NVIDIA's Linux Driver On Ubuntu 14.10 Can Deliver Better OpenGL Performance Than Windows 8.1

Written by Michael Larabel in Operating Systems on 31 October 2014 at 12:18 PM EDT. Page 5 of 5. 52 Comments.

Our final tests are the synthetic GpuTest OpenGL benchmarks.

Windows 8.1 vs. Ubuntu 14.10 NVIDIA GeForce
Windows 8.1 vs. Ubuntu 14.10 NVIDIA GeForce
Windows 8.1 vs. Ubuntu 14.10 NVIDIA GeForce
Windows 8.1 vs. Ubuntu 14.10 NVIDIA GeForce

In these tests the NVIDIA Windows performance was superior to that of Linux. However, that's usually the case when running GpuTest between Windows and Linux. In communicating in the past with GpuTest's author, he says that the code-paths are the same between Windows and Linux, but for whatever reason the Windows driver tends to perform better for GpuTest. Unfortunately I can't shed much light on this situation with GpuTest being a synthetic, binary-only application.

Ignoring the GpuTest results, the NVIDIA Linux driver performance was terrific and in many cases superior to that of NVIDIA's latest Windows WHQL driver. In several of the demanding Unigine OpenGL benchmarks along with Xonotic, the latest NVIDIA Linux driver on Ubuntu 14.10 tended to outperform Windows 8.1.

If you appreciate this often exclusive Linux benchmarking done at Phoronix.com, please consider subscribing to Phoronix Premium and/or considering a PayPal tip to allow more tests to happen in the future. If you haven't already, check out yesterday's Windows vs. Linux Intel HD Graphics results while coming up shortly will be the AMD Radeon cross-platform numbers with the latest open and closed-source drivers.

If you enjoyed this article consider joining Phoronix Premium to view this site ad-free, multi-page articles on a single page, and other benefits. PayPal or Stripe tips are also graciously accepted. Thanks for your support.


Related Articles
About The Author
Michael Larabel

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.