7-Way Linux Desktop Gaming Comparison On Ubuntu 14.10

Xfce, KDE, and E17 were all running slightly slower than the rest on Ubuntu 14.10 for the Warsow Qfusion-based game.

KDE and E17 had a slight upper-hand with Xonotic at high image quality settings but at ultra image quality settings the Intel Haswell ULT chip wasn't running fast enough anyhow to deliver very playable frame-rates.

Compared to similar desktop comparisons of past years, the Linux gaming performance is now closer to the same levels when using the latest desktops with the newest Intel open-source graphics driver. In the past there tended to be more profound performance differences while in this article there were just a few GNOME Shell / E17 issues with some Steam games and a few other oddities that might be explored further pending enough reader interest to warrant further investigation. If you have any other Linux desktop benchmarking requests or interest in seeing numbers on other hardware, let me know via the forums or on Twitter; priority is given to Phoronix Premium subscribers.