Gaming performance of Intel = Nvidia?

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
1

I recently picked up a laptop for use as a mobile Linux workstation. I got it cheap, so it’s older and the specs are modest (i7-3720QM, Nvidia NVS 5200M + Intel HD 4000, 16GB DDR3-16000, 320GB hard drive.) Since, to my surprise, it had a dedicated GPU, I decided to test it out. So I ran XCOM (the first one, not XCOM 2) and got a shock when the Intel GPU outperformed the NVidia GPU. Looking closer, the Intel GPU had a wide variety of resolutions, whereas the NVidia GPU only had the panel’s native res available (1600x900). Running with the Intel as primary GPU, the resolution was set to 1280x720. Once the resolutions were equalized, I thought that surely the Nvidia would trounce the Intel.

But it wasn’t so. The framerates are modest (17-22 fps), but the Intel and Nvidia fps are within 1 fps or so of each other at the same resolution. Now under Windows, the NVS GPU does outperform the integrated GPU, but I was surprised to see no appreciable difference under Linux. Perhaps its a quirk of the game, but I don’t have many other games to test with.

P.S. Does anyone know how to get non-native resolutions with an Nvidia GPU?

2

In linux, are you running the proprietary Nvidia driver, or noveau?

If you’re not running the third party driver from nvidia’s website (assuming that laptop GPU is (still) supported by it, performance won’t be anywhere near what it should be, most likely.

The intel driver will be using full acceleration with open source drivers, the nvidia card will not…

3

Yes, I loaded the proprietary Nvidia driver from the Fedora repos. It is an Optimus laptop. Presently, I have not loaded bumblebee, but just toggle between the GPUs in the BIOS.

The NVS 5200M is a very weak GPU, about on par with a desktop GT 620. Still I didn’t expect it to be that weak under Linux.

4

Hmm. Intel and Valve did do a HEAP of work on improving the intel GPUs under linux a couple of years back. Nvidia probably don’t really care about the 5200M linux performance…

But interesting find…