Windows 10 vs. Linux - Intel UHD Graphics OpenGL Performance

Over the past week I have carried out some Radeon and NVIDIA Windows 10 vs. Ubuntu Linux benchmarks. While not quite as interesting as those discrete GPU comparisons, while having the Windows 10 Pro x64 Fall Creator's Update around and testing from the Core i7 8700K, I also ran some Windows vs. Linux tests for the integrated UHD Graphics.

The Windows 10 OpenGL performance was tested using the latest stable 23.20.16.4849 driver, exposing OpenGL 4.5 as well as OpenCL 2.1 and Vulkan 1.0. The OpenGL Linux configurations tested for reference included the:

- Ubuntu 17.10 x86_64 with its out-of-the-box Linux 4.13 kernel paired with Mesa 17.2.2 for the Intel graphics driver support.

- Ubuntu 17.10 then upgraded to the Linux 4.15 Git kernel as well as Mesa 17.4-dev via the Padoka PPA for a bleeding-edge look at the Intel open-source Linux graphics driver. Linux 4.15 is the first kernel release to officially support the UHD Graphics of this Coffee Lake processor.

- Intel's own Clear Linux 19440 distribution was also tested considering it tends to offer leading Intel x86_64 Linux performance, including for its OpenGL graphics. Clear Linux in its rolling-release form currently has the Linux 4.14 kernel and Mesa 17.4-dev.

On all these operating systems, a variety of OpenGL benchmarks were run. This isn't the elaborate cross-platform gaming comparison that is run with the discrete Radeon/GeForce GPU testing due to the much lower capabilities of the UHD Graphics 630 and then those that are benchmark friendly, etc, severely limits the potential of the comparison. But for those wondering how the Windows vs. Linux OpenGL driver performance compares, here are those numbers.