Is glxgears an accurate measure of 3D performance?
No, it sucks in multiple ways. But it is readily available on all computers and a significant number of people find it both interesting and better than nothing. And, despite all the complaints, you’ll generally find that faster 3D cards achieve higher glxgears frame rates. A Radeon X850 with the R300 driver really is faster at most 3D operations than an nVidia GeForce FX Go5200 with the nv driver. Because glxgears doesn’t take into account many types of 3D operations, you’ll find plenty of cases where a card with a fast glxgears frame rate doesn’t perform a specific 3D operation as fast as a card with a slower glxgears frame rate. So, if you have very specific 3D acceleration needs, you’d be crazy to base your purchase on glxgears results.
