Nouveau 2019 vs. NVIDIA Linux Performance Open-Source NVIDIA (Nouveau) versus NVIDIA proprietary Linux graphics driver benchmarks for end of year 2019. Benchmarks for a future article. Nouveau: GTX 680 Kepler: Processor: Intel Core i9-9900KS @ 5.00GHz (8 Cores / 16 Threads), Motherboard: ASUS PRIME Z390-A (1302 BIOS), Chipset: Intel Cannon Lake PCH, Memory: 16384MB, Disk: Samsung SSD 970 EVO 250GB + 2000GB SABRENT, Graphics: NVIDIA NVE4 2GB, Audio: Realtek ALC1220, Network: Intel I219-V OS: Ubuntu 19.10, Kernel: 5.5.0-999-generic (x86_64) 20191220, Desktop: GNOME Shell 3.34.1, Display Server: X Server 1.20.5, Display Driver: modesetting 1.20.5, OpenGL: 4.3 Mesa 20.0.0-devel (git-5343124 2019-12-21 eoan-oibaf-ppa), Compiler: GCC 9.2.1 20191008, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 1920x1080 Nouveau: GTX 980 Maxwell: Processor: Intel Core i9-9900KS @ 5.00GHz (8 Cores / 16 Threads), Motherboard: ASUS PRIME Z390-A (1302 BIOS), Chipset: Intel Cannon Lake PCH, Memory: 16384MB, Disk: Samsung SSD 970 EVO 250GB + 2000GB SABRENT, Graphics: NVIDIA NV124 4GB, Audio: Realtek ALC1220, Network: Intel I219-V OS: Ubuntu 19.10, Kernel: 5.5.0-999-generic (x86_64) 20191220, Desktop: GNOME Shell 3.34.1, Display Server: X Server 1.20.5, Display Driver: modesetting 1.20.5, OpenGL: 4.3 Mesa 20.0.0-devel (git-5343124 2019-12-21 eoan-oibaf-ppa), Compiler: GCC 9.2.1 20191008, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 1920x1080 Nouveau: GTX 1080 Pascal: Processor: Intel Core i9-9900KS @ 5.00GHz (8 Cores / 16 Threads), Motherboard: ASUS PRIME Z390-A (1302 BIOS), Chipset: Intel Cannon Lake PCH, Memory: 16384MB, Disk: Samsung SSD 970 EVO 250GB + 2000GB SABRENT, Graphics: NVIDIA NV134 8GB, Audio: Realtek ALC1220, Network: Intel I219-V OS: Ubuntu 19.10, Kernel: 5.5.0-999-generic (x86_64) 20191220, Desktop: GNOME Shell 3.34.1, Display Server: X Server 1.20.5, Display Driver: modesetting 1.20.5, OpenGL: 4.3 Mesa 20.0.0-devel (git-5343124 2019-12-21 eoan-oibaf-ppa), Compiler: GCC 9.2.1 20191008, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 1920x1080 NVIDIA: GTX 1080 Pascal: Processor: Intel Core i9-9900KS @ 5.00GHz (8 Cores / 16 Threads), Motherboard: ASUS PRIME Z390-A (1302 BIOS), Chipset: Intel Cannon Lake PCH, Memory: 16384MB, Disk: Samsung SSD 970 EVO 250GB + 2000GB SABRENT, Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB (1607/5005MHz), Audio: Realtek ALC1220, Network: Intel I219-V OS: Ubuntu 19.10, Kernel: 5.3.0-24-generic (x86_64), Desktop: GNOME Shell 3.34.1, Display Server: X Server 1.20.5, Display Driver: NVIDIA 435.21, OpenGL: 4.6.0, Vulkan: 1.1.109, Compiler: GCC 9.2.1 20191008, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 1920x1080 NVIDIA: GTX 980 Maxwell: Processor: Intel Core i9-9900KS @ 5.00GHz (8 Cores / 16 Threads), Motherboard: ASUS PRIME Z390-A (1302 BIOS), Chipset: Intel Cannon Lake PCH, Memory: 16384MB, Disk: Samsung SSD 970 EVO 250GB + 2000GB SABRENT, Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB (1126/3505MHz), Audio: Realtek ALC1220, Network: Intel I219-V OS: Ubuntu 19.10, Kernel: 5.3.0-24-generic (x86_64), Desktop: GNOME Shell 3.34.1, Display Server: X Server 1.20.5, Display