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'Linux vs Windows' Challenge: Phoronix Tests Popular Games (phoronix.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Michael Larabel at Phoronix has combined their new results from intensive Linux/Windows performance testing for popular games on Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA graphics cards, and at different resolutions. "This makes it easy to see the Linux vs. Windows performance overall or for games where the Linux ports are simply rubbish and performing like crap compared to the native Windows game." The games tested included Xonotic, Tomb Raider, Grid Autosport, Dota 2, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, F1 2015, and Company of Heroes 2 -- and the results were surprising.
Xonotic v0.8 outperformed Windows with a NVIDIA card, but "The poor Xonotic performance on Linux with the Intel driver was one of the biggest surprises from yesterday's article. It's not anything we've seen with the other drivers." And while testing on the Source 2 engine revealed that Valve's Dota 2 "is a quality Linux port," most of the other results were disappointing -- regardless of the graphics card and driver. "Tomb Raider on Linux performs much worse than the Windows build regardless of your driver/graphics card... Shadow of Mordor's relative Linux performance is more decent than many other Linux games albeit still isn't running at the same speeds as the Windows games..."
The article concludes with a note of optimism. "Hopefully in due time with the next generation of games making use of Vulkan...we'll see better performance relative to Windows." Have Slashdot readers seen any performance issues while playing games on Linux?
Xonotic v0.8 outperformed Windows with a NVIDIA card, but "The poor Xonotic performance on Linux with the Intel driver was one of the biggest surprises from yesterday's article. It's not anything we've seen with the other drivers." And while testing on the Source 2 engine revealed that Valve's Dota 2 "is a quality Linux port," most of the other results were disappointing -- regardless of the graphics card and driver. "Tomb Raider on Linux performs much worse than the Windows build regardless of your driver/graphics card... Shadow of Mordor's relative Linux performance is more decent than many other Linux games albeit still isn't running at the same speeds as the Windows games..."
The article concludes with a note of optimism. "Hopefully in due time with the next generation of games making use of Vulkan...we'll see better performance relative to Windows." Have Slashdot readers seen any performance issues while playing games on Linux?
According to the Linux evangelists here, Linux is better at everything and can do no wrong. Therefore the data must be wrong or there must have been a flaw in the tests. It cannot possibly be true that Linux is inferior at anything.
I'm a long-time Linux user and it seems like a fair test to me. Gaming has long been one of the weakest parts of having Linux on the desktop. Data like this is how that can change. Only a few years ago, no one would have thought to publish an article like this, so in my mind, lots of progress has already been made. That will take time. Meanwhile it's always been the case, that if gaming is a killer feature for you, then you go with the platform that all the major games are targeting, which is Windows.
For me, gaming is nice but it's not crucial. I'm satisfied running older games via Wine and I'm satisfied with native Linux games that are already out there. I like the way that number keeps increasing. But I have no illusions: a hardcore gamer would be better off with Windows, at least on his/her main gaming rig. Of course, that person would also have to put up with the constant malware threats, the nuisance of Windows Update, the lack of a central package manager, and the general asshattery of Microsoft including its desire to spy on its paying customers. Decisions like these are trade-offs.
Not everyone is an unreasonable fanboy. I use Linux because I like it and it meets my needs. Full stop. I'm not part of "Tribe A" and we don't have to hate some perceived "Tribe B". It's really that simple.
Dude, look at our cellphone plans, our cellular and wired Internet speeds, our monthly quotas and how much we pay for it. As far as telecommunications are concerned, we already are a 3rd world country.
> I wonder which group of Slashdotters will rule this time. The ones that say Linux sucks and systemd is the devil, or the ones that say they've used Linux since the 80s and everything else is a pile of shit.
Know who you're trolling. It's the people who have used Linux (or Unix) for a little while who see the problems with systemd. Those who think "Linux sucks" (Steve Ballmer and three others) are midnless Windows fanatics. Therefore they love the systemd/MS Office approach of putting every function anyone could ever need into one monstrous software package.
I'm actually quite happy about Steams push to add games to linux. It's actually bringing attention of the poor graphic performance in linux and people are actually interested in making it better finally. That and I can finally play some decent games in linux, despite the poorer performance, it's good enough for me not to have to reboot to Windows.