Faster Zombies With Ubuntu !

[JakeBKK]

The guy's at valve have ported Left 4 dead 2 from windows 7 to ubuntu. The ubuntu version is running at 315 FPS, 44 FPS faster as the 271 FPS windows 7 delivered on the same hardware platform, that is.(Intel Core i7-3930K, Nvidia Geforce GTX 680 / 32 GByte Ram) Quite a head-start for the ubuntu version, which was developed in a fraction of the time compared the the windows build.

Left 4 Dead 2 will hit the streets in autumn, it will be the first available release on steam for Linux. These results should lighten the mood of every hardcore gamer: You want more frames for free ?? GO UBUNTU !

more on this blog; valve

sorry about the topic typo, btw

Edited August 2, 2012 by JakeBKK

[Richard-BKK]

Yes, the guys from Valve Software are doing a good job... Finally Linux get to show its real potential. Also, I saw an interview with Markus Persson (Minecraft) who was also not so happy about Microsoft.

With Valve Software starting to develop there games for Linux, and Blizzard Entertainment and EA (Electronic Arts) thinking about doing the same...

By the way Minecraft 1.3.1 is just released (yesterday) for Linux http://filedir.com/games-entertainment/arcade/minecraft-for-linux-883408.html

[Richard-BKK]

This morning Fedora upgrade installed on my computer the new kernel 3.5.0-2.fc17.x86_64 together with the latest Nvidia 304.30 drivers.

In this kernel they have fix the speed related problem Valve Software developers found not so long ago. And the new Nvidia driver will bring my new graphic card to a whole new level of performance....

So let the games begin.....!!! (and that from somebody who hardly plays any games)....

[thaimite]

I am not a gamer, but this is great news for Linux.

If the gamers come many more will follow

[h90]

If I remember right they compared the 64 bit Win7 with the 32 bit Linux and it was slightly faster.

I guess with both systems on 64 bit it would be equal which is good enough.

[schondie]

Yeah! Looking forward to Steam coming to Linux. The wife won't be too happy as there'll be some serious gaming sessions at weekends.

[Richard-BKK]

If I remember right they compared the 64 bit Win7 with the 32 bit Linux and it was slightly faster.

I guess with both systems on 64 bit it would be equal which is good enough.

You would think that Windows 7 64-bits on a computer with 32GB internal memory, should easily defeat the same computer using 32-bits Ubuntu operating system (with a 32-bits the operating system is limited to use only 3GB memory).

Also 44 FPS is not a little bit faster, especially if we consider that a movie in the cinema is less than 30 FPS and a regular TV is around 30 FPS. Currently HD-TV is about 50 FTP so 44 FTP faster on the same hardware is very significant achievement.

[JakeBKK]

If I remember right they compared the 64 bit Win7 with the 32 bit Linux and it was slightly faster.

I guess with both systems on 64 bit it would be equal which is good enough.

You would think that Windows 7 64-bits on a computer with 32GB internal memory, should easily defeat the same computer using 32-bits Ubuntu operating system (with a 32-bits the operating system is limited to use only 3GB memory).

Also 44 FPS is not a little bit faster, especially if we consider that a movie in the cinema is less than 30 FPS and a regular TV is around 30 FPS. Currently HD-TV is about 50 FTP so 44 FTP faster on the same hardware is very significant achievement.

Yes, i understated a tiny tiny bit. The guys at valve are thinkin this is because opengl has less overhead than directX 11 (is it?) so it is not really ubuntu specific . By the way going big on memory has really become affordable 8GB corsair vx 1800 are ~1900 THB

Edited August 4, 2012 by JakeBKK

[Guest]

You would think that Windows 7 64-bits on a computer with 32GB internal memory, should easily defeat the same computer using 32-bits Ubuntu operating system (with a 32-bits the operating system is limited to use only 3GB memory).

