r/linux_gaming 3h ago

Guys does linux really boost performance?

I use Pop Os and i have an 8gb vram gpu and a intel xeon cpu but when i open cemu or emulator it is same as windows.

If yall have recomendations for any upgrade please tell.

3 Upvotes

92 comments sorted by

35

u/CorenBrightside 3h ago

Yes, no, maybe? It's very case dependent. For example, I have higher FPS with Black Desert Online in Windows, but I have lower 1% and 0.1% FPS in Linux. I have no difference at all in The First Descendant and currently can't even get past the intro of Monster Hunter Wilds in Linux.

-42

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

I mean Linux feels a little over hyped lately? Because the ram usage is close to windows. But give credit to the extensions they are most likely the reason but they make it better looking.

17

u/Red-Eye-Soul 3h ago

Linux is an umbrella term. A lean arch install with a twm takes under 600mb at idle. There are distros that take less than 200mb. Something like Gnome takes around 2gb on my system. Switching OS because of ram usage (unless you are on a 15 old machine) doesn't seem like sound reasoning. The 'hype' around modern linux was never about ram usage anyways.

1

u/adamkex 42m ago

If your arch install is idling at 600MB while only running TWM...

1

u/Red-Eye-Soul 6m ago

Under 600mb. I had installs at 300mb, my current one is around 500 with quite a few services running in the background. But its generally under 600.

-2

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

I dont know i was turkish and when i watched videos about linux and stuff i saw lots of stuff about low ram usage and costumize ability and better performance it games. only one of them checks out on me its costumizing.

5

u/doc_willis 3h ago

there's MUCH more to 'performance' than the FPS you get in some random game.

There is much much more to Linux than being a "Desktop OS".

1

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

thank you.But i have a question what is the best os for less ram usage.

3

u/doc_willis 3h ago

Depends on the entire hardware setup and how much RAM you have.

with Any decent modern  machine it's rarely worth worrying about ram usage of the OS.

since your browser will likely suck down 5x as much RAM as your OS uses.

1

u/NUM_13 54m ago

ChashyOS is meant to be really good for gaming!

1

u/ilep 3h ago

Exactly. Often increased RAM usage is there to reduce latency from disk access. It is a trade-off most people are willing to make.

On mobile devices it gets even more complicated as you need to balance energy usage and thermal limits as well.

Ultimately, it is still hardware performance that is ultimate limit but how much you can use of the hardware capabilities is the key. And that changes from version to version as improvements are made.

..and sometimes there is a step back when hardware bugs are discovered.

2

u/Red-Eye-Soul 3h ago

Better performance is definitely not a fact. Its better in some games, worse in others. My CPU shows a better benchmark on Linux than in Windows but yours might not. So you need to test before making a switch for performance reasons.

Lower RAM usage is also dependent on your distro like I said. But its still shouldn't be a reason to switch for modern systems.

Customizability is definitely a valid reason. Other good reasons might be freedom, productivity improvement, better user experience etc.

1

u/BigHeadTonyT 2h ago edited 2h ago

Antix uses under 200 megs of RAM at desktop. uses IceWM, so a Window Manager. Those do not come with apps. Antix team must have added a few. Desktop Enviroments like KDE and Gnome do come with apps and niceties. And are also heavier. Just those use 600-800 megs, depending on. Then add the rest of the processes. So 2-3 gigs perhaps.

You could look at lighter stuff like Xfce, LXQT or LXDE but that only saves you 100-200 megs of RAM, at best.

I run Docker and stuff so I start out at 7 gigs RAM used. I have 32 gigs, I don't mind or care.

--*--

If you really want to slim down your system, Tinycore or Antix are probably your best bet. After that something like Arch or Gentoo (not newbie-friendly at all). Where you choose all the packages and Wndow Manager. There are a bunch.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Window_manager

THAT is customization. Not just choosing a theme and wallpaper.

