SteamOS gaming performs significantly worse than Windows

[tangra]

Ars did an analysis on the performance in games of the Linux based SteamOS vs Windows and ... the results were not in favour of the gaming Linux flavour. 

 

Altho CPU result differences were not great, the GPU is where Windows basically kills it. They used Metro: Last Light Redux and Middle-Earth:Shadow of Mordor and basically came up with this: 

 

 

 

No matter how you slice it, running these two high-end titles on SteamOS comes with a sizable frame rate hit; we got anywhere from 21- to 58-percent fewer frames per second, depending on the graphical settings. On our hardware running Shadow of Mordor at Ultra settings and HD resolution, the OS change alone was the difference between a playable 34.5 fps average on Windows and a stuttering 14.6 fps mess on SteamOS.

 

 

 

 

Now, as Ars puts it,

 

 

 

While these are two AAA games ported to Linux by respected publishers, it's possible the developers simply weren't able to extract the best performance from the less familiar OpenGL and Linux environment. We figured that Valve's own games wouldn't have this problem; if anyone could get the maximum performance out of its Linux ports, it should be the company behind SteamOS itself.

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, Valve's own Source engine games showed the same performance hit when compared to their Windows versions. Portal, Team Fortress 2, and DOTA 2 all took massive frame rate dips on SteamOS compared to their Windows counterparts; only Left 4 Dead 2showed comparable performance between the two operating systems (though there's no sign of those SteamOS frame rate improvements Valve cited years ago).

 

 

What has to be kept in mind is that since Windows is treated at the primary platform and everything is ported SteamOS from there, lower results are expected. However, there is also the elephant int he room which are GPU drivers. Under Windows, both AMD and NVIDIA deliver updates for every new AAA titles and their drivers are miles ahead on windows than under Linux or Mac. And we also have a chicken and an egg problem. As long as there are significantly more users under Windows, other desktop OSes will be getting the short end of the stick. And having great performance in games requires that ALL parties involved are focussed on it. 

 

And last but not least, many games are designed to run under DirectX when written for the desktop and when transferred to OpenGL, there is simply less optimization being done on the port. Altho, valve's own games are probably the best examples of proper ports. 

 

Source: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/11/ars-benchmarks-show-significant-performance-hit-for-steamos-gaming/

 

What do you guys think? Is it possible that we will ever see a parity in performance here? 

[Humbug]

What do you guys think? Is it possible that we will ever see a parity in performance here?

We will but only with Vulkan, which will perform like DX12. Never on current openGL, it's too far gone... Ecosystem's a mess. Drivers, conformance etc...

[Mr_Troll]

 all i can say is ... get rekt valve ... lol

[pokechat8978]

Specs of the machine used if anyone was wondering:

 

OS Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (64-bit) and SteamOS 2.0 4.1.0-0 (on separate drives)

CPU Intel Pentium G3220 (Haswell), dual-core, 3.0GHz

GPU Zotac Geforce GTX660 (2GB) w/ GeForce Game Ready Driver v. 358.91

RAM 8GB DDR3-1600

MOTHERBOARD MSI H81I (mini-ITX)

STORAGE Western Digital WD Blue 7200 rpm 500GB HD x 2

SOUND Onboard NETWORK Onboard (wired gigabit Ethernet)

PSU Antec VP-450, 450W

CASE BitFenix Prodigy, arctic white

[GoodBytes]

We will but only with Vulkan, which will perform like DX12. Never on current openGL, it's too far gone... Ecosystem's a mess. Drivers, conformance etc...

It isn't comparing DirectX12 vs OpenGL. The games are not in DirectX12

[Mo5]

Unsurprising results really if you ever tried gaming on Linux

[Humbug]

It isn't comparing DirectX12 vs OpenGL. The games are not in DirectX12

I know they aren't...

I just said Vulkan is similar to DX12. And I meant as a new API/ecosystem designed for modern GPUs dropping the decades of legacy stuff it's the only real hope for Linux gamers to get consistently comparable performance to windows in future.

Because the current ecosystem (openGL) is a mess.

[PlayStation 2]

Specs of the machine used if anyone was wondering:

 

OS Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (64-bit) and SteamOS 2.0 4.1.0-0 (on separate drives)

CPU Intel Pentium G3220 (Haswell), dual-core, 3.0GHz

GPU Zotac Geforce GTX660 (2GB) w/ GeForce Game Ready Driver v. 358.91

RAM 8GB DDR3-1600

MOTHERBOARD MSI H81I (mini-ITX)

STORAGE Western Digital WD Blue 7200 rpm 500GB HD x 2

SOUND Onboard NETWORK Onboard (wired gigabit Ethernet)

PSU Antec VP-450, 450W

CASE BitFenix Prodigy, arctic white

WELL NO FUCKING SHIT IT'S NOT GONNA MAX OUT SHADOW OF MORDOR

[tangra]

WELL NO FUCKING SHIT IT'S NOT GONNA MAX OUT SHADOW OF MORDOR

 

It does not really matter tho, its for comparison purposes between OS to OS not between hardware components. 

