Windows graphics clearly superior to linux on same computer and hardware

Have dual boot computer with openSUSE leap 15.6 (with nvidia proprietary drivers) and windows 10. Summary of system on linux follows below.
It is obvious to me visually that the windows desktop graphics look sharper, and crisper then when running linux. On linux, gui images appear slightly fuzzier all the time.
I don’t think it is superior fonts. Linux windows do have a shadow around them. It is the composition of all types of images that seems superior. But, the hardware is the same.

I don’t know how to develop an image quality parameter to quantify the difference. I can’t run these side-by-side for direct comparison. But my impression is that there is a distinct difference.
I would have to attribute the difference to nvidia windows drivers vs linux drivers. Perhaps layout of windows is superior to mate desktop. These are pure speculation.

Anyone else with this same observation?

(base) tom@mydesktop: ~ $ fastfetch
                 .-++:.                     tom@mydesktop
               ./oooooo/-                   -------------
            `:oooooooooooo:.                OS: openSUSE Leap 15.6 x86_64
          -+oooooooooooooooo+-`             Host: ASUS MB
       ./oooooooooooooooooooooo/-           Kernel: 6.4.0-150600.23.33-default
      :oooooooooooooooooooooooooo:          Uptime: 5 days, 14 hours, 17 mins
    `  `-+oooooooooooooooooooo/-   `        Packages: 7443 (rpm), 5 (flatpak)
 `:oo/-   .:ooooooooooooooo+:`  `-+oo/.     Shell: bash 4.4.23
`/oooooo:.   -/oooooooooo/.   ./oooooo/.    Display (DELL U2419HX): 1920x1080 @ 60Hz
  `:+ooooo+-`  `:+oooo+-   `:oooooo+:`      DE: Mate 1.26.1
     .:oooooo/.   .::`   -+oooooo/.         WM: Marco (X11)
        -/oooooo:.    ./oooooo+-            WM Theme: TraditionalOk
          `:+ooooo+-:+oooooo:`              Theme: TraditionalOk [GTK2/3/4]
             ./oooooooooo/.                 Icons: mate [GTK2/3/4]
                -/oooo+:`                   Font: Sans (10pt) [GTK2/3/4]
                  `:/.                      Cursor: mate-black (24px)
                                            Terminal: konsole 23.8.5
                                            Terminal Font: JetBrains Mono (12pt)
                                            CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5820K (12) @ 3.6 GHz
                                            GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
                                            Memory: 5.17 GiB / 31.26 GiB (17%)
                                            Disk (/): 46.19 GiB / 97.44 GiB (47%) - ext4
                                            Disk (/home): 758.54 GiB / 2.54 TiB (29%) - ext4
                                            Disk (/run/media/tom/WD_Book_Linux): 510.62 GiB / 2.81 TiB (18%) - ext4 [External]
                                            Disk (/run/media/tom/WD_Book_Windows): 104.23 GiB / 800.00 GiB (13%) - fuseblk [External]
                                            Locale: en_US.UTF-8

                                            ████████████████████████
                                            ████████████████████████
(base) tom@mydesktop: ~ $ 

Yep, and no one out here is looking over your shoulder to provide an opinion :+1:

Our experience is the opposite - Linux is better, graphically. Of course, we don’t use NVIDIA, which might be a factor. Lot’s of key information missing. Probably Open Chat is a better place.

THAT is the key statement.

1 Like

@myswtest, you gave an important piece of information, i.e., you see linux as better with no nvidia involved.

I would like to hear what others might say.

I think a query on nvidia forum is worth a shot.

I think some kind of “image betterness” parameter is worth a search. Don’t believe screen photo would show difference and my photo talents and equipment are zero.

thanks, tom kosvic

1 Like

One man’s beauty is another’s hag. Fonts on Linux are highly configurable, and that configuration seems to change with every release. Fastfetch reports nothing about DPI, an important factor in interpreting other graphics specifications, and font rendering quality. For troubleshooting graphics issues, inxi -GSaz provides a superior dataset. If your 1920x1080 is 23" or 24" or more, try bumping up logical DPI to 108 or 120 from the usual 96 default. More pixels per glyph usually translates to higher apparent quality if the resulting sizes aren’t a bother. Sitting farther from the display can help with that. Sitting too close can offer too much of the wrong kind of detail.

i ran supplied command below. dpi is 92 as supplied by DELL. Don’t remember inputting that anywhere.
Where do I set the logical DPI? I have mate desktop and I don’t see any setting to set DPI i nvidia-settings gui. That sounds like a good thing to try.
Perhaps windows set logical DPI to a higher value. Will try to find windows equivalent.
I also posted this query on nvidia forum.