I installed 32bit kubuntu 12.04 on a Lenovo E320 laptop with 6GB of memory and the installation procedure selected PAE kernel without my interaction. Eg I can at least access the whole memory. I'm not sure how it works with individual programs.

Linux saturn 3.2.0-29-generic-pae #46-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 27 17:25:43 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Memory is dirt cheap and therefore I bought 4GB chip to the additional 2GB.

But where does the big memory really help? I mean that when I use my laptop in normal usage, the memory usage without buffers/cache tend to stay in about 1GB usage. Caches and tmpfs speed the computer a bit. But still I don't seem to be able to fill the whole memory.

What do you do so that let's say 8, 16, 32GB of memory would be beneficial?

[JakeBKK]

if you run gimp with large images or a vmware instance or two. A large amount of ram rocks together with a ssd. i recon anything over 4GB makes only sense with a 64 bit edition.

Edited August 4, 2012 by JakeBKK

[Richard-BKK]

You would think that Windows 7 64-bits on a computer with 32GB internal memory, should easily defeat the same computer using 32-bits Ubuntu operating system (with a 32-bits the operating system is limited to use only 3GB memory).

I installed 32bit kubuntu 12.04 on a Lenovo E320 laptop with 6GB of memory and the installation procedure selected PAE kernel without my interaction. Eg I can at least access the whole memory. I'm not sure how it works with individual programs.

Linux saturn 3.2.0-29-generic-pae #46-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 27 17:25:43 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Memory is dirt cheap and therefore I bought 4GB chip to the additional 2GB.

But where does the big memory really help? I mean that when I use my laptop in normal usage, the memory usage without buffers/cache tend to stay in about 1GB usage. Caches and tmpfs speed the computer a bit. But still I don't seem to be able to fill the whole memory.

What do you do so that let's say 8, 16, 32GB of memory would be beneficial?

I doubt that the guys from Valve Software installed Ubuntu with the PAE kernel, the PAE kernel give you access to the full memory – but it's also slower than a standard 32-bits or 64-bits kernel.

Also when you use the PAE kernel, you not really have the benefit of all your memory, as every program you run is still 32-bits and so limited to 3GB memory.

So if you play a huge game, or work with high-resolution images, you're still limited to 3GB, anything bigger is still saved to swap file, yes you can run two programs which basically both use 3GB (if you have 6GB) but they both start using the swap file intensively so performance is really going to slowdown....

When you have lots of memory, install the 64-bits version, you can still run 32-bits software by loading the 32-bits support libraries (of course a 32-bits program running with a 64-bits OS is still limited to the maximum 3GB).

[Richard W]

The figures quoted are misleading. The article also goes on to say, "Interestingly, in the process of working with hardware vendors we also sped up the OpenGL implementation on Windows. Left 4 Dead 2 is now running at 303.4 FPS with that configuration." So, Windows 270 FPS, Linux 315 FPS is grossly misleading.

[Richard-BKK]

Good example on how fast the development of drivers for Linux is now-a-day, Monday (6 August) at the end of the day the new OpenGL 4.3 standard was unveiled, yesterday (7 August) the first beta Nvidia graphics (supporting the new OpenGL 4.3 standard) for Linux is available.

Today (8 August) Nvidia updated the MS Windows beta driver to include OpenGL 4.3 support....

http://www.nvidia.com/content/devzone/opengl-driver-4.3.html

Edited August 8, 2012 by Richard-BKK

[JSixpack]

[Phoronix] NVIDIA Performance: Windows 7 vs. Ubuntu Linux 12.10 Review

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu1210_win7_nvidia1&num=1

[Richard-BKK]

[Phoronix] NVIDIA Performance: Windows 7 vs. Ubuntu Linux 12.10 Review

http://www.phoronix....7_nvidia1&num=1

Very impressive, not so long ago Linux was always slower with graphics performance, and not forget Ubuntu 12.10 is just entered its first Beta cycle (with still the old Linux 3.5.0 kernel), Fedora 17 is using kernel 3.5.3, so we can expect even better performance ….