Intel OpenGL Performance: OS X vs. Windows vs. Linux
When pushing OpenArena 0.8.8 at 1920 x 1080, a regression on the latest Intel Mesa Git code appears to have been found. While Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and Ubuntu 12.10 actually outperform Windows 7 for OpenArena at the HD resolution, there's a sharp drop in performance when using the Sandy Bridge graphics with Linux 3.6 + Mesa 8.1-devel.
While Tremulous only ran on Ubuntu, with this ioquake3 game we see a regression also with the latest Intel Linux graphics driver code, but at least it's a smaller drop than was witnessed in OpenArena.
When running Urban Terror, Ubuntu in all three configurations were much faster than the Sandy Bridge graphics driver in OS X Mountain Lion. Linux carried about a 55% frame-rate advantage over OS X 10.8 for this final ioquake3 game test.