Intel Linux Driver Performance Still Slower Than Windows 7

Benchmarks published this week on Phoronix showed that Ubuntu 13.10 can outperform Apple OS X 10.9 "Mavericks" with regard to OpenGL performance. However, when compared to Microsoft Windows, the open-source Intel Linux driver continues to come up short.

Intel Haswell benchmarks between Windows and Linux are still forthcoming and will hopefully be published next week. It's taken some time due to single-handedly already running many Haswell benchmarks and then most recently by losing the Windows disc and having to order a new Windows 8 DVD. Having a clean Windows installation still on an ASUS Ultrabook with Intel Core i3 "Ivy Bridge" processor, this week I did some new tests of Windows 7 vs. Ubuntu 13.10.

Windows 7 x64 was tested with its latest GL4-capable Intel Windows driver that was version 15.31.9.3165 and was released in May. On the Linux side, Ubuntu 13.10 x86_64 was tested in its current development state with the Linux 3.10 kernel and Mesa 9.1.4. The Ubuntu Linux installation was then upgraded to the Linux 3.11 Git kernel and Mesa 9.2-devel.

The same ASUS Ultrabook was used throughout testing and it sported an Intel Core i3 3217U CPU with HD 4000 graphics, a 500GB Hitachi HDD with 24GB SanDisk SSD, and 1366 x 768 resolution 15-inch panel. Benchmarking under Windows and Linux was fully automated via the Phoronix Test Suite software.

Through the Phoronix Test Suite and OpenBenchmarking.org a variety of GL2 and GL3 games and other test cases were run in a fully automated and reproducible manner. The testing does also include the new OpenGL frame latency testing abilities.