Intel Performance With Ubuntu Linux vs. Windows 8.1 Is A Mixed Bag

The results from our first test are immediately interesting for Linux users. Under Ubuntu 13.10, the performance was slower than found in Windows 8.1 with the very latest Intel HD Graphics 4600 graphics driver. However, when installing Mesa 10.0 -- which will be officially released in November and then be found "out of the box" in Linux distributions later in 2013 and mostly in H1'2014 distribution updates -- the Haswell graphics performance was now faster under Linux than Windows.

For the OpenArena 0.8.8 first person shooter, the Linux performance even with Ubuntu 13.10 stock had a small performance gain over Microsoft Windows 8.1. Upgrading to the Linux 3.12 kernel and Mesa 10.0 hadn't influenced the OpenArena performance results in this cross operating system performance comparison.

While the first few benchmark results let Linux shine, when running Unigine Sanctuary the Intel Linux performance is still a ways behind the Intel Windows driver for this Core i7 4770K system.