Reefa Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 For years, game support on Linux has seriously lagged behind Windows, to the point that the OS was basically a non-option for anyone who wanted to game on a PC. In recent years, that’s begun to change, thanks to increased support for the OS via Valve and SteamOS. From the beginning, Valve claimed that it was possible to boost OpenGL performance over D3D in Windows, and it’s recently put a hefty push behind Vulkan, the Mantle-based API that’s a successor to OpenGL.Two new stories took OpenGL out for a spin compared with Windows 10, on a mixture of Intel and Nvidia hardware. Ars Technica dusted off their Steam machine for a comparison in the most recent version of SteamOS, while Phoronix compared the performance of Intel’s Skylake Core i5-6600K with HD Graphics 530. The results, unfortunately, point in the same direction: SteamOS and Ubuntu simply can’t keep up with Windows 10 in most modern titles. Ars tested multiple titles, but we’ve included the Source-based results here, because these are the games that the industry titan has direct control over. In theory, Valve’s own games should show the clearest signs of any OGL advantage, if one existed. Obviously, it doesn’t — L4D2 shows similar performance on both platforms, but TF2, Portal, and DOTA 2 are all clear advantages for Windows 10.That doesn’t mean Linux gaming hasn’t come a long way in a relatively short period of time. All of these titles return playable frame rates, even at 2560×1600. There’s a huge difference between “Windows 10 is faster than Linux,” and “We can’t compare Linux and Windows 10 because Linux and gaming are a contradiction in terms.” It’s also possible that Valve is throwing most of its weight behind Vulkan and that future games that use that API will be on a much stronger footing against Windows in DX12 titles.The penguinistas at Phoronix also took Windows and Ubuntu out for a spin with Intel’s HD Graphics 530 and a Skylake processor. Again, the results are anything but pretty for Team Penguin — while some titles, like OpenArena, ran nearly identically, most 3D applications showed a significant gain for Windows 10. Again, driver support is a major issue; Intel’s Linux drivers remain limited to OpenGL 3.3, though OpenGL 4.2 support is theoretically forthcoming by the end of the year. Under Windows, OGL 4.4 is supported, which gives that OS a decided advantage in these types of comparisons.A complex situation There are two, equally valid ways of looking at this situation. First, there’s the fact that if you want to game, first-and-foremost, Windows remains a superior OS to Mac or Linux, period, full-stop. There is no Linux distribution or version of Mac OS X that can match the capabilities of Windows for PC gaming across the entire spectrum of titles, devices, and hardware — especially if you care about compatibility with older games, which can be persnickety in the best of times.That conclusion, however, ignores the tremendous progress that we’ve seen in Linux gaming over a relatively short period of time. There are now more than a thousand titles available for Linux via Steam. If you’re primarily a Linux user, you’ve got options that never existed before — and as someone who hates dual-booting between operating systems and refuses to do so save when necessary for articles, I feel the pain of anyone who prefers to game in their own native OS rather than switching back and forth.Furthermore, it’s probably not realistic to expect Valve to close the gap between Windows and Linux gaming. Not only does that assume that Valve can magically control the entire driver stack (and it obviously can’t), it also assumes that Valve does anything within a 1-2 year time frame (it doesn’t). The launch of Vulkan means that Linux users will get feature-parity and very similar capabilities to DX12 gamers on Windows, but Nvidia, AMD, and Intel will need to provide appropriate driver support to enable it. Hopefully, since Vulkan is based on Mantle, AMD will be able to offer support in short order.In short, it’s not surprising to see that Windows still has a strategic and structural advantage over Linux, and we shouldn’t let that fact obscure the tremendous progress we’ve seen in just a handful of years.extremetech.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandivisi Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 iam choose Windows 10 , best for gaming best for work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mossane Posted December 20, 2015 Share Posted December 20, 2015 Windows has years of experience in terms of gaming, SteamOS is relatively new, they have to fix a lot of things in order to beat Windows when it comes about gaming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genwolf Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 my old notebook says windows is the best for gaming Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stanners Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Hi F3dupsk1Nup Thanks for this one didn't even know Steam had an OS and yes definitely worth a try, so I will be downloading and installing tonight. Anything that take some market share from MS is brilliant in my book! Cheers Stanners Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kr1w Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 i think Windows is still the Winner for gaming activities Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sylence Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 I see what kind of games they chose for testing, how about GTA V, AC: Syndicate and Just Cause 3? there will be a 60 FPS difference then, Windows hasn't come to the place where it is now overnight...so just let the guys at Redmond do the benchmarking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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