Windows, Linux have faster OpenGL than OS X

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...ws_part3&num=1



*Sigh*



Read it and weep. On the same hardware, Windows is the clear OpenGL victor, followed by Linux, with Mac OS a distant third.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    Linux and Mac OS looked pretty close but the tests aren't really conducted properly as it depends on how optimal the benchmark apps are built. Like X-Plane and the Urban Terror mod, you can't know if they are compiled the same way for each platform.



    That said, I do think the Mac OS OpenGL is slower than the Windows side - I score about 10% slower Cinebench scores on the Mac vs Windows on the same machine. But NVidia develop the drivers for Windows so I'd expect them to perform better given that NVidia built the hardware.



    We'll see how Portal plays on the Mac side vs Windows. I reckon any difference will translate to about 5FPS difference tops.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    benroethigbenroethig Posts: 2,782member
    Honestly, before iPhone games showed Apple there was money to be made, they put next to no effort into anything gaming related, OpenGL included. To them, it was something that helped with GUI tricks.
  • Reply 3 of 7
    1337_5l4xx0r1337_5l4xx0r Posts: 1,558member
    Unfortunately, OpenGL reaches far beyond just games. Admittedly, Mac OS X is not much of a gaming platform. But countless content creation apps rely on OpenGL (Maya, Mudbox, even Photoshop, etc), and Apple's 'worst in breed' implementation is a bit much, considering it is managed by Apple and built into the OS.



    They control the hardware, they control the OS, and the net result is pathetic, to be frank.



    That, combined with 256MB VRAM standard (with a 'whopping' 512MB premium priced option), underclocked, year or more old graphics cards it's clear that 3D performance is no priority to Apple, which is unfortunate for content creators.



    /rant
  • Reply 4 of 7
    1337_5l4xx0r1337_5l4xx0r Posts: 1,558member




    http://www.anandtech.com/show/3726/q...al-performance



    Quote:

    Performance isn’t any better. Portal is an easy game to run and so we’re largely being academic here, but the “tax” for Mac OS X is roughly a generation in hardware performance. For the performance we’re seeing on a GTX 285 under Mac OS X the results are similar to what we’d see under Windows with something like a 9800GTX.



    Unfortunately, on top of that, the graphics cards themselves are at least a generation behind!
  • Reply 5 of 7
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by 1337_5L4Xx0R View Post


    Unfortunately, on top of that, the graphics cards themselves are at least a generation behind!



    Those performance numbers certainly don't look good. They'd have to do more tests to see what was up. It could be Apple's implementation of anti-aliasing at fault. Given that the Mac output appeared less sharp, maybe it's doing it differently.



    No AA certainly helps performance a lot:



    http://www.flickr.com/photos/adurdin...41181/sizes/l/



    but there's still a huge problem somewhere. It would be good to see a WoW-style optimization happen and then at WWDC they can say it plays games faster than Windows.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    benroethigbenroethig Posts: 2,782member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by 1337_5L4Xx0R View Post


    Unfortunately, OpenGL reaches far beyond just games. Admittedly, Mac OS X is not much of a gaming platform. But countless content creation apps rely on OpenGL (Maya, Mudbox, even Photoshop, etc), and Apple's 'worst in breed' implementation is a bit much, considering it is managed by Apple and built into the OS.



    They control the hardware, they control the OS, and the net result is pathetic, to be frank.



    That, combined with 256MB VRAM standard (with a 'whopping' 512MB premium priced option), underclocked, year or more old graphics cards it's clear that 3D performance is no priority to Apple, which is unfortunate for content creators.



    /rant



    Also the downside when of having a dictator CEO. When he wants something done, it gets done and usually ends up great. If Jobs has a strong bais against something, it has no effort put into it, even if its to the platform's benefit and it usually sets the Mac platform behind years in some areas,
  • Reply 7 of 7
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    Quote:



    People are reporting that color correction and vsync are dropping framerates considerably:



    http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=1266144



    Rather than it being a serious performance issue, it looks like there are just a few bugs that need worked out.
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