, how will it work? "Someone will innovate and figure that problem out"?
Square pegs don't fit every type of hole. No matter how much we sit around and think about it, no "innovation" will make it fit. We can make some sort of hack and call it a square peg fitting in a round hole, but it isn't really.
The difference between programming and marketing is that marketing isn't about standing on the shoulders of others. Giving away your previous work isn't going to help your successor market to any significant effect.
They have invented "open-source" marketing in the sense of hacks, like viral marketing, that aren't really open source but sort of a vague gesture in that direction, but don't expect traditional marketing to be going anywhere.
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.
This is an openGL test. Nvidia's linux drivers for openGL have been really fast for a long time now. In fact they've confirmed that they use the same driver code for windows and linux, just with a different API exposed.
What you're talking about is that the video acceleration APIs are not exposed for linux (purevideo). This is still the case, and annoying.
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