Penumbra overture runs slow

[Urkle]

I think that running the game at a high resolution like 1280x1024 on a 9800pro is the cause. Try running at a lower resolution, or turn of/down some detail, for example dynamic shadows.

I can't really find too many comparable games for linux but the ones I tried (gish, tremulous, sauerbraten) all seem to run fine in whatever the highest resolution is they support (1280x1024 or 1600x1200).

Penumbra, uses a lot more of the fragment and vertex programs on the video card than those games do. Plus Penumbra also does alot of physics calculations as well.
Because of that and the dynamic lighting/shadows a high end video card is required to do a higher resolution.

The Radeon 9800 is on the low end of supported ATI cards and as such you are not going to be able to pull off a high framerate and high resolution. I've been able to run at 1024x768 with most effects on (didn't turn on the antialiasing and the motion blur) on my Nvidia 6600 GTS w/ an Athlon 2100+ without any issues.