Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds

[-]

GrapeAdvocate3131@reddit

Funny how none of these "Linux faster than Windows for gaming" never enable RT, it's almost as if Linux completely shits its pants when you enable it.

[-]

Successful_Ad_8219@reddit

I see you're falling for the RT propaganda.

[-]

Explain to me how enabling RT would be a useful benchmark on systems running low resolution below 60fps? Not to mention, why it would be relevant to this specific test? This isn't a "linux RT test". It's just "games".

"lmao"

Just because I'm downvoted by the irrational hive mind, doesn't make me wrong, and doesn't exclude you from the fallacy you committed.

[-]

GrapeAdvocate3131@reddit

I already addressed this in another reply.

[-]

Xc4lib3r@reddit

And almost no one uses RT except for people with a high tier graphics card. Most people would leave that option off by default anyway.

[-]

Strazdas1@reddit

Almost everyone uses RT nowadays. In fact in many games there is no option not to use them.

[-]

Xc4lib3r@reddit

I'm not sure who's using RT, because most of the people I know they always turn that off as it sacrifice quite a lot of frames for them. Most of us are using 60 tier cards and even I and one of my friends use a higher 70 tier card we don't turn on RT at all unless the game forces me to.

[-]

Strazdas1@reddit

You must be living in a bubble then, because most people turn RT on or play games that RT is non-optional. Often even without knowing it. For example Kingdom Come 2 uses a ray tracing method that is under a different name and it does not tell you that it uses it. You cannot turn it off.

4060 is absolutely capable of doing RT as long as you arent trying to run native 4k. PT it would be having issues, but not many games have PT.

[-]

FlukyS@reddit

RT is fine on Linux for Nvidia, AMD's RT performance is crap on both even if you have a 7900xtx like me. Note that the Linux driver for Nvidia is literally a fork of the Windows driver just with a few changes specific to interfacing with Linux systems and a much worse UI for configuration. So the RT code itself on the lower end is LITERALLY the same thing running on Windows.

[-]

GrapeAdvocate3131@reddit

15% perf hit with raster vs 25% perf hit with RT Ultra.

There are two tiers above Ultra in this game, so i expect the perf hit to be even worse at max settings.

https://imgur.com/a/UaOfSWn

[-]

throwawayerectpenis@reddit

I think perf disparity is mainly in DX12 games for Nvidia on Linux. They are working to remedy that this year.

[-]

Floturcocantsee@reddit

Why would you enable RT on a handheld PC that's already running raster at 30-40FPS?

[-]

GrapeAdvocate3131@reddit

The article mentions PC gaming multiple times.

[-]

DidIGraduate@reddit

Hey that’s great but I need to use word and PowerPoint for work/school

[-]

Unusual_Pride_6480@reddit

Libre office seems good now, worth a try but definitely test it first

[-]

mapletune@reddit

until you need to load it on school's microsoft office and formatting gets moved randomly

[-]

Unusual_Pride_6480@reddit

I think that's a pretty outdated view by now to be honest

[-]

mapletune@reddit

interesting. i am old, to be fair.

which is more outdated btw? 1) needing to load a file at school to present it 2) schools using ms office 3) formatting inconsistent between different word/powerpoint versions

[-]

jammsession@reddit

Schools I know don’t use Desktop Office anymore. They just use an OneDrive share and edit in the browser.

[-]

Strazdas1@reddit

whose formatting is often so bad it fails even at .docx files made by desktop office.

[-]

jammsession@reddit

Well, that does not really matter if nobody is using Desktop, doesn’t it?

[-]

Strazdas1@reddit

It does if you need documents your client sends you to be correctly formatted and send them back to him correctly formatted. We often get documents that we are supposed return with our comments/opinion added.

[-]

jammsession@reddit

Well, I hope you never ever send docx to external people. For that you should use PDF.

[-]

Strazdas1@reddit

PDF is hard to edit. We need to add comments/corrections before sending the document back.

[-]

jammsession@reddit

PDF is hard to edit, but not to add comments. Probably even simpler to add comments than a docx.

[-]

Unusual_Pride_6480@reddit

Haha, that's an excellent point, not sure on the first one, the second however I think it is, I may be wrong but I switched to Linux about a year ago and it's been pretty smooth sailing other than cad software.

[-]

Jeep-Eep@reddit

Yeah, been using it since it was called OpenOffice; used to be a real problem, but not any more.

[-]

Strazdas1@reddit

libre office seems good until you want to do any excel and then you are scrambling to dualboot into windows because libre is absolute shitshow.

[-]

Vb_33@reddit

Lots of libreoffice shout outs here but not a single google docs recommendation. Nature is healing.

