if you do 2 simple changes (for Nvidia users at least) you will get a 50% frame rate boost in **all 3d games**
Anyone running Unity, KDE, etc with Nvidia that hasn't tried this do so now and you **will** get a huge boost in FPS in all fullscreen openGL games.
For me I get a 50% increase in FPS in all games / openGL apps in Ubuntu with Nvidia by doing the following:-
1. Enable the binary Nvidia driver
2. enable 'unredirect fullscreen windows' in CCSM
- Navigate to ccsm -> Composite - Enable unredirect fullscreen windows
- If using KDE (far far far better desktop) then the option is it desktop effects -> advanced -> disable desktop effects on fullscreen apps.
3. disable 'sync to vblank' (openGL settings) with nvidia-settings
(this is really important or all games appear laggy)
Thats improve all openGL performance - I am talking about multiple different computers with different nvidia cards..
Ubuntu/kubuntu 12.10 is **faster** and snappier after doing this than any other release