World of Warcraft: Windows 7 vs Linux/wine....FPS: Who wins? (No sound)

Intro:
I wanted to see what ran World of Warcraft faster: Windows 7 or Linux/wine.
In many forums, there are people who don't know what they are talking about.
So I decided to make a video, with a Windows 7 run around Ironforge, then Linux/wine, and record both with Recount showing FPS and Latency.

Setup:
Both Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and Ubuntu 10.10 64-bit have identical World of Warcraft installations, and both OSs have the newest Nvidia drivers as of date of recording. Both installs are IDENTICAL. Same addons, same config.wtf, everything. Windows 7 run was recorded with FRAPS, and the Linux/wine run was recorded with gtk-recordmydesktop. The time difference between the Windows 7 run and the Linux/wine run was for a reboot, and logging into WoW.

Hardware:
AMD Athlon X2 5200+
2 GB DDRII ram
Nvidia 9600GSO 768MB DDRII

The result:

Look for yourself.

Video created/edited with OpenShot 1.2.2
Gotta love open source.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• World of Warcraft
• FPS
• Linux
• compare
• Direct3D
• OpenGL

[RyanScfc1]

I don't know if you mentioned this already, but did you run WOW in OpenGL?

I am not a WOW player, but I am assuming it is possible.

If so, then I completely respect this test. If not, I would understand where a little of the difference is from.

[cwwilson721]

@RyanScfc1 Linux/wine is OpenGL, Windows7 is Direct3D. OpenGL in Windows is slower, so gave the best shot I could with both OSes. The only difference is D3D/OpenGL, all other settings exactly the same, all hardware exactly the same.

[jrz0n3]

this is cool aw nice to see wine come on lol it's been ages since i tried using that program back when the first half life 2 was realised tried to run it using it failed terrible, i recon i might do this again to run wow on did you have no problems setting up wine?

[cwwilson721]

@jrz0n3 None at all. Using Ubuntu 11.10 now, just 'sudo apt-get wine1.3' and you're done with that part. Compiling can get a bit frustrating tho. I do compile it sometimes. THAT, however, is not for here. Trying to keep it 'simple'

[McKay1911]

I do like you did this vid although i wish you ran the game at the same settings in wine. this appear's to be windows at high graphic settings and wine on low settings. i will be trying this out any way so i will know 100% what is better.

I will be doing this on a

2600k overclocked to 4.8ghz but i hope i receive a good one then i could push 5.5ghz

Asus gtx580 SLI

16G of 2133 running at 1600 as to drop the latency.

I hope all my parts arrive soon and all free from defects.

[cwwilson721]

@McKay1911 How many times do I HAVE TO REPEAT MYSELF!?!?!?!?!

ALL SETTINGS ARE EXACTLY THE SAME!

[Densterbert]

@Ubuntu4yourpc WINE dtands for : Wine Is Not an Emulator. And GNU/Linux needs less memory than Windows.

[TheGertwor]

I certainly recommend everyone who just talks without knowing to read this link first!

Wine is not an emulation and in some cases it may get better results than windows. For network kind-a-things linux will most certainly wins.

google wine myths debunking and go for winehq wiki!

[Ubuntu4yourpc]

Man i love linux but come on !

it can't be true ! wine is something like emulation so that means that will always have less performance.

This isn't possible but anyway you're welcome.

[techfighterminal]

@Ubuntu4yourpc well its not an emulation exactly. rather than pretending to be windows, it just basically makes windows library's readable in linux.

as for speed, its not native and wont run as well as it would in windows. some games might run perfect. but others won't. eventually you will run into issues. especially with games that run heavy with windows only things like directX.

portal runs great in wine.

dragon age origins - i don't even think its runnable at all.

[dillonw2]

@longguilol15 your a fail

[Ubuntu4yourpc]

Man i'm a linux fan but is this possible ??

I can't believe it dude ! its crazy ! Wine is something like emulation ok? what it runs faster ?

dont know !

Answer please

[mightiemousie]

I love the way WoW runs in Linux and have always seen better frame rates than when in Windows. Too bad Blizzard shows no interest in finishing implimentation for OpenGL.

[longguilol15]

@cwwilson721 This is obviously a flawed and hoax video. Phoronix . com has tons of benchmarks of OpenGL gaming on Lunix and Windows; Windows always comes on top due to the better video drivers.

You are a fraud and a huge troll.

[RyanScfc1]

@cwwilson721 Still an interesting feat.

I am a massive Ubuntu lover, but am unfortunate to say that I have been swayed back to Win7 for Steam and its games. I have used Ubuntu for over 5 years, but have recently built a custom gaming PC.

Perhaps the day that Steam port over to Linux, I will follow back. But I guess I have to do with Dual-Booting, and having it installed on my laptop. I am still following the Linux scene closely.