Games performance unpredictable on Linux?

[Airborn]

Now, im going to start off saying im not using Ubuntu right now, but Linux mint 14. I did use Ubuntu though, and still had this problem, thinking switching to mint would fix it. It did not. I have an Asus laptop, with an Nvidia Geforce 630m. On windows it ran almost every game beautifully on the highest settings. I then installed Ubuntu because I heard that steam has a Linux version, and I wanted to try it out. I love Linux, its so much better then windows, but for some reason, on my computer games run much slower then they did on windows. Team fortress 2 now lags, even though on windows it would run flawlessly. Now I wouldn't be surprised, being Linux is new to gaming and all, but my brother, who had a slightly worse laptop then me, also installed Linux, and guess what. It ran better then it did on windows, TF2 ran flawlessly, counter strike source ran incredibly fast, at I would estimate to be, like, 90 fps. I just don't get it. Linux supercharged his computer, and left mine unable to do anything! I'm still running a clean install as of now, haven't done anything other then install chromium and updates, what can I do to hopefully fix this?

[CatKiller]

Is that an Optimus setup? Have you installed the proprietary drivers? Are you using Bumblebee?

[Airborn]

http://www.amazon.com/N53SM-ES72-15-.../ref=de_a_smtd

No I havent installed drivers, it crashes my laptop everytime I do, and I don't know what bumblebee is

[Perfect Storm]

Moved to Other OS/Distro Support.

[drawkcab]

You have optimus hybrid graphics which is an intel card paired with an nvidia card. In windows it switches between the two to conserve power. Even the most advanced proprietary drivers don't really work well with optimus. Bumblebee is a workaround, but not a very good one. Things are progressing though. I expect a functional driver in about a year maybe? In the meantime you might be better off running your games in Windows. Right now I have an HTPC with a 620m and I'm running windows until support improves.

In other news, tf2 doesn't run very well under the current nvidia drivers anyway. CS:S and HL2 are fine however. The key is to be patient because the driver is being developed!

[orb9220]

Yep just too much work I see being done with people spending much time and effort to get games running on Linux.
Much easier is having a minimal Windows 7 install and just dual boot for games.

I've seen way to many eventually get them working decently then next kernel upgrade break gaming again. And then again spending more time and effort to get games working again. A vicious cycle unless you buy a system specifically supported out of the box by Linux.
.