Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds
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I run Windows 10 on my own laptop and Windows 11 on my work laptop. Sluggish is the right word for W11: every action seems to take more clicks, more time and more effort. I suspect it’s partly because the animations are slower because it needs to load more bullshit.
Parts of the 11 start menu are actually a react native app.
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Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds
Lenovo Legion Go S gets better frame rates running Valve’s free operating system.
Ars Technica (arstechnica.com)
Not in niche games. Rimworld and Stellaris (for instance) are dramatically faster on Windows, hence I keep a partition around. I’m talking 40%ish better simulation speeds vs Linux native (and still a hit with Proton, though much less).
Minecraft and Starsector, on the other hand, freaking love Linux. They’re dramatically faster.
These are kinda extreme scenarios, but the point is AAA benchmarks don’t necessarily apply to the spectrum of games across hardware, especially once you start looking at simulation heavy ones.
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This post did not contain any content.
Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds
Lenovo Legion Go S gets better frame rates running Valve’s free operating system.
Ars Technica (arstechnica.com)
A lighter weight OS designed for this specific use case is more efficient than a general purpose OS. This isn’t surprising.
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Nah, more like, Linux has better process scheduling, better CPU scheduling and better I/O scheduling.
Don’t forget the difference in legacy software support. The answer to legacy support on Linux when an update breaks something largely being, “just don’t update then, and maybe they’ll fix it”. Meanwhile Windows will run just about any 32-bit application designed for Windows all the way back to the 90s that you throw at it.
The Linux community at large swings wildly between being extremely welcoming and helpful with figuring out how to fix a problem you run into as a new user, or completely useless and actively hostile with a superiority complex only rivaled by rich narcissists.
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Not if you have a slightly older Nvidia GPU. I am seeing 10%-15% lower frame rates in many of the games I tested.
What is slightly older? I’m using a 3070 and my frame rates are the same or better in Linux.
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Not in niche games. Rimworld and Stellaris (for instance) are dramatically faster on Windows, hence I keep a partition around. I’m talking 40%ish better simulation speeds vs Linux native (and still a hit with Proton, though much less).
Minecraft and Starsector, on the other hand, freaking love Linux. They’re dramatically faster.
These are kinda extreme scenarios, but the point is AAA benchmarks don’t necessarily apply to the spectrum of games across hardware, especially once you start looking at simulation heavy ones.
Minecraft and Starsector, on the other hand, freaking love Linux. They’re dramatically faster.
Vanilla Minecraft, maybe, but vanilla Minecraft can run on two potatoes and a rusty spoon.
Running with shaders, there’s a noticeable performance hit on Linux - I drop 20-30 FPS in Mint with the latest Nvidia drivers. Going from ~80 FPS to ~50 is noticeable.
In vanilla Minecraft, going from 300 FPS to 350 FPS is kinda moot.
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Not if you have a slightly older Nvidia GPU. I am seeing 10%-15% lower frame rates in many of the games I tested.
That’s been my experience on a 3070 as well. Especially in games that are just meeting whatever Steam considers the most basic ‘playable’ level for Steam Deck certification. Those that score higher may have a slightly smaller performance gap.
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Minecraft and Starsector, on the other hand, freaking love Linux. They’re dramatically faster.
Vanilla Minecraft, maybe, but vanilla Minecraft can run on two potatoes and a rusty spoon.
Running with shaders, there’s a noticeable performance hit on Linux - I drop 20-30 FPS in Mint with the latest Nvidia drivers. Going from ~80 FPS to ~50 is noticeable.
In vanilla Minecraft, going from 300 FPS to 350 FPS is kinda moot.
I was testing heavily modded Minecraft, specifically Enigmatica, which chugs even on beefy PCs.
Out of curiosity, what mod are you running for shaders, specifically? That may have an effect.
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I have no doubt that “bare metal” games’ performance is better under Linux but what about things like cpu scheduling for multicore or directstorage?
The few games I’ve played that had a native linux version either were too light to make a difference (FTL) or actually ran worse (paradox games), which is a shame.
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This has been the case for a while now. Few care.
It’s the usability issues. For the love of God, valve might just fix Linux desktop.
I find neon pretty usable these days
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Not if you have a slightly older Nvidia GPU. I am seeing 10%-15% lower frame rates in many of the games I tested.
If you have an nvididia GPU you aren’t using SteamOS.
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Minecraft and Starsector, on the other hand, freaking love Linux. They’re dramatically faster.
Vanilla Minecraft, maybe, but vanilla Minecraft can run on two potatoes and a rusty spoon.
Running with shaders, there’s a noticeable performance hit on Linux - I drop 20-30 FPS in Mint with the latest Nvidia drivers. Going from ~80 FPS to ~50 is noticeable.
In vanilla Minecraft, going from 300 FPS to 350 FPS is kinda moot.
Maybe a bit of a nvidia on linux being kinda meh thing. On my AMD card, mods n shaders run terribly in Windows but the same mods n settings in Linux are perfectly smooth.
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Don’t forget the difference in legacy software support. The answer to legacy support on Linux when an update breaks something largely being, “just don’t update then, and maybe they’ll fix it”. Meanwhile Windows will run just about any 32-bit application designed for Windows all the way back to the 90s that you throw at it.
The Linux community at large swings wildly between being extremely welcoming and helpful with figuring out how to fix a problem you run into as a new user, or completely useless and actively hostile with a superiority complex only rivaled by rich narcissists.
Talk about whataboutism.
Backwards-compatibility was until Windows 8.1 a selling point. Now, old games run better in Wine on Linux than on Windows compatibility mode.
And on Linux, that’s what Appinage and Flatpack are for. Or in worst case a VM, but that’s for both sides.
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Half of Windows 11 is probably coded by Copilot at this point.
The other half is legacy parts unchanged since Windows XP.
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Parts of the 11 start menu are actually a react native app.
I found this interesting. When I had it, I was actually retroactively downgrading it to Windows 10’s start bar but removing all the little shortcut applications. I don’t like advertisements, and found it infuriating that they had thinly veiled ads everywhere.
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I run Windows 10 on my own laptop and Windows 11 on my work laptop. Sluggish is the right word for W11: every action seems to take more clicks, more time and more effort. I suspect it’s partly because the animations are slower because it needs to load more bullshit.
I really hate that they’re basically bullying people into upgrading. It’s such shit. I really do miss some of the applications I used to use. I am not a “power user” and while I can learn things on my own, I think a part of that requirement is to cultivate a want to do so. So while I miss some applications I used to use, I still don’t miss them enough to figure out how to properly emulate them in the Linux environment.
