Ars Technica recently ran a few Windows vs SteamOS benchmarks, and it shows what we here already know: A lot of ports have worse performance on SteamOS & Linux.
While the benchmark is limited in the selection, and it's only on one system, we've all seen this before ourselves. I would also like to point out SteamOS has a much older Nvidia driver version, and I doubt the Ars guy manually updated the SteamOS driver, so the Windows tests are done on a much newer driver.
It's a shame, but there's no point hiding from the facts. Right now most ports run worse on Linux, a lot of it is down to OpenGL, but porters are also to blame for not optimising enough. I get why porters can't spend all their time optimising, they have to make money after-all and ports need to be pushed out quickly, but it's still annoying.
Vulkan could be SteamOS & Linux only real chance at having a level playing field, I just hope it doesn't take too long for it to come out and be used in games for us.
In regards to the gaps in performance on Valve titles: I saw first-hand how big a performance jump Dota 2 gave with Source 2 having a fully native OpenGL implementation, so I hope Valve have plans to update their other titles.
This bit caught my attention, as it's not down to Valve or Linux developers. It's down to the game developers, the game porters, Nvidia and AMD pushing performance in their drivers and Vulkan coming along to help out too.
What are your thoughts? Personally, I know I'm going to get less performance, but I'm in it for the long-run here.
Windows has pretty much had a monopoly on PC gaming for how many years? It will take time for Linux performance to catch up. Not even getting into all the game-specific optimizations the driver vendors do on Windows. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
While the benchmark is limited in the selection, and it's only on one system, we've all seen this before ourselves. I would also like to point out SteamOS has a much older Nvidia driver version, and I doubt the Ars guy manually updated the SteamOS driver, so the Windows tests are done on a much newer driver.
It's a shame, but there's no point hiding from the facts. Right now most ports run worse on Linux, a lot of it is down to OpenGL, but porters are also to blame for not optimising enough. I get why porters can't spend all their time optimising, they have to make money after-all and ports need to be pushed out quickly, but it's still annoying.
Vulkan could be SteamOS & Linux only real chance at having a level playing field, I just hope it doesn't take too long for it to come out and be used in games for us.
In regards to the gaps in performance on Valve titles: I saw first-hand how big a performance jump Dota 2 gave with Source 2 having a fully native OpenGL implementation, so I hope Valve have plans to update their other titles.
QuoteHopefully, Valve and other Linux developers can continue improving SteamOS performance to the point where high-end games can be expected to at least run comparably between Linux and Windows. Until then, though, it's hard to recommend a SteamOS box to anyone who wants to get the best graphical performance out of their PC hardware.
This bit caught my attention, as it's not down to Valve or Linux developers. It's down to the game developers, the game porters, Nvidia and AMD pushing performance in their drivers and Vulkan coming along to help out too.
What are your thoughts? Personally, I know I'm going to get less performance, but I'm in it for the long-run here.
Windows has pretty much had a monopoly on PC gaming for how many years? It will take time for Linux performance to catch up. Not even getting into all the game-specific optimizations the driver vendors do on Windows. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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linux_gamer Nov 13, 2015
Quoting: pete910Anyone know if the fact geekbench been compiled with clang 3.3(2013) would effect it with regards steamos using the 4xx kernel ? seem to remember reading some good gains in the last few versions of llvm/clang.Of the Top500 supercomputers only 1 uses Windows and 488 use Linux only (entire Top100) http://www.top500.org/statistics/sublist/ . If the floating points calculations would decrease by 10% when using Linux the owners would loose millions to dozens of millions.
Last edited by linux_gamer on 13 November 2015 at 8:40 pm UTC
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Quoting: DrMcCoyThat totally beside the point, the fact is that journalist cannot be trusted. What would you say if you discovered that major political journalists of your countries where discussing together on a mailing list what should be the next president? If they would all keep their jobs would you listen to them when they reveal all together a strange major scandal on a candidate just weeks before the election? You don't need to answer that.Quoting: NyamiouAlso I would add that the guy who wrote this is not clean at all
I would also add that
1) Breitbart is an ultra-right-wing smear paper
2) Milo is, likewise, a very unsavoury character
3) The article you quoted is oozing with crocodile excrement
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Game specific driver optimizations is an abomination anyway. That's partially what makes OpenGL such a mess. Hopefully Vulkan will put an end to it.
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Quoting: Glog78This has been discussed many times before on this very site. Ability to upgrade, number of "launch titles", price of games etc. And personally I don't see how the download thing is a bigger issue for anyone with a half-decent connection than obtaining a DVD. But much depends on the next few months, on Vulkan, on game developer interest and other factors. Currently there's little incentive indeed.Quoting: tuubiWhy do you think console gamers should use a steam machine over their console ?Quoting: Glog78This list goes on. Let me ask a real question here , which market is the target for steam machines right of now?Console gamers?
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Quoting: NyamiouThat totally beside the pointNo.
Quoting: Nyamiouthe fact is that journalist cannot be trustedNo.
Quoting: Nyamioumajor political journalists of your countries where discussing together on a mailing listNo.
Quoting: NyamiouYou don't need to answer that.I can, however, sell you a very reasonably priced tin foil hat.
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Quoting: DrMcCoyQuoting: NyamiouYou don't need to answer that.I can, however, sell you a very reasonably priced tin foil hat.
If your post only consisted of that line, it would have been twice as good ;-D
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Quoting: DrMcCoyVery funny, put it up your ***.Quoting: NyamiouYou don't need to answer that.I can, however, sell you a very reasonably priced tin foil hat.
Last edited by Nyamiou on 13 November 2015 at 9:24 pm UTC
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No one here should be surprised at these results. Especially with a clean Linux system and clean Windows system. I think that gap would shrink if you took a Linux and Windows computer after a year of use. All the Windows and OS X users at my work complain how slow their computers are and that they need to do a fresh install.
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Mohandevir Nov 13, 2015
That's why I wrote, on another post, that Valve's strategy is based on Vulkan. If Vulkan sends DirectX "out of business", the performance gap will, at least, vanish and ports will be much easier to do.
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Quoting: NyamiouVery funny, put it up your ass.
You know, coming back to your earlier post, there are certain people in my country who do claim that the political journals are conspiring to keep the current politicians in power, and to deceive the white German public. They call themselves "PEGIDA", the patriotic Europeans against the Islamification of the Occident.
These are the people that run around crying "Lügenpresse" (lying press). These are the people who talk about the evils of "gender mainstreaming", "white genocide" and the "PC police". These are the people burning refugee homes (this year, 2015, Germany had a burning refugee home every couple of days).
These are the racist, sexist, homophobic undercurrents of the German society, that, for some reason, have been given free reign lately.
And there is a certain overlap between the PEGIDA people and the German part of the crocodile mob, that is, after all, fond of using words like "Jewkesian". Funny, that.
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