6-Way Desktop Comparison On Linux Mint 17

[phoronix]

Phoronix: 6-Way Desktop Comparison On Linux Mint 17

There's been many requests to run some new OpenGL and 2D performance benchmarks under different Linux desktop environments. With the imminent release of Linux Mint 17 and it shipping the latest version of the increasingly-popular Cinnamon Desktop Environment, here's a six-way desktop performance comparison using Intel graphics on Linux Mint 17.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=20409

[terrywang]

KDE is the best and most complete desktop environment for now, no wonder.

GNOME 3 (gnome-shell) is broken, as a long time GNOME user (since 2001) I was totally pissed off when they decided to remove gnome fallback mode (which works with Compiz). GNOME 3 challenges the habit of a 10+ years user, just like Windows 8.

I am now more than happy to use KDE 4.13 on Arch, keep rolling into future Plasma Next :_D BTW: I was once pissed off by KDE when it was around 3.5, so unstable.

KDE Plasma Next has full hardware acceleration and should be faster. When running games full screen, better to start it from a light weight WM.

[halo9en]

"likely due to it still having window decorations enabled by default even when running full-screen games/applications"

Easily fixed by choosing the option "'suspend desktop effects for fullscreen windows" in KDE...

[Vim_User]

"likely due to it still having window decorations enabled by default even when running full-screen games/applications"

Easily fixed by choosing the option "'suspend desktop effects for fullscreen windows" in KDE...

Indeed, but Michael thinks that Mint users are not able to do that, so he always tests KDE with this enabled, because it is "the default".
Also, I am missing Enlightenment in the comparison, would be nice to see some data on that.

[korrode]

Xfce > All

[chrisb]

Indeed, but Michael thinks that Mint users are not able to do that, so he always tests KDE with this enabled, because it is "the default".
Also, I am missing Enlightenment in the comparison, would be nice to see some data on that.

If the default is bad, is it not reasonable to change the default, rather than expect every user to know about and to manually change the setting in their personal configuration? Defaults are arguably the most important design decisions you'll ever make as a software developer..

[chrisb]

Xfce > All

Unfortunately XFCE's inability to do tear free rendering is rapidly removing it as an option for users of Intel integrated graphics.

[tmpdir]

Unfortunately XFCE's inability to do tear free rendering is rapidly removing it as an option for users of Intel integrated graphics.

Works perfectly on my system.

[drSeehas]

GNOME Shell

What happened to "GNOME Shell" in the GpuTest charts?

[chrisb]

Works perfectly on my system.

Then you are using pre-Sandy Bridge graphics, or manually enabled tearfree in Xorg, which has a performance hit. XFCE does not have an OpenGL page flipping compositor, so it can not do tear free on recent Intel GPUs. The situation could get worse: there was a warning from an Intel developer that non-pageflip compositors might not work at all on the next generation of GPUs, due to enhanced power saving.