16-Way Graphics Card Comparison With Valve's Steam Play For Windows Games On Linux

[Danniello]

"The NVIDIA driver in use was the 410.73 release and all of these benchmarks were run from the same Ubuntu 18.10 system with Intel Core i9 9900K processor."

Perhaps for "Batman: Arkham Origins" and "F1 2018" it is irrelevant, but nVidia 410.73 it is not good driver for DXVK - this driver is not supporting VK_EXT_transform_feedback extension, so no support for Stream Output. nVidia versioning is confusing, but "the best" driver for DXVK is "old" 396.54.09.

In article there is no info with Steam Proton version has been used for tests, probably 3.7-8, so no Steam Output support anyway... Steam Output is available in Steam Proton 3.16 beta.

[Michael]

Perhaps for "Batman: Arkham Origins" and "F1 2018" it is irrelevant, but nVidia 410.73 it is not good driver for DXVK - this driver is not supporting VK_EXT_transform_feedback extension, so no support for Stream Output. nVidia versioning is confusing, but "the best" driver for DXVK is "old" 396.54.09.

In article there is no info with Steam Proton version has been used for tests, probably 3.7-8, so no Steam Output support anyway... Steam Output is available in Steam Proton 3.16 beta.

3.16 beta

[shmerl]

Looks like Vega hardware didn't unlock its full potential with radv yet. Is it still planned? I've read somewhere, that Vega cards are still underperforming.

[yokem55]

Perhaps for "Batman: Arkham Origins" and "F1 2018" it is irrelevant, but nVidia 410.73 it is not good driver for DXVK - this driver is not supporting VK_EXT_transform_feedback extension, so no support for Stream Output. nVidia versioning is confusing, but "the best" driver for DXVK is "old" 396.54.09.

In article there is no info with Steam Proton version has been used for tests, probably 3.7-8, so no Steam Output support anyway... Steam Output is available in Steam Proton 3.16 beta.

The problem at the moment though is that using the 396 series driver would leave out support for 20x0 series GPU's as they have to have the 410 branch to work. Testing with transform feedback enabled will have to wait for now.

[M@GOid]

If people are spectating "Feral ports" level of performance, they will be very disappointed. If all you want is a solid 1080p/60fps with reasonable level of graphical quality, them Proton is fine. But in my experience, even old titles will run at half of their performance on Windows, even with the latest Proton and drivers versions.

It made me really appreciate the work of game porting companies like VP and Feral. For me, Proton is only for older games I bought before Steam on Linux. I will stuck with the "no tux, no bux" for the foreseeable future.

[shmerl]

Wine+dxvk commonly runs DX11 games with performance higher than 50% of the Windows one. From what I've heard it's often closer to 80%.

It made me really appreciate the work of game porting companies like VP and Feral. For me, Proton is only for older games I bought before Steam on Linux. I will stuck with the "no tux, no bux" for the foreseeable future.

Feral games don't really reach me, they only release DRMed games, even when those games have DRM-free Windows versions. So I appreciate more those who make proper Linux versions to begin with, such as games with engines that have real native Linux target.

Wine+dxvk works great for games that have no Linux version at all. I was playing Shadow Warrior 2 recently (after GOG giveaway) and it works perfectly in Wine+dxvk with Vega 56.

[amehaye]

I did run some Wine vs. windows tests before. It's all a matter of time justified. I didn't go for a second round of Wine tests as didn't get enough new subscribers or tips to warrant doing more for some months.... Same here with not keeping Windows installs around, setting up Windows on this box will take a few hours, verifying things, etc. In ad revenue alone isn't worthwhile due to all the ad-blockers, so waiting until tips/subscribers make sense.

Michael I usually run with adblock disabled, but then I see an animated ad and immediately turn adblock on. Then I usually forget to turn it off... and when I do remember the cycle repeats itself. How about banning animated ads? Including animated gifs. These are super annoying and distract me when I try to read the article.

[Kano]

I would like to seen DOOM in OpenGL vs Vulkan mode via SteamPlay vs Windows. Maybe not with all cards needed but basically this should be very similar - at least with Windows. AMDVLK can not run the game btw. Waiting for Mesa 18.3 in Debian to try it myself (compared to Mesa AMDVLK is easier to compile).

[Danny3]

Thanks for starting the roundup with RX 560!
Looking forward to see GTA V tested. Hopefully it would be easier to test it in the future.

[Scellow]

I did run some Wine vs. windows tests before. It's all a matter of time justified. I didn't go for a second round of Wine tests as didn't get enough new subscribers or tips to warrant doing more for some months.... Same here with not keeping Windows installs around, setting up Windows on this box will take a few hours, verifying things, etc. In ad revenue alone isn't worthwhile due to all the ad-blockers, so waiting until tips/subscribers make sense.

Do you have a patreon ? i'd be glad to help