Unigine Tropics Sets Linux OpenGL Precedent

Using the latest Phoronix Test Suite git code (tracking Phoronix Test Suite 1.4.0a0) we had run both the unigine-sanctuary and unigine-tropics tests. The resolution we had used was 2560 x 1600 with the Samsung SyncMaster 305T. The system hardware had consisted of an Intel X48 motherboard, 2GB of DDR2 memory, and an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 processor. The graphics cards being used were an ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB and NVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX 512MB. With both graphics cards we were using the latest drivers we had our hands on at the time of testing. As the ATI Catalyst Linux driver currently doesn't support CrossFire for the Unigine tests, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 is effectively operating as a single ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics card.

With the latest advancements to the Unigine engine, Tropics is noticeably more demanding than the month-old Sanctuary test. Even using these high-end graphics cards from ATI and NVIDIA, both were certainly strained by this benchmark and running at less than 20 FPS -- and that's before applying any anti-aliasing or anisotropic filtering! In both Unigine Sanctuary and Unigine Tropics, the ATI RV770-based graphics card had possessed a noticeable lead over the NVIDIA 9800GTX. If you would like to try out this newest test yourself, just install the Phoronix Test Suite and then run phoronix-test-suite benchmark unigine-tropics. It will proceed to download, install, and run the Unigine Tropics benchmark. It can't get much easier than that!

Unigine Tropics really sets a new precedence for impressive (and demanding) OpenGL graphics on Linux. It's a very beautiful technology demo. As nice as this demo is, however, don't look for it to be on top too long. The developers at Unigine Corp are already underway in working to support OpenGL 3.0 and other advanced graphics capabilities, which we hope to showcase in future versions of the Phoronix Test Suite.