Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.

I managed to get an early look at what will be one of Linux's only semi-realistic racers, and the results of DiRT Showdown on Linux are rather interesting.Now, I've never actually played DiRT Showdown before, so my look at it will be with a completely fresh mind. I'm also throwing out the "wrappers are bad" argument, I'm just going to take the game for what it is right now.(Official)Race, crash and hoon your way through a world tour of motorised mayhem in DiRT Showdown! Crowd atmosphere, social gameplay and accessibility are all ramped up in this turbo- injected shot of driving delirium. Smash down the accelerator and earn the adulation of frenzied crowds at hyper-energised events at iconic locations. Trick, speed and smash your way to victory, then do it again.Note: Frame-drops in this recording by 1-4fps, and only because of the recorder. That's impressive itself, as all other games I've recorded drop by a whole lot more. This video has Vsync on.Well, what can I say? Performance wise they have absolutely nailed it. I was able to get very high framerates on Ultra graphical settings (proper test below), so this is the first port of theirs I haven't had big frame-drops on. I haven't noticed any input lag, my Logitech gamepad was picked up with zero configuration needed, and I've really been enjoying it!Using the in-built benchmark test gave me:Average: 103.45Minimum: 79.60Average: 105.58Minimum: 72.31Average: 133.03Minimum: 100.53Average: 130.76Minimum: 95.07Using the in-built benchmark test gave me:Average: 37.40Minimum: 31.13Average: 39.79Minimum: 33.46Average: 71.19Minimum: 58.98Average: 75.13Minimum: 61.34I'm not sure if this is because eON (Virtual Programmings "wrapper") has generally improved, or because the DiRT engine is less intensive and a better match for it, but it doesn't matter, it's bloody good.Although, if you look at Windows benchmarks, there's clearly still a gap between this on Linux and Windows. That doesn't stop it being playable on Linux though, even for a mid-range 560ti (not even the special 448 Cores edition, it's the standard 560ti) on High settings that's now multiple years old.You can find DiRT Showdown on Steam . The game will now officially release on Monday the 10th of August.I also spoke with Paul Lesurf from VP Ltd, and he confirmed they are now going to go back to older ports and look at any issues there. Good to see them do this!: I've now done a few more races, and sadly at random times the game will crash. It seems to just get stuck on certain screens without ever progressing. I've reported this to the developer with logs of the errors.The benchmarking has been re-done and the figures changed (560ti results later tonight too), a recent Nvidia driver update forced Vsync on, doh.