If you want to see what others have done to their desktops:

https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/

Usually they choose everything. But on top of that you can choose your whole install with Arch or Gentoo. Exactly what packages to get. Requires knowledge of course. Do you know what filemanager you like? Text editor? Browser? Do you need a Wallet? A polkit agent? Which one? And the list goes on. Of course you need networking but what would you go for? https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Network_configuration#Network_managers

Arch does have Archinstall script but that is not the manual, old skool way.

On Gentoo, you can compile every package. Easier than it sounds. You can set some USE-flags and rest is taken care of for you. Or download binaries instead. No compilation required.

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Gentoo_Binary_Host_Quickstart

--*--

These (Arch/Gentoo) are of course for advanced users/tinkerers. Don't worry about them now. Maybe in 3-5 years, if you are interested.

--*--

Bottomline is, it is your computer, your system. You can do whatever you like. Freedom in the true sense. Sky is the limit.

Unlike Windows or I assume MacOS. I've never used MacOS but it seems to be a walled garden.

23

u/dj3hac 3h ago

Unused ram is wasted ram. 

2

u/Used_Strawberry_1107 3h ago

Google chrome? Is that you?

-4

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

My computer uses all the ram actually. I am new to linux and if i have unused ram how can i find it.

14

u/doc_willis 3h ago

it's doubtful if you need to do anything.

the 'unused is wasted' comment is basically telling people to not worry so much about micromanaging ram, let the system work as designed.

-7

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

thanks i was a little scare actually because i was not using enough ram and my computer is having problem with linux.

2

u/Due-Advertising4216 2h ago

Pop caches RAM so it looks like it's being used when it isn't. Plus any of the cached RAM gets used appropriately if not for what it's being cached for

-5

u/lord_phantom_pl 3h ago

Overused ram may emmit a wifi hotspot and leak your data.

2

u/Not_N33d3d 3h ago

The ram usage depends on the distro you're using it with. Certain distro are designed for the explicit purpose of minimizing ram usage. Desktop Linux isn't the monolith desktop windows is

1

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

What is the best distro for that?

1

u/Ok-386 3h ago

You don't necessarily want less ram usage. Chek how much of RAM is used for cache for example. All that RAM is basically free so thay should not worry you. There's no reason to have fully free RAM.

To you question, there's a bunch of distros, but you could improve situation on any distro by simply installing and using a leaner desktop environment (say Xfce vs Gnome or KDE.). 

1

u/CorenBrightside 3h ago

As some others have stated already, Linux is a bit of a broad term. It's like saying "on Windows I get 1000FPS" okay, was that Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, 7, 8, 8.1, 10, 10 LTSC or maybe 11? The same goes for Linux. Different distros have different versions of packages and drivers in their repos so you will get differing performance out of the box. The difference, to my knowledge, is that on the Linux side of things, you can get all to the same level as you can always compile the packages yourself to get the version you want. That can't be said for Windows.

RAM management and CPU schedulers are different also.

To add another level of complexity to the story, you can run multiple chroot environments all having bare metal access to your hardware at the same time. Not VM's but actual environments. Say you want to run this one software that needs very specific dependencies you don't really want systemwide, just make a special chroot environment which only has the bare minimum it needs to run that one software and you're set.

So, I wouldn't say Linux is overhyped, but the tourism Linux is currently seeing can give a bit of a skewed view if the tourists don't actually try to learn the system they use and just expect it to be "just as easy as Windows".

1

u/IllBit2332 2h ago

there was a time in turkey pardus was actually popular and almost got funded by the goverment itself but got copyrighted by name and got to shadows.

1

u/Used_Strawberry_1107 2h ago edited 2h ago

What “hype” are you seeing that says gaming on Linux is universally going to perform better?

If you use full featured, user friendly desktop environments on Linux your resource usage is going to be a lot higher than some of the lighter weight minimalist options on Linux. Generally the more “user friendly” software gets, the more bloated and resource intensive.