[-]

lutel@reddit

Office365 and browser

[-]

Logical-Database4510@reddit

Says no one who seriously uses those apps for work

[-]

WJMazepas@reddit

Word and PowerPoint runs fine on Office365. Hell, libreoffice also works really well.

Unless you are doing huge spreadsheets on Excel, you won't be losing much using alternatives

[-]

Strazdas1@reddit

You can tell someone hasnt used word or powerpoint seriously by thinking libre office is a viable alternative.

[-]

IAAA@reddit

They will pry an installed version of Outlook/WORD/PPT from my cold dead hands! "Oh, want to move this image in WORD365? Congrats, your whole document now looks like a Picasso! Also, CTRL Z only undoes the last minute change it made in a 100-change process that we hid from you for some reason. Keep going and hopefully you'll get there!"

I'm not saying on-disk WORD is that much better, but it's still better than that. Also the minute delays in Outlook 365 from click to data load remind me of working on old Pentium 1 systems. (Yes, I'm old. And yes, I stretched when I woke up.)

[-]

Strazdas1@reddit

You want to remove Excel? yeah, that be a day im looking for another job.

[-]

Successful_Ad_8219@reddit

Sounds like you need a proper document management system and version control systems.

[-]

aminorityofone@reddit

My work uses 365 (upgraded corpo version, but it is essentially the same), it has been handy when working on projects with multiple team members.

[-]

Ghostsonplanets@reddit

Office 365 is enough for basic usage. But once you start to dwelve into the more advanced functions, it falls apart.

Microsoft software suite is a good enough reason to stay on Windows. Especially for those who use it in work related functions or even in some college classes.

[-]

Plantemanden@reddit

Microsoft software suite is a good enough reason to stay on Windows

Only if you rely on 3rd party stuff that only interfaces with the MS ecosystem, otherwise get out as fast as possible.

Europe will be divesting from MS products due to the hostile stance of the current US government. As others here have pointed out, LibreOffice is a good starting point.

[-]

Ghostsonplanets@reddit

Still happens in a lot of companies, unfortunately.

[-]

ea_man@reddit

Use a VM

[-]

Prestigious_Sir_748@reddit

not sure why you're being downvoted. if there is a performance loss of any kind, it wont be noticeable.

[-]

ea_man@reddit

He can also straight save a state with PP running, zero load times. Then he can put something like AtlasOS on it or debloat everything from that.

[-]

throwawayerectpenis@reddit

Running VM is super easy on Linux, hell Boxes for Gnome is super easy to use even a child could do it.

[-]

throwawayerectpenis@reddit

Google Docs exists and is pretty decent, hell even MS has their office suite available via the browser. Of course it won't be as powerful as native Excel, but if Excel is the only thing holding you back then I guess you could run it via a virtual machine which is totally doable if you have a semi-modern machine.

[-]

Jeep-Eep@reddit

LibreOffice is actually much less irritating then the MS BS analogs.

[-]

aminorityofone@reddit

dual boot

[-]

WJMazepas@reddit

No one said you had to change it?

[-]

Beautiful_Ninja@reddit

I'm currently running SteamOS on my ROG Ally X to try it out, but the issue with SteamOS is that while many games will run faster than Win 11, you also have a bunch that will run at 0 FPS as they aren't compatible with Linux. Local install Game Pass games not working on Steam OS is a huge sore spot for me and I'm hoping the updated Game Mode that's launching later this year helps Windows catch up on performance and functionality.

I also continue to absolutely despise interacting with the Linux desktop anytime I want to install or tinker with anything that isn't directly through Steam.

[-]

Kryohi@reddit

What people never mention though is that there are also quite a few (mostly old) games that don't run on Windows anymore, but run perfectly through Proton on Linux, which is quite ironic.

I recently wanted to play an Indiana Jones game I played as a kid, and on Windows 11 it wouldn't start on any of the compatibility layers it offers. Searched online, many people complaining and no fix. With Proton, zero problems.

I also think you simply need more time with the Linux desktop. As someone who used both for many years, I find the modern Windows UI to be getting worse and worse, with KDE Plasma nowadays being an easy and better replacement. But you won't learn to use it well overnight, just as you wouldn't with windows coming from e.g. MacOS.

[-]

Vb_33@reddit

That's odd I've always been able to get old games running on windows but they often require tweaks (one recent one was dungeon keeper). That said I haven't done this on w11 only win XP, vista 7, 8 and 10.

[-]

TheOutrageousTaric@reddit

you prove his point further with the need for tweaks/patches on windows This isnt an issue for old games on proton, they usually all just work. Steam deck/steamos is a great experience in that regard. The older the game the less problems you will have running it.

[-]

Strazdas1@reddit

in my exprience its the opposite. On windows i usually can tweat or find a community patch to make it run. On linux it just flat out refuses to work for me. Most new games work fine, but old games (im talking pre 2010) are a minefield of work, work with some obscure fix or not working no matter what.