Driver: NVIDIA 435.21, OpenGL: 4.6.0, Vulkan: 1.1.109, Compiler: GCC 9.2.1 20191008, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 1920x1080 NVIDIA: GTX 680 Kepler: Processor: Intel Core i9-9900KS @ 5.00GHz (8 Cores / 16 Threads), Motherboard: ASUS PRIME Z390-A (1302 BIOS), Chipset: Intel Cannon Lake PCH, Memory: 16384MB, Disk: Samsung SSD 970 EVO 250GB + 2000GB SABRENT, Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB (1006/3004MHz), Audio: Realtek ALC1220, Network: Intel I219-V OS: Ubuntu 19.10, Kernel: 5.3.0-24-generic (x86_64), Desktop: GNOME Shell 3.34.1, Display Server: X Server 1.20.5, Display Driver: NVIDIA 435.21, OpenGL: 4.6.0, Vulkan: 1.1.109, Compiler: GCC 9.2.1 20191008, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 1920x1080 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better Nouveau: GTX 680 Kepler .. 18.5 |=== Nouveau: GTX 980 Maxwell . 18.5 |=== Nouveau: GTX 1080 Pascal . 18.5 |=== NVIDIA: GTX 1080 Pascal .. 301.4 |============================================= NVIDIA: GTX 980 Maxwell .. 271.0 |======================================== NVIDIA: GTX 680 Kepler ... 179.8 |=========================== Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Resolution: 1920 x 1080 - Total Frame Time Milliseconds < Lower Is Better Nouveau: GTX 680 Kepler .. MIN: 4 AVG: 55 MAX: 2944 Nouveau: GTX 980 Maxwell . MIN: 25 AVG: 55 MAX: 3033 Nouveau: GTX 1080 Pascal . MIN: 24 AVG: 55 MAX: 2932 NVIDIA: GTX 1080 Pascal .. MIN: 2 AVG: 4 MAX: 2455 NVIDIA: GTX 980 Maxwell .. MIN: 2 AVG: 5 MAX: 2518 NVIDIA: GTX 680 Kepler ... MIN: 2 AVG: 7 MAX: 2466 DiRT Rally Resolution: 1920 x 1080 - Graphics Preset: High Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better Nouveau: GTX 680 Kepler .. 46.21 |=========== Nouveau: GTX 980 Maxwell . 21.33 |===== Nouveau: GTX 1080 Pascal . 25.34 |====== NVIDIA: GTX 1080 Pascal .. 181.84 |============================================ NVIDIA: GTX 980 Maxwell .. 147.35 |==================================== NVIDIA: GTX 680 Kepler ... 88.76 |===================== DiRT Showdown Resolution: 1920 x 1080 - Graphics Preset: High - Multi-Sampling: 2x MSAA Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better Nouveau: GTX 680 Kepler .. 34.82 |======= Nouveau: GTX 980 Maxwell . 18.80 |==== Nouveau: GTX 1080 Pascal . 21.28 |==== NVIDIA: GTX 1080 Pascal .. 232.76 |============================================ NVIDIA: GTX 980 Maxwell .. 233.36 |============================================ NVIDIA: GTX 680 Kepler ... 202.13 |====================================== Dota 2 Resolution: 1920 x 1080 - Renderer: OpenGL Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better Nouveau: GTX 680 Kepler .. 32.0 |========== Nouveau: GTX 980 Maxwell . 11.4 |=== Nouveau: GTX 1080 Pascal . 13.6 |==== NVIDIA: GTX 1080 Pascal .. 147.9 |============================================ NVIDIA: GTX 980 Maxwell .. 149.7 |============================================= NVIDIA: GTX 680 Kepler ... 118.2 |==================================== ET: Legacy 2.75 Renderer: Renderer2 - Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better Nouveau: GTX 680 Kepler .. 247.9 |===================================== Nouveau: GTX 980 Maxwell . 