Left 4 Dead 2 Runs Faster On Linux?
 

We are using a 32-bit version of Linux temporarily and will run on 64-bit Linux later. Running Left 4 Dead 2 on Windows 7 with Direct3D drivers, we get 270.6 FPS as a baseline. The data is generated from an internal test case. When we started with Linux, the initial version we got up and running was at 6 FPS. This is typical of an initial successful port to a new platform.

Performance improvements fall into several categories:

• Modifying our game to work better with the kernel
• Modifying our game to work better with OpenGL
• Optimizing the graphics driver

After this work, Left 4 Dead 2 is running at 315 FPS on Linux. That the Linux version runs faster than the Windows version (270.6) seems a little counter-intuitive, given the greater amount of time we have spent on the Windows version. However, it does speak to the underlying efficiency of the kernel and OpenGL.

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/