NVIDIA GeForce 8: Linux vs. Windows

As you can see from the results, there is a much larger gap in performance between Windows and Linux with the GeForce 8 series than there was with the GeForce 6600GT. The Windows and Linux driver with the GeForce 6600GT was within frames of each other in all of the benchmarks, but the 8600GT had dropped as much as 30 frames per second under Linux and the GeForce 8500GT was also at a substantial loss. This issue is still being explored and with some unofficial tests conducted months ago, we hadn't experienced as a large of a problem that we ran into with these tests. However, even with these performance abnormalities the NVIDIA GeForce 8 series remains the leading option (well, at least until the new ATI/AMD driver is released) for Linux users seeking the best performance, but these serious performance regressions cannot go unnoticed. We can only hope that the GeForce 8 driver issues that are affecting Linux and Solaris will be addressed in the very near future.

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