Some Basic macOS 10.13 vs. Ubuntu 17.10 OpenGL Gaming Tests

[ColdDistance]

But then you are no longer running the same software. The game could have an awful Metal implementation and an optimized Vulkan one, or vice versa.

And comparing two far different versions of the same software is like comparing the performance of 8800 GTX with the GTX 1080.

[molecule-eye]

Apple has ditched OpenGL as a main API some years ago. So it doesn't surprise me the better performance of Ubuntu against macOS.

As Guest said, Vulkan versus Metal on the same GPU (Intel and AMD) it would be a better comparison.

What does that mean? Basically all (or all?) 3D games for macOS are opengl, so their "ditching it as a main API" doesn't mean much. Maybe they use something different for their own compositor, but that's another story.

What's up with the drivers on Mac? They're using the same hardware and they're not developing their own drivers, so...

[Kemosabe]

Even a hardcore Windows gamer could look at these numbers and think "Yeah, Linux isn't so bad for gaming after all"

It just means MacOS is even worse :-)

[microcode]

It will be great to see Vulkan vs Metal 2 benchmarks.

That isn't possible, since you can't verify that both renderer implementations are equivalent.

[andyprough]

How embarrassing. On their own, hand-picked hardware, getting blown out of the water by a bunch of free software created by neckbeards.

Apple's market capitalization is $897 billion today, by the way. So apparently, their failure to perform is not due to a lack of funds to pay developers.

[chimpy]

That isn't possible, since you can't verify that both renderer implementations are equivalent.

2 different renderers, but it's the same game. I doubt gamers care which renderer is is being used as long as it performs best.

[tildearrow]

Michael:

I am working on getting access to a Mac Pro

Why not an iMac Pro instead when it gets released? (since it has Vega graphics)

[starshipeleven]

What does that mean? Basically all (or all?) 3D games for macOS are opengl, so their "ditching it as a main API" doesn't mean much. Maybe they use something different for their own compositor, but that's another story.

What's up with the drivers on Mac? They're using the same hardware and they're not developing their own drivers, so...

Apple has much more control on what goes in drivers on MacOS. You think vendors would not try to sneak Vulkan in there and only support Metal because they are obtuse?

[Otus]

And comparing two far different versions of the same software is like comparing the performance of 8800 GTX with the GTX 1080.

Comparing two versions is fine, as long as you keep other things the same. When you change two things at the same time, you do not know which caused the changes, so it should be avoided if possible. I.e. changing just the OS or just the graphics API is more informative than changing both.

[edoantonioco]

have you tried installing linux on the mac? to see how metal vs vulkan compares.