Every article tag can be clicked to get a list of all articles in that category. Every article tag also has an RSS feed! You can customize an RSS feed too!
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

Shadow of Mordor benchmarks old vs new on Linux

By - | Views: 18,915
Since Feral Interactive noted performance fixes in the recent Shadow of Mordor [Steam, Feral Store] patch I went ahead and test some benchmarks on my testing box for you.

These are in comparison to my original results, run on the same hardware but with a newer NVIDIA driver and the latest Shadow of Mordor patch. I would have compared it directly with the original NVIDIA driver I used, but back then I didn't list it. The old version also isn't available to opt in, so I have to go by the original results (the machine setup is exactly the same, minus driver). This is essentially a dual test of newer drivers + latest patch optimizations.

Of course, these were run multiple times to ensure of their accuracy. The game was also restarted after each setting change to allow things to get properly refreshed.

Intel i5-4670K, Nvidia 970 (375.26 driver), Ubuntu 64bit:
image
imageimageimageimage

As you can see, it has improved a fair bit. The most important items to me, are the Minimum and Average FPS, which show improvements no matter the setting. The Ultra setting is the odd one out, since my 970 card isn't good enough, as Ultra recommends a 6GB VRAM card which my 970 is not. Minimum FPS not dropping so hard will result in a much smoother game overall.

The reason the improvement isn't as great on the higher settings is due to the optimizations that were done. Previously it would have been CPU-bound which showed especially well at the lower levels, so now a better GPU and CPU will be even more useful than before. Along with driver updates from NVIDIA, Shadow of Mordor on Linux should be a much smoother experience. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
15 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
12 comments
Page: 1/2»
  Go to:

tuubi Jan 27, 2017
View PC info
  • Supporter
Thanks. Seems like my experience should be a bit smoother should I ever decide to slog through the rest of the game. The minimum and average numbers are indeed the ones that matter.
Keyrock Jan 27, 2017
Great to see this game still getting improvements (not just the texture fix) so long after launch. Keep up the good work, Feral.
hardpenguin Jan 27, 2017
So, more stable and more fluent on average. Good job!
FenrisNG Jan 27, 2017
This is great news. Very nice to see that they still give love to Shadow of Mordor. Feel that it is time to give this title an honest chance now. :D
skinnyraf Jan 27, 2017
Good job, Feral.

Pity I didn't wait with playing SoM a few weeks more. I finished it in early January :(
FireBurn Jan 27, 2017
Gentoo User here, I had to copy some libraries from ./ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ to ./steamapps/common/ShadowOfMordor/lib/x86_64/

I didn't have to do this when I first got the game, I'm not sure if it was caused by the Mordor update or a Steam client update, or simply the libraries on my system being too new now

To be clear the STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled so it should be using the provided libraries rather than the system ones (which are now too new to be compatible)
Nasra Jan 27, 2017
How much RAM did you have ? 8Gb or 16Gb ?
Guest Jan 27, 2017
@Liam i was under the impression the improvements would come in a more CPU limited scenario ? As such a i5-4670K might not see the same gains say as a low end AMD CPU / APU. I need to test this now as i have a crappy CPU that might benefit.
ziabice Jan 27, 2017
Here are my numbers, using this PC:

System:    Host: accipigna Kernel: 4.9.2-1-MANJARO x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.8.5
           Distro: Manjaro Linux
Machine:   Device: desktop Mobo: ASRock model: FM2A88X Extreme4+
           UEFI [Legacy]: American Megatrends v: P3.30 date: 05/13/2016
CPU:       Dual core AMD A10-7850K Radeon R7 12 Compute Cores 4C+8G (-HT-MCP-) cache: 4096 KB 
           clock speeds: max: 3700 MHz 1: 2400 MHz 2: 2400 MHz 3: 1700 MHz 4: 1700 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Pitcairn PRO [Radeon HD 7850 / R7 265 / R9 270 1024SP]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.19.1 driver: radeon Resolution: [email protected]
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD PITCAIRN (DRM 2.48.0 / 4.9.2-1-MANJARO, LLVM 3.9.1)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 13.0.3
Audio:     Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] FCH Azalia Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
           Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Cape Verde/Pitcairn HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 7700/7800 Series]
           driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.9.2-1-MANJARO
Network:   Card: Qualcomm Atheros QCA8171 Gigabit Ethernet driver: alx
           IF: enp5s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: d0:50:99:26:b3:1c


Did the test setting the graphics quality to "Medium", except for "Texture Quality" set to "Low" because my gfx card has only 1Gb RAM, "Mesh quality" set to "High", "Antialiasing" set to "FXAA + camera", tesselation and dept of field was checked.

720p:
AVG: 33, MAX: 70, MIN: 13

1080p:
AVG: 30, MAX: 55, MIN: 7

Was it playable? YES. Was it enjoyable? NO.

Same machine, under Windows 10, latest AMD Gfx drivers, same "medium" settings:

720p:
AVG: 90, MAX: 134, MIN: 59

1080p:
AVG: 60, MAX: 81, MIN: 41

Was it playable? YES. Was it enjoyable? YES.

The numbers speaks for themselves: I'll never run this game again under Linux. Anyway, thanks a lot Feral for your dedication, is much appreciated!
omer666 Jan 28, 2017
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: FireBurnGentoo User here, I had to copy some libraries from ./ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ to ./steamapps/common/ShadowOfMordor/lib/x86_64/

I didn't have to do this when I first got the game, I'm not sure if it was caused by the Mordor update or a Steam client update, or simply the libraries on my system being too new now

To be clear the STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled so it should be using the provided libraries rather than the system ones (which are now too new to be compatible)
It could be caused by the recent change in the way the Steam client handles the runtime and local libs. I have no idea what they did, but setting STEAM_RUNTIME_PREFER_HOST_LIBRARIES=0 reverts to the old behaviour.
I've got this problem as well, and exporting the variable you provided fixes it.
I've got to tell that it affects all Feral games. I'll see if I can find any other workaround.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.