[-]

aminorityofone@reddit

Im just curious, what games dont run? I've had great success with changing the proton version being used to the very latest (not the experimental)

[-]

FlukyS@reddit

I can name a few:

Destiny2
Fortnite
All Riot games

Those aren't so much "not working on Linux" but instead the developers have chose to not support them on Linux.

If you are interested in game reports specifically there is ProtonDB https://www.protondb.com/

If you want to check you can sync your library to it and see what your personal result is but for me around 95% of my Steam library (around 500 games) is playable on Linux.

[-]

Logical-Database4510@reddit

Isn't this mostly due to DXVK not necessarily Windows itself?

[-]

Kryohi@reddit

Why would DXVK increase the performance though?

[-]

ranixon@reddit

People sometimes mixes dxvk and vkd3d.

DXVK is for DX8-11 to Vulkan, it generally improves performance because DX8-11 has its own problems, for example, it dependes a lot on the driver since they are a "high level" API, so if the driver is bad, or the game asumes that the drivers does X when it's doing Y. This makes a lot of bugs too. DXVK converts it to Vulkan, and since it's and open source implementation is easier to make per game optimization and since Vulkan is lower level DX drivers bugs will not affect you. Of course, Vulkan drivers can have bugs too, but since much of the control is in the developers and not in drivers, those bugs less problematic than DX. Of course, it always depends of the game too.

VKD3D is from DX12 to Vulkan, both are low level APIs, so there isn't too much extra to optimize.

[-]

Professional-Tear996@reddit

DXVK is almost always going to perform worse on NVIDIA GPUs given DXVK was usually recommended as a band-aid fix for underperforming games using legacy APIs on AMD GPUs.

Popular examples of such games are Witcher 2, GTA IV, Dark Souls 3, Sekiro, Witcher 3, Fallout 4 etc.

This is particularly true when you have low-end GPUs with limited VRAM as translating high-level API calls to Vulkan requires additional memory budget.

There are some exceptions to these - Unreal Engine 4 games that use DX11 give equal or sometimes better performance using DXVK.

[-]

Strazdas1@reddit

fun fact - DXVK decreases performance in GTA IV for Nvidia GPUs if you can believe it.

[-]

kwirky88@reddit

Shader compilation cause so many stutters that some games are unplayable. For shader heavy games that don’t precompile them.

[-]

ranixon@reddit

Yes, the DX8-11 driver implementation of Nvidia is really good. The DX11 implementation of Intel suck too (that's why they use DXVK too

[-]

FlukyS@reddit

Windows = Game code->DirectX->Driver->Display

Linux = Game code->Proton (DXVK/VK3d included)->Vulkan->Display

If Linux is better it is normally because it is an extra 25%+ better than Windows just to be above break even for the translation layer and Windowsisms that Linux has to implement for it to work. Proton can cut corners or implement things in a specific way to mitigate issues with specific things outside of the dev or graphics driver code but overall the wins are because Linux graphics drivers are pretty no nonsense and it doesn't have the overhead of Windows from a background process standpoint.

[-]

porcinechoirmaster@reddit

I recently moved my primary gaming system from W11 to a modestly customized version of Ubuntu (new bootloader, KDE instead of Gnome, ZFS root, pulsewire, etc.) after getting fed up with the stability and performance regressions in Windows after the October nVidia drivers and the 24H2 trainwreck. I figured if I was going to have to put up with instability and poor performance, I might as well take instability and poor performance on an OS that wasn't desperately trying to monetize everything I did and all of my personal data.

Overall, it's been a surprisingly good experience. I have to learn new things, and it's frustrating not being able to "just fix" everything because I'm starting from the skill level of a novice, but the vast majority of it works out of the box and I can count on one hand the number of things that haven't worked and that I haven't been able to fix with an hour or two of wrenching, at most.

My observations so far:

GPU bound titles tend to do slightly better under Windows.
CPU bound titles tend to do slightly better under Linux.
Load times are significantly better under Linux. ZFS with a large RAM pool runs laps around NTFS.
nVidia drivers are still shit, but they're different kinds of shit, at least.
Games with mandatory anti-cheat are pretty much a no-go under Linux.

[-]

Jeep-Eep@reddit

I'm going to be running a dualboot specifically for shit that either hates proton or has anticheat, plus hardware whose update utilities have no linux version.

[-]

Fixitwithducttape42@reddit

I've been running Pop OS Linux for over a year, my impression of Linux gaming is some games run better, some worse, most are about the same. A few issues on Steam where its not a simple use Proton and it works magically though those issues are rare

Overall Linux is viable if you use Steam for gaming. If you use anything else it can be viable witb some knowledge that may be needed.

[-]