Trying Intel Kabylake Graphics With Civilization VI On Ubuntu Linux

I was very surprised to find out that I was able to get Intel HD Graphics working with Aspyr Media's latest Linux game port, Civilization VI. Here are some benchmark results.

Aspyr Media only lists NVIDIA graphics as officially supported, but I couldn't resist trying out the latest-generation Intel Kabylake graphics for this game. Yesterday I posted 14-way NVIDIA benchmarks of Civilization 6 on Linux while my RadeonSI results are coming up shortly...

Using Mesa 17.1-dev + Linux 4.10 on an Ubuntu 16.10 box with Core i7 7700K HD Graphics 630, I was shocked that Civilization VI started up right away and appeared to be rendering correctly... The benchmark mode also worked.

At least for the benchmark mode, the rendering appeared correct, so I ran a few benchmarks to see.


Even with the lowest quality settings at a mere resolution of 1024 x 768, the Core i7 7700K system couldn't top 30 FPS.


With higher quality settings? Not above 10 FPS.


When pushing the i7-7700K Kabylake box with Linux 4.10 + Mesa 17.1 to 1080p, the frame-rate dropped from 26 to 21 FPS.


Keep in mind that Civilization 6's benchmark mode is on the heavier side compared to actual gameplay. So while it was a surprise Intel Kabylake graphics on Mesa Git were rendering the game correctly, the performance is very, very slow. In actual gameplay it would probably be too choppy to be playable even with the lowest quality settings, but maybe when Kabylake Iris Graphics roll-out there will be more possibilities for Intel Linux gaming. Our NVIDIA results also show how heavy of a port Civ 6 is with its OpenGL implementation.

The RadeonSI numbers for this game up next.