Intel Windows vs. Linux GPU Performance Q4'2010

At 800 x 600, the Windows 7 and Linux performance of this recent Intel graphics processor was running at close to the same speed. However, at all higher resolutions up through 1920 x 1080, the Windows 7 driver ended up running much faster than Ubuntu with the latest Intel 3D graphics components. Not only was Windows 7 faster with the Intel driver, but it took less of a performance hit as the workload increased (higher resolution) than the Intel Mesa driver that lost nearly 60% of its performance between 800 x 600 and 1920 x 1080 while the Windows driver was just down by 21% at its peak.

With Urban Terror, the Intel Mesa driver was actually faster than the Intel Windows 7 driver until hitting a resolution of 1680 x 1050 and higher, in which case it fell behind the Microsoft OS. At 1920 x 1080 it was a matter of 31 frames per second on Windows 7 versus 25 frames per second with Ubuntu 10.10 + Mesa 7.10-devel. The frame-rate on Windows for Urban Terror was virtually unchanged between 800 x 600 and 1920 x 1080 while the Mesa driver on Linux lost over half of its speed.