FreeBSD: A Faster Platform For Linux Gaming Than Linux?

[deanjo]

Because this happens with every distro, Gentoo is the fastest by a margin of 90%.

You know that is complete BS. In most cases if there is a difference it is marginal at best and that is on a "properly configured" gentoo if there is any difference at all. It's more like a case of Gentoo may win in 5% of tests by a margin of less then 3%. In a case of PTS where it downloads and compiles a majority of it's tests on every distro that margin becomes even smaller. Gentoo may had an edge a long time ago when distros were dealing with multiple brands and generations of 32 bit processors but those days are long gone.

[RealNC]

I'm eagerly awaiting that Haiku guy to jump in at any moment, pointing out how much BSD and Linux both suck.

[kraftman]

FreeBSD always had the best memory management.

The operating system was done right the first time.

Now that Kernel.org is dead and you can't get source code for the Linux kernel from the main channel maybe everybody will start porting drivers to FreeBSD.

The Uningine deltas for 1024/768 look funky.

In your humble dreams! You can dream about Linux memory management on bsd the same about Linux drivers. Keep dreaming. The OS that's done right for the first time? It took years for its devs to make DVD installers...

[XorEaxEax]

most of the "speed" comes from there being little clutter and being configured to fit better on a per-usage scenario (even if it takes a little while for the initial setup).

Indeed, everything and the kitchen sink distros like Ubuntu loads up a ton of stuff by default given that they want to provide needed functionality to a broad range of users, which obviously has an impact on performance and resource usage.

As for this particular test, theoretically it's a very interesting one, but as usual Phoronix botches it by going for another pointless testbed. If you want to test the 3d driver performance between two different platforms, you need to eliminate (as much ass possible) any other intereference. Here Phoronix chooses the exact opposite, distros which come with alot of stuff enabled from the get go (yet are far from comparable) which can skew the results any which way, and even composite effects which are known to interfere greatly with 3d apps. It's like Phoronix isn't even trying...

To do a test between BSD/Linux and NVidia proprietary drivers which would hold any meaning beyond these two particular distros you would need to use the bare minimums needed on each platform in order to get the benchmarks up and running. As it is now, this test proves nothing beyond Ubuntu '11.04 vs FreeBSD 8.2' since there are so many variables in what they ship with/enables by default.

Still, props to Phoronix for doing a 'potentially' very interesting comparison, now can we please have a proper test?

[mirv]

PS. Why is it gentoor's always think that it will be always the fastest? It's been proven time and time again that there isn't a steady fast rule to that just like there isn't one optimize switch "to rule them all".

I find that people who don't use Gentoo have that impression - no figures behind that statement, just a feeling. It's not the focus of Gentoo to be fast - most of the "speed" comes from there being little clutter and being configured to fit better on a per-usage scenario (even if it takes a little while for the initial setup). There is no generic Gentoo, and it's not useful for benchmarking purposes because of that. Unless running on an Atom - then you really do benefit from gcc knowing that things will be running on an in-order processor.

[Apopas]

PS. Why is it gentoor's always think that it will be always the fastest? It's been proven time and time again that there isn't a steady fast rule to that just like there isn't one optimize switch "to rule them all".

Because this happens with every distro, Gentoo is the fastest by a margin of 90%.

[deanjo]

Nope, kwin kicks compiz ass. Bsd still sucks.

Well that really is dependent on the distro and their implementation of KDE. Using UnredirectFullscreen can effect the end results but it being enabled by default depends on the distro used.


PS. Why is it gentoor's always think that it will be always the fastest? It's been proven time and time again that there isn't a steady fast rule to that just like there isn't one optimize switch "to rule them all".

[squirrl]

The above is all your personal opinion, you state no facts in your comment. Please try again.

And where are your supporting facts that my statement was opinionated?
FreeBSD users and developers know my statement to be factual.

[Rallos Zek]

FreeBSD always had the best memory management.

The operating system was done right the first time.

Now that Kernel.org is dead and you can't get source code for the Linux kernel from the main channel maybe everybody will start porting drivers to FreeBSD.

The Uningine deltas for 1024/768 look funky.

The above is all your personal opinion, you state no facts in your comment. Please try again.

[squirrl]

The Differences Between Deltas and Feel

FreeBSD always had the best memory management.

The operating system was done right the first time.

Now that Kernel.org is dead and you can't get source code for the Linux kernel from the main channel maybe everybody will start porting drivers to FreeBSD.

The Uningine deltas for 1024/768 look funky.