(base) tom@mydesktop: ~ $ inxi -GSaz 
System:
  Kernel: 6.4.0-150600.23.33-default arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 7.5.0 parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.4.0-150600.23.33-default
    root=UUID=be8570c4-cde5-4c16-afb7-4c71118bbed9 splash=silent
    resume=/dev/disk/by-uuid/732223f6-b4fa-4fa0-9d5a-78ced9984c72 quiet
    mitigations=auto
  Desktop: MATE v: 1.26.1 info: mate-panel wm: marco v: 1.26.2 vt: 2 dm:
    1: GDM v: 45.0.1 2: SDDM note: stopped Distro: openSUSE Leap 15.6
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti] vendor: eVga.com.
    driver: nvidia v: 550.135 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm non-free: 530.xx+
    status: current (as of 2023-05) arch: Pascal code: GP10x
    process: TSMC 16nm built: 2016-21 pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 16
    link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s ports: active: none off: HDMI-A-1
    empty: DP-1,DVI-D-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1c82 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Realtek RTL2838 DVB-T driver: N/A type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 3-2:2 chip-ID: 0bda:2838
    class-ID: 0000 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.1
    compositor: marco v: 1.26.2 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa alternate: nv
    gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 92 s-size: 530x301mm (20.87x11.85")
    s-diag: 610mm (24")
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-0 note: disabled model: Dell U2419HX
    serial: <filter> built: 2019 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 93 gamma: 1.2
    size: 527x296mm (20.75x11.65") diag: 604mm (23.8") ratio: 16:9 modes:
    max: 1920x1080 min: 640x480
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 550.135 renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
    Ti/PCIe/SSE2 direct-render: Yes
(base) tom@mydesktop: ~ $ 

mate-tweak tool should do the job…

no dpi setting in mate tweak. I have to keep looking.
I have gnome and kde installed and could log into one of them if the setting is made there and will get retained when I return to mate.

if dpi gets changed is a reboot needed? is a logout sufficient? or does the change get made in real time? Have some long time background calcs going and would prefer not to reboot now.

Dell gave you an arbitrary calculation of physical DPI. My DPI calculator produces 93.3 for 23.6" (522mm X 294mm) and 91.8 for 24.0" (531mm X 299mm). Inxi is showing you 93 for 527mm X 296mm. X forces a logical DPI that can be anywhere from spot-on to off by a factor of 3 or more. Traditionally, it has been 96 regardless of resolution or display size. Since the popularity of HiDPI displays, this has morphed into varies by environment, but still prefers a 96 default. I’m confident with your display that even though inxi shows (logical aka software) s-dpi: 92, you are experiencing logical 96 DPI from Mate. 15.6’s inxi was released many versions before the last known inxi DPI bugs were finally fixed. To get yours fixed, simply sudo inxi -U will get you current with upstream. Here on one of mine, you can see s-dpi: 120, the environment’s logical DPI, as opposed to physicals 94 on the smaller and 109 on the larger:


# inxi -GSaz --vs
inxi 3.3.37-00 (2025-01-06)
System:
  Kernel: 6.4.0-150600.23.30-default arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 7.5.0 clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz root=LABEL=tvgp26s156 noresume
    ipv6.disable=1 net.ifnames=0 mitigations=auto consoleblank=0
    radeon.cik_support=0 amdgpu.cik_support=1
  Desktop: TDE (Trinity) v: R14.1.3 tk: Qt v: 3.5.0 wm: Twin v: 3.0
    with: kicker vt: 7 dm: 1: TDM 2: XDM Distro: openSUSE Leap 15.6
Graphics:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Kaveri [Radeon R7 Graphics]
    vendor: Gigabyte driver: amdgpu v: kernel alternate: radeon arch: GCN-2
    code: Sea Islands process: GF/TSMC 16-28nm built: 2013-17 ports:
    active: DVI-D-1,HDMI-A-1 empty: VGA-1 bus-ID: 00:01.0 chip-ID: 1002:130f
    class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.11 compositor: Twin v: 3.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 2560x2640 s-dpi: 120 s-size: 540x557mm (21.26x21.93")
    s-diag: 776mm (30.54")
  Monitor-1: DVI-D-1 pos: top model: NEC EA243WM serial: 
    built: 2011 res: mode: 1920x1200 hz: 60 scale: 100% (1) dpi: 94 gamma: 1.2
    size: 519x324mm (20.43x12.76") diag: 612mm (24.1") ratio: 16:10 modes:
    max: 1920x1200 min: 640x480
  Monitor-2: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-1 pos: primary,bottom model: Acer K272HUL
    serial:  built: 2018 res: mode: 2560x1440 hz: 60 scale: 100% (1)
    dpi: 109 gamma: 1.2 size: 598x336mm (23.54x13.23") diag: 686mm (27")
    ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 2560x1440 min: 720x400
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: amd radeonsi platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi
    device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: radeonsi surfaceless: drv: radeonsi x11:
    drv: radeonsi inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 23.3.4 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon R7 Graphics (radeonsi kaveri LLVM
    17.0.6 DRM 3.57 6.4.0-150600.23.30-default) device-ID: 1002:130f
    memory: 1000 MiB unified: no
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.275 layers: 1 device: 0 type: integrated-gpu name: AMD
    Radeon R7 Graphics (RADV KAVERI) driver: N/A device-ID: 1002:130f
    surfaces: xcb,xlib device: 1 type: cpu name: llvmpipe (LLVM 17.0.6 256
    bits) driver: N/A device-ID: 10005:0000 surfaces: xcb,xlib
  Info: Tools: api: eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo x11: xdriinfo, xdpyinfo,
    xprop, xrandr
#

