Some Basic macOS 10.13 vs. Ubuntu 17.10 OpenGL Gaming Tests

Going into this comparison, I certainly didn't expect the difference to be as dramatic with the Radeon Pro 450 on macOS vs. Ubuntu 17.10... Even at the display's stock resolution, neither OS with the Radeon Pro 450 could handle CS:GO anywhere near 60 FPS. Indeed, the MacBook Pro likes to thermal throttle quickly among other challenges confirmed when asking stakeholders when planning this testing.

I wanted to also compare the Linux Vulkan performance with these Dota 2 numbers, but unfortunately the RADV Vulkan driver was yielding an incompatible error for the Radeon Pro 450.

Even with the open-source Xonotic first person shooter there is a very significant difference in performance for this cross-platform OpenGL game on the MacBook Pro, but at least playable frame-rates.

Outside of gaming, the Java OpenGL performance on Linux was also much faster with Ubuntu Linux than macOS High Sierra.

Those are the current results for now, take as you wish. I am working on getting access to a Mac Pro to see how the performance compares if not having to worry about any thermal throttling or other limitations with a MacBook Pro, but unsure when that next round of more demanding tests will happen.