[PlayStation 2]

It does not really matter tho, its for comparison purposes between OS to OS not between hardware components. 

Was looking at the L4D2 benchmarks and remembered that L4D2 was a native Linux port. kek

[Humbug]

Just noticed the funny resolution mentioned on the shadow of chart LOL

[Notional]

Yup Linux is pretty useless as a consumer OS. But the real problem here is OpenGL being the obsolete redundant poc it is. Especially on AMD, but really on everything. It might change with Vulkan (hopefully), but until then, it's pretty useless. Get a Ssteam Link for you real PC with Windows instead of this silly crap.

[tangra]

Yup Linux is pretty useless as a consumer OS. But the real problem here is OpenGL being the obsolete redundant poc it is. Especially on AMD, but really on everything. It might change with Vulkan (hopefully), but until then, it's pretty useless. Get a Ssteam Link for you real PC with Windows instead of this silly crap.

 

And steam link has been great for that matter! The controller has a really bad learning curve but the link ... AMAZING. 

[LAwLz]

Not a surprise. I suspect that the difference would have been even bigger with an AMD card. The drivers are just far worse. Might get better with Vulcan but as it stands right now you really should not play games on GNU/Linux.

[Doobeedoo]

Sure is significant difference, I expected some in start but a little less

[Megahurt]

OpenGL needs to die, we need vulkan to take off.

[qwertywarrior]

Drivers and OpenGL/Linux optimizations is significantly worse than that on windows*

[Suika]

Specs of the machine used if anyone was wondering:

Thanks for posting that, I was curious if they were relying off of an AMD or NVIDIA GPU and was too lazy to search the article.

It really is a shame, though. It's an interesting idea but it seems poorly executed and supported, neither AMD or NVIDIA are keeping up on drivers, not all games support Linux, Valve themselves have a lot of quirks in the OS still requiring attention, etc. I mean honestly, I'd rather plug my ROG G751 in my TV with a controller to play a game on a couch before adopting SteamOS.

[65441321234]

[deleted]

 

[ManWithBeard1990]

As an API in and of itself OpenGL is not that bad, but it's been neglected far too long to expect similar performance as DirectX nowadays. The driver optimizations just lacking when it comes to nVidia and near nonexistant when it comes to AMD.

[Humbug]

Jesus, are the differences really that major? As someone who has only ever gamed on PC via Linux (though not SteamOS, mind you; the people working on it seem to be incompetent), I've been able to manage 1080p w/ 60 FPS on the games I play just fine on high settings, both natively and through Wine.

I dual boot and play games on Linux too. R9 290. They are all playable for sure even the AAA games at high quality settings, if I had nothing to compare it with I probably wouldn't complain. But I do have something to compare it with and it doesn't compare favorably to the silky smooth high fps I get on windows directX. I get the impression that even Valve plus the IHVs have almost given up on fixing openGL and feels that rather than trying to fix an old API ecosystem it's easier to start from scratch (or from mantle in this case LOL).

[Guest Kloaked]

Who honestly thought it would be on par or better, though? Linux doesn't have a fully functioning API that can compete with DirectX yet.

[Misanthrope]

If by Steam OS you mean to say all fucking Linux drivers then yes, absolutely they perform worst, if at all mind you (i.e. try using an older GPU). This was my point of contention with Valve for over a year now: So much fucking time wasted on a stupid controller and they couldn't muster better driver support from anyone.

[as96]

You can call it with a different name but it's still Debian Linux, and you know how "good" Linux's drivers are, but more important developers don't give a f**k about Linux and its ports are awful, and if this is going to change depends only on the success of SteamOS and Steam Machines, if they can manage to get a decent grasp we can probably hope that we can get an OS for FREE on which we can play on.

[Misanthrope]

You can call it with a different name but it's still Debian Linux, and you know how "good" Linux's drivers are, but more important developers don't give a f**k about Linux and its ports are awful, and if this is going to change depends only on the success of SteamOS and Steam Machines, if they can manage to get a decent grasp we can probably hope that we can get an OS for FREE on which we can play on.

 

Chicken and Egg problem: No greater driver support will be coming without a larger user base and no larger user base will be coming without greater driver support.