On mine, the logical DPI is a result of global application of xrandr on every X session start, rather than employing any GUI DE tool.

there is scaling factor entry in mate tweak but setting it to hdpi makes the entry window take over the entire screen. completetly unusable.

I think I should end this. Not a major issue. No way to get a coherent answer to a nebulous question.

thanks, tom kosvic

I did set dpi to 108 using xrandr. I’ll see if this looks any better. Maybe try some other values.
If there is any improvement I’ll implement change permanently.

I thought dpi was determined by the construction of the display and was maxed out by physical construction.

thanks for info, tom kosvic

HiDPI usually equates to a nominal 200% factor, which on a near normal display such as 24" 1920x1080, is grossly unsuitable. 200% nominal equates to 4X physical. 108 logical DPI OTOH equates to +12.5% nominal, which has the effect of ~26.6% more px per glyph.

Physical DPI != Logical DPI. Physical is just that, physical display “dots” or pixels, which may be rectangles much longer in one direction than another. Logical can be anything software dictates.

OpenSUSE uses font smoothing. You can disable it.

Not to belabor this thread but I find it unusual that “xrandr” does not display dpi value from the commandline but can be used to set dpi. Doesn’t seem like standard linux practice.

inxi -GSaz shows dpi.

What you say is true and has been so for decades.
The problem is that suse linux just does not work well with nvidia,
and never has to my knowledge. If it really matters to you,
you might try Ubuntu. Or would that be any better? I don’t know.
But you could try an Ubuntu live disk and see how it looks.
Also have you tried suse tumbleweed?

I’m glad to hear someone with same observation. I too think it is nvidia linux drivers vs nvidia windows drivers.

I have both ubuntu and tumbleweed in libvirt vms. I don’t see anything dramatically different but perhaps that is because the host is still running nvidia linux drivers.

I do think my graphics in a popos 20.04 vm do look crisper and sharper with more distinct colors than my leap. Still just subjective. Could just be their color scheme
makes things look better. Give that a look.

thanks, tom kosvic

@Rhyader I totally disagree with that statement, no issues here with Nvidia (using since 2005) works fine with openSUSE and GNOME (Leap and Tumbleweed), I use slight for fonts, all looks good for me… End of the day it’s all what’s in front of the user so can be very subjective and also color profiles for the monitors in use etc…

Yes, I agree that this is all very subjective. I might tinker with the fonts based on your suggestion. But, to me, it is the entire image not just the fonts.

I will vote to close this again. I did once before but it became alive again.

thanks, tom kosvic

@tckosvic Then you need to look at the monitors in use and look at calibrating or using monitor manufacturers icd files.

Wouldn’t the monitor settings be the same for windows and openSUSE? Perhaps I could find the graphics card/monitor settings windows is using and replicate those in linux.

I don’t know about monitor icd files. I use nvidia-settings graphics app. It is set specifically to my DELL 2419HX. Would that incorporate the recommended Dell icd file settings?

Also, I did have fonts set at slight in mate control panel when I just looked.

thanks , tom kosvic

I note that you are using Mate desktop. Maybe that is impacting here - is scaling employed for example? It would be interesting to compare other desktop environments for a visual comparison.