An unusual case of AMD GPUs performing quite higher on Linux than in Windows in Hitman 2

[birdie]

Actually I need TPU users help here since I don't own this game. @W1zzard

Those of you who run Linux and have AMD GPUs: could you run this game under Windows and Linux (via Steam/Proton 4.2) and compare the image quality between the two OSes?

Phoronix has just run some tests under Linux and according to them AMD GPUs show an unheard-of level of performance in this game.

For 1440p:

Windows:

Linux:

 

[Vayra86]

Actually I need TPU users help here since I don't own this game. @W1zzard

Those of you who run Linux and have AMD GPUs: could you run this game under Windows and Linux (via Steam/Proton 4.2) and compare the image quality between the two OSes?

Phoronix has just run some tests under Linux and according to them AMD GPUs show an unheard-of level of performance in this game.

For 1440p:

Windows:

Linux:

View attachment 122189

Not really - or at least not just AMD, though, different testing methodology and the Nvidia cards also show about 8-10 FPS increases.

In fact it seems it is mostly just Turing that is lagging behind. A clear case of driver support IMO. Look at the 1080. It gains almost as much as Vega 64 (+11 vs 13 fps). At the same time, the 2070 shows -5 FPS.

That said, there is certainly a difference, but again, I don't think its some mystical magic sauce at work.

 

[Gasaraki]

Why would graphic quality be different?

Could be the AMD drivers on linux is better or maybe Vulkan.

 

[Vayra86]

Why would graphic quality be different?

Could be the AMD drivers on linux is better or maybe Vulkan.

And other more minor things such as benching with hot or cold cards, settings besides the Ultra slider, etc etc etc.

Polaris does jump out though at +15 fps for the 590.

 

[GoldenX]

AMD drivers on Linux are a LOT better than in Windows, if you are speaking of OpenGL. DX is still king on Windows (duh) and Vulkan is mostly the same on both.

 

[birdie]

AMD drivers on Linux are a LOT better than in Windows, if you are speaking of OpenGL. DX is still king on Windows (duh) and Vulkan is mostly the same on both.

Just to make things clear: under Windows this games runs natively, and under Linux it runs via DirectX11 to Vulkan translation (DXVK) and also Win32 API to POSIX calls translation (Wine), so overall we're talking about two layers of translation.

I really would like people to compare this game on their hardware when everything, except an OS and drivers, is the same and game visual settings and quality are also 100% the same cause otherwise we may speculate indefinitely.

 

[Vayra86]

Just to make things clear: under Windows this games runs natively, and under Linux it runs via DirectX11 to Vulkan translation (DXVK) and also Win32 API to POSIX calls translation (Wine), so overall we're talking about two layers of translation.

I really would like people to compare this game on their hardware when everything, except an OS and drivers, is the same and game visual settings and quality are also 100% the same cause otherwise we may speculate indefinitely.

Now that changes things a bit wow

 

[GoldenX]

That's the magic of Wine, sometimes it manages that.
It may be Vulkan (throu DXVK) doing a better multi-threading than the DX11 Windows driver.

 

[silentbogo]

There's one simple explanation: DXVK.

That's the magic of Wine, sometimes it manages that.

I think sometimes it does not translate all DX calls, so the game may look kinda similar to what you see on Windows, but skips a few steps and cuts a few corners every now and then.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

AMD's drivers are open sourced via the GPUOpen initiative. NVIDIA's drivers are closed source where people on Linux only get binaries NVIDIA provides. Anyone can optimize AMD's drivers; no one can optimize NVIDIA's drivers except NVIDIA. NVIDIA, in general, doesn't care about Linux beyond use in super computers. It should come as no surprise that AMD cards run better on Linux than NVIDIA because of this.

 

[silentbogo]

BTW, Nvidia drivers broke my Ubuntu today. Got stuck in a login loop.

 

[GoldenX]

AMD's drivers are open sourced via the GPUOpen initiative. NVIDIA's drivers are closed source where people on Linux only get binaries NVIDIA provides. Anyone can optimize AMD's drivers; no one can optimize NVIDIA's drivers except NVIDIA. NVIDIA, in general, doesn't care about Linux beyond use in super computers. It should come as no surprise that AMD cards run better on Linux than NVIDIA because of this.

It's more of a case of Nvidia drivers already working the best, like in Windows.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Are the test mules running similar CPUs to ensure that’s not an influence?

 

[Aquinus]

I've been more than happy with my experience with my Vega 64 in Linux to be completely honest. Proton works with a number of games using DXVK and it's not too bad. Steam makes Linux gaming bearable.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

It's more of a case of Nvidia drivers already working the best, like in Windows.

Yeah, Windows is the warzone where AMD and NVIDIA are both fully committed to creating the best drivers they can. This is about Linux though where neither company has financial incentive to prioritize drivers. AMD is ahead because they threw it at the community and the community did a great job.

 

[Space Lynx]

only a 14 fps difference? eh. not impressed personally.

 

[GoldenX]

Yeah, Windows is the warzone where AMD and NVIDIA are both fully committed to creating the best drivers they can. This is about Linux though where neither company has financial incentive to prioritize drivers. AMD is ahead because they threw it at the community and the community did a great job.

Nvidia does, for CUDA work and professional OpenGL/OpenCL apps.
AMD is ahead their own Windows driver by a wide margin, radeonsi/amdgpu offers intelligent multithreading, shader cache, OpenGL ES and 3 options of Vulkan drivers, vs the worst OpenGL driver and no OGL ES support on Windows. If they solve the rare graphic bugs it has and can enable the missing characteristics, it will be perfect.
With Nvidia you get the same driver as Windows, with both the good and the bad of that (sans the stupid Geforce Experience), that means getting bad new kernel's support, but also the best OpenGL driver.

 

[Deleted member 158293]

AMD drivers are highly optimized and packed with the Linux kernel in most (all?) Distros so they get the full peer review and innovation treatment (except low level hardware access binaries). Which in turn also help AMD on projects like Stadia with awesomely optimized drivers using much less development budget required which in turn can reduce AMD's bid price to win these contracts while keeping higher margins, it's a win-win for everyone.

Nvidia is keeping all their binaries closed so they have to spend in more in development inhouse to achieve lesser results. Nvidia's business model and the corporate culture just do not look very compatible with open source projects in general. So I can see them putting more effort in Windows.

 

[GoldenX]

AMD drivers are highly optimized and packed with the Linux kernel in most (all?) Distros so they get the full peer review and innovation treatment (except low level hardware access binaries). Which in turn also help AMD on projects like Stadia with awesomely optimized drivers using much less development budget required which in turn can reduce AMD's bid price to win these contracts while keeping higher margins, it's a win-win for everyone.

Nvidia is keeping all their binaries closed so they have to spend in more in development inhouse to achieve lesser results. Nvidia's business model and the corporate culture just do not look very compatible with open source projects in general. So I can see them putting more effort in Windows.

I would love to have the OpenGL driver of radeonsi on Windows, CEMU, yuzu and RPCS3 would improve a lot.