Linux Gaming Distro Benchmarks - CachyOS vs Nobara vs Bazzite vs Windows 11 | Phazer Tech
Interesting video showing almost no difference in performance between gaming distros and Windows 11 LTSC. What is your opinion on this?
I won't watch the video, but as someone who has been running Windows games on Linux since well before Steam for Linux existed, my view is that comparing performance on different distros is pointless these days.
Game performance depends very little on which Linux distro you use, because sufficiently recent versions of the performance-sensitive components are available on all of them, and because gaming runtime environments like Steam and Flatpak provide their own versions of several of these components anyway. (Also, desktop environments have generally become good about turning off expensive compositing operations while games are running.)
Pick whatever distro is comfortable for you to use and maintain. That might be bleeding edge Arch, or low maintenance Debian, or user friendly Mint, or whatever. They can all play games very well once they're set up for it, and the setup is almost never difficult if you're willing to learn how.
As for comparing Windows to Linux for running Windows games, I would expect performance to be close enough that the difference doesn't matter in most cases. Game-focused Wine builds and API shims like DXVK are already very capable, and continually improving. Windows might have advantages from being a game's native platform, but Linux has advantages from resource efficiency.
So, a review "showing almost no difference in performance between gaming distros and Windows 11 LTSC" doesn't surprise me at all.
My opinion: the gaming performance differences these days are mostly minor, and less important than having my computer serve me (not some invasive corporation).
Honestly, yeah. The real choice is rolling vs fixed release, and then your DE. I usually tell beginners to try Pop!_OS because it's easy to use and Ubuntu-based if they need tech support. Though something with a KDE spin would probably be better for a Windows refugee...
Thank you. Videos about comparing Linux distros for gaming are clickbait at best, but are ususally an admission that the videomaker doesn't know what they're talking about at all.
Videos showing that there is almost no difference between the gaming performance of distros is not entirely devoid of value, I'd argue, because it is a piece of information that might be useful to someone deciding between distros.
My opinion is Microsoft better watch the fuck out, because Linux is coming for their asses in gaming. If Linux can break even 10% of the gaming market, it's going to get crazy momentum behind it.
Hopefully once Linux gets a big enough market share, the devs that don't have Linux compatibility for their anti-cheat start adding it. That'll really expedite its growth in the personal computer market. I think a lot of people would at least attempt to switch to Linux if you told them it was free and would run Call of Duty better.
Linux really needs decent compatibility with Adobe products, evil as they are. Linux is catering to gamers now, the coders are already there, and it totally works for the people that just need a web browser, word processor, e-mail, and some communication programs. If it can do what artists need it to, using the industry standard programs, to what other group of PC users is there to appeal?
My primary PC gaming method these days is a steam deck. I seriously check compatibility before I buy games now lol. My desktop has been collecting dust for months, but even then it's primary OS is Linux. I used to boot into windows for a couple games specifically due to issues I experienced with wine but things are so much better now I don't even know the last time I booted windows.
Pretty much the same, although I boot my Linux desktop, Linux laptop, and Steam Deck. My whole house besides my wife's PC is all Linux now.
That will happen when they launch Fremont (Steam console).
It confirms virtually all previous testing.
If he wanted to compare the tweaks made by the distro, he should have used proton experimental for all distros, not just Bazzite. We already know there won't be much of a difference in performance but he's literally introducing another variable to compare which makes the comparison less clear on whether performance differences are due to the distro's kernel tweaks or due to different proton versions.