NVIDIA ION Linux Performance

In our first gaming performance comparison between the NVIDIA and Intel graphics with the Atom-based systems, we ran OpenArena in its batch-benchmark mode to test the game at all supported resolutions.

When the test was running at 800 x 600, the NVIDIA ION system had no problems putting out over 90FPS while the Intel IGP was just sustaining about 22FPS. As the resolution increased, NVIDIA's advantage dropped more than on the Intel side, but still the game was playable with the ZaReason Ion Breeze. Even when running at 1920 x 1200, the NVIDIA ION system was running at 44FPS while the Intel graphics limited the game to fewer than 10FPS. There is certainly a big performance advantage to gaming on the ION.

We also looked at how the NVIDIA ION performance scaled when running a few more Phoronix Test Suite tests at different resolutions. The tests we ran here were the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars demo, Doom 3, and Lightsmark 2008.

The NVIDIA ION system is capable of running the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars demo, but not really at a playable framerate. At 800 x 600, the ION system only put out about 17 FPS and at 1920 x 1200 it was running at about 10 FPS.