NVIDIA Linux 2009 Year In Review

While Lightsmark 2008 does not use the id Tech 4 game engine like Quake 4 and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, it too had a similar performance fate. The frame-rate had run up with the 185.18.14 driver and was maintained through the 190.42 display driver, but has recessed with the most recent 195.22 beta.

Turning to Unigine Sanctuary there was a different story in terms of its performance. The frame-rate at all resolutions was effectively the same between the 180.44 and 185.18.14 drivers, but the performance had stepped up with the 190.42 driver and it remained this way as of the 195.22 beta driver too. The average frame-rate for Unigine Sanctuary is 18% higher with the 195.22 beta driver when compared to the 180.44 release from earlier this year.

While Unigine Sanctuary and Unigine Tropics are running off a close to the same engine build, the performance story was slightly different. The NVIDIA 195.22 beta driver had the highest frame-rate of the tested drivers, but this is coming after the performance had regressed in the 185.18.14 and 190.42 drivers. The 180.44 driver was the fastest driver in this test after the 195.22 beta.