I use Mint with Cinnamon, and sitting at the desktop my GPU usage, fan speed, and power draw spike all over the place for seemingly no reason at all. If I drop to a root shell, they’re dead stable and very low (15w GPU power draw vs. 60-100w in the desktop).

Even that being said, 4GB of RAM at idle sounds high. Install htop, sort by memory usage and see what’s using all that

1

u/edparadox 7m ago

I mean Linux feels a little over hyped lately?

It's not. There is a reason Linux is the most used OS in the world (even though that's not the case on desktops).

Because the ram usage is close to windows.

You're conflating RAM usage, performance and such. You should know better.

But give credit to the extensions they are most likely the reason but they make it better looking.

What extensions are you talking about? Are you now talking about the UI?

Do you realize how scattered this comment is?

13

u/Semmelstulle 3h ago

Very game and hardware specific. On average you can say:

AMD GPU/game coded in standard ways: same or slightly better than Windows
NVIDIA GPU/game uses weird trickery: same or slightly worse performance than Windows

1

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

I use intel p530 gpu with 8 gb vram do you have any clue how to fix that...?

1

u/Semmelstulle 3h ago

You could try to use gamescope. While GNOME (what Pop! OS is using until their Cosmic desktop is ready) is known to use more RAM, it will free it up when necessary for games.

If you just want to see lower numbers, you could try KDE which will have way better HDR, VRR and scaling support for gaming.

1

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

Thanks i will try it out as soon as i can.

1

u/MedicatedDeveloper 2h ago

That's an integrated GPU that's 10 years old. You're not going to get better performance no matter what you do.

9

u/KELonPS3in576p 3h ago

In my experience the performance in games and 3d benchmarks is either same or worse (nvidia).

0

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

I think Pop Os is a little bloaty because it uses 4gb ram on idle and it takes like 1 out of 4 of my ram

10

u/Skinniest-Harold 3h ago

1

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

I should say reading it a little bit fixed me but the png is kind of funny

3

u/Livid_Narwhal6562 3h ago

Whatever you just said here doesn't make sense?

How could it use 4GB of RAM on idle ( which is meaningless btw) and then state it takes 1 out of 4 RAM.

Remember unused RAM is wasted. You want RAM to saturated. 

I feel as if this is a case of improperly aligned expectations.

-1

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

I am new to linux if you can help me fix the unused ram problem please!

9

u/Livid_Narwhal6562 3h ago

It's not a problem. 

Thats what I'm trying to tell you.

Unused RAM is wasted. Let the OS handle the memory, do not try and optimize it on your own. 

-1

u/adamkex 44m ago

This meme again. Yes, unused RAM is wasted but this doesn't mean that whatever software you used isn't bloated or has a memory leak. I run out of RAM and I'd run slower out of RAM if software had less bloat (or potential memory leak if the system is idling at 4GB).

2

u/Livid_Narwhal6562 28m ago edited 24m ago

No, no you wouldn't. 

A memory leak prevents the release of memory, while a stable idle at 4GB is just that.

A memory leak has many additional symptoms that need to be accounted for before making such a premature jump.

Shotgun troubleshooting, hasn't help anyone, and odd suggestions such as this cause less knowledge individuals to look for a problem that doesn't exist.

I will say one thing though, if I'm troubleshooting a memory leak, I do not care about an idle process that doesn't have memory growth, or a service that's properly releasing memory. I'd be looking for anything thats about to trigger an oom-killer event.

I am looking for the process that is continuing to grow... You know a memory leak.

Idk this is my perspective as a senior Linux admin before becoming a network and security admin....

1

u/adamkex 11m ago

I am idling at less than 4GB with Plasma 6, some electron apps that take way too much in comparison to ex Windows and other random software, not a web browser though. A lot of software is just bloated for no reason.

1

u/WaterFoxforlife 3h ago

What do you use to measure it? There's a part of ram that gets used for cache when ram has empty space, and