Unity 6.6: Still Regressing On Performance?

With the recent release of the Unity 6.6 desktop for Ubuntu 12.10 Beta 2, benchmarks were done to see how the OpenGL gaming performance compares to that of Unity 6.4 from the earlier beta state of the Quantal Quetzal, plus the respective Compiz versions. At least for Intel Ivy Bridge graphics under some workloads, it looks like the Unity/Compiz updates are slowing down the GL performance even further.

Some quick benchmarks were done from the Intel Ivy Bridge CompuLab Intense-PC looking at the Unity 6.6 performance plus updated Compiz packages compared to Unity 6.4.0 with the older Compiz from just a few weeks back. This was a selective upgrade with the other updated Ubuntu packages being held back. The lone Intel Ivy Bridge system was used for this initial Unity 6.6 testing for lack of time due to just returning from Oktoberfest and then benchmarking next week in Texas. Upon my next return, there will be more Ubuntu 12.10 with Unity benchmarks carried out on other hardware/drivers plus the alternative desktop environments.

If you missed the earlier Phoronix articles on the Unity OpenGL performance problems for Ubuntu 12.10, see: Ubuntu's Unity/Compiz Gets Even Slower, Ubuntu's Unity Has Room To Improve Performance, Ubuntu Unity Proves Very Slow To KDE, GNOME, Xfce, LXDE, and 2D Also Bad For Ubuntu Unity Against KDE, GNOME, LXDE, Xfce. The Unity Debacle Sets Back Ubuntu On The ARM Desktop. Problems with Unity/Compiz have been acknowledged but it may take past the Ubuntu 12.10 release to fully solve.

Unfortunately, these updated Unity/Compiz numbers today showing the performance only being the same in some Linux gaming benchmarks while other games continue to get slower.