When benchmarks for the latest graphics cards are released, Linux rarely factors into the equation, especially in the more mainstream reviews such as those published by Maximum PC Magazine or on The Screen Savers. Fortunately AnandTech took a step toward resolving that for us with a benchmark comparison of ATI and nVidia GPUs (graphics processing units) on Linux (specifically SuSE 9.1).
Even better, rather than running simple X applications and recording the results, they used their own custom benchmarking utility. In keeping with the Open Source spirit of the system they’re testing on, they made the benchmark utility, FrameGetter, available under a BSD-style license. You can get the software here if you’d like to play with it on your own system.
The article lays out the configuration and testing in full detail, including the drivers, cards, and even X configuration files used. Heavy stuff you’ll probably dig if you’re a gearhead, otherwise there are plenty of charts for quick reference by the rest of us.
If you’d rather just skip to the end for the final thoughts, that page is here.