Linux Benchmarks

I opted to switch from Ubuntu 8.04 to Gentoo Linux 2008, mostly because I'm more comfortable in a Gentoo environment, but also because the software is compiled specifically to your machine's specifications (or the best available for the machine, anyways). I'm still in a 64-bit environment, so benchmarks shouldn't differ much from previous reviews.

For Linux, I'll be look at Unreal Tournament 2004, Quake 4, glxgears, and Nexuiz. Nexuiz will be tested using the Phoronix Test Suite. The other games will be tested with the same settings as in Windows.

Unreal Tournament 2004

With the 64-bit version of UT2004 installed in Linux as well, I set the settings to the maximum and ran a botmatch on DM-Rankin.

Quake 4

Much like the Windows version, I had everything set to the maximum.

glxgears

glxgears is a simple benchmark included on most distros by default. Although not always a fantastic judge of performance, glxgears can give you a ballpark estimate on how well your video card will perform.

Nexuiz

Nexuiz is a popular open source first person shooter based on a modified (and very advanced) Quake 1 engine. Phoronix recently release a test suite, consisting of some of the benchmarks they commonly use when benchmarking hardware, and it's all automated through PHP scripts. I opted to run Nexuiz through their benchmark system to standardize the results.

Conclusion on Linux Benchmarks

As I expected, the 9600 GSO fell a little behind the 8800 GTX, but still whooped the Radeon HD3870 series cards. I attribute this to nVidia's Linux driver simply beind better than AMD's. Regardless of this, the Palit GeForce 9600 GSO proves that it's a great choice for a Linux card, and definitely pulls the performance that I want to see from the card.

While it's overkill for someone simply wanting to have a 3D desktop with Beryl or Compiz Fusion, it's a great choice for anyone wishing to game in Linux.