Basemark GPU 1.2 Brings Linux Support - Wins For NVIDIA, Woes For Mesa

Last week Basemark launched their Basemark GPU 1.2 benchmark that now includes Linux support alongside all other major supported desktop and mobile operating systems. We've been testing out this Linux version with OpenGL and Vulkan support on both AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce hardware.

Basemark GPU 1.2 for Linux supports OpenGL 4.5 and Vulkan while for other capable platforms is also Metal 2 and Direct3D 12. Basemark GPU 1.2 is available as a free download for users at Basemark.com though for automation functionality and other features a professional license is needed. Basemark kindly provided us with a reviewer's copy for testing. Their Linux build is both as a traditional x86_64 binary and even a Flatpak version.

With our testing of the Basemark GPU Linux build, the NVIDIA performance has been superb and working trouble free. On the AMD Radeon side with Mesa, however, has been some troubles.

There is some corruption issues that came up when using the Radeon RADV Vulkan driver as of Mesa 20.1-devel Git. Additionally, the performance both for RadeonSI OpenGL and RADV Vulkan is well behind the NVIDIA competition on their proprietary driver.

Normally RADV/RadeonSI is in good shape these days for new software releases, but running Basemark on the open-source Radeon stack brought back memories of the more buggier past. We imagine though the Mesa developers will get the RADV corruption issue sorted out soon as well as any performance optimizations.

But for those curious how the performance is right now, here are some benchmarks.