102.9 |================ Nouveau: GTX 1080 Pascal . 109.7 |================= NVIDIA: GTX 1080 Pascal .. 294.5 |============================================ NVIDIA: GTX 980 Maxwell .. 298.1 |============================================= NVIDIA: GTX 680 Kepler ... 294.9 |============================================= HITMAN Resolution: 1920 x 1080 - Quality Level: Ultra Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better Nouveau: GTX 680 Kepler .. 10.82 |========= Nouveau: GTX 1080 Pascal . 6.96 |====== NVIDIA: GTX 1080 Pascal .. 53.46 |============================================= NVIDIA: GTX 980 Maxwell .. 41.40 |=================================== NVIDIA: GTX 680 Kepler ... 25.15 |===================== HITMAN Resolution: 1920 x 1080 - Quality Level: Ultra - Total Frame Time Milliseconds < Lower Is Better Nouveau: GTX 680 Kepler .. MIN: 3 AVG: 93 MAX: 437 Nouveau: GTX 1080 Pascal . MIN: 6 AVG: 143 MAX: 296 NVIDIA: GTX 1080 Pascal .. MIN: 4 AVG: 19 MAX: 100 NVIDIA: GTX 980 Maxwell .. MIN: 5 AVG: 24 MAX: 102 NVIDIA: GTX 680 Kepler ... MIN: 4 AVG: 40 MAX: 97 Metro: Last Light Redux Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better Nouveau: GTX 680 Kepler .. 29.40 |====== Nouveau: GTX 980 Maxwell . 10.12 |== Nouveau: GTX 1080 Pascal . 11.75 |== NVIDIA: GTX 1080 Pascal .. 222.80 |============================================ NVIDIA: GTX 980 Maxwell .. 224.84 |============================================ NVIDIA: GTX 680 Kepler ... 135.09 |========================== OpenArena 0.8.8 Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better Nouveau: GTX 680 Kepler .. 253.2 |================= Nouveau: GTX 980 Maxwell . 106.3 |======= Nouveau: GTX 1080 Pascal . 108.9 |======= NVIDIA: GTX 1080 Pascal .. 672.6 |============================================= NVIDIA: GTX 980 Maxwell .. 573.7 |====================================== NVIDIA: GTX 680 Kepler ... 407.2 |=========================== OpenArena 0.8.8 Resolution: 1920 x 1080 - Total Frame Time Milliseconds < Lower Is Better Nouveau: GTX 680 Kepler .. MIN: 1.0 AVG: 4.0 MAX: 12.0 Nouveau: GTX 980 Maxwell . MIN: 3.0 AVG: 9.4 MAX: 24.0 Nouveau: GTX 1080 Pascal . MIN: 2.0 AVG: 9.2 MAX: 23.0 NVIDIA: GTX 1080 Pascal .. MIN: 1.0 AVG: 1.5 MAX: 14.0 NVIDIA: GTX 980 Maxwell .. MIN: 1.0 AVG: 1.7 MAX: 14.0 NVIDIA: GTX 680 Kepler ... MIN: 1.0 AVG: 2.4 MAX: 14.0 Portal Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better Nouveau: GTX 680 Kepler .. 360.34 |============= Nouveau: GTX 980 Maxwell . 85.10 |=== Nouveau: GTX 1080 Pascal . 91.40 |=== NVIDIA: GTX 1080 Pascal .. 1214.17 |=========================================== NVIDIA: GTX 980 Maxwell .. 761.48 |=========================== NVIDIA: GTX 680 Kepler ... 513.13 |================== Tomb Raider Resolution: 1920 x 1080 - Quality: High Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better Nouveau: GTX 680 Kepler .. 55.8 |============= Nouveau: GTX 980 Maxwell . 12.9 |=== Nouveau: GTX 1080 Pascal . 15.6 |==== NVIDIA: GTX 1080 Pascal .. 196.2 |============================================= NVIDIA: GTX 980 Maxwell .. 131.7 |============================== NVIDIA: GTX 680 Kepler ... 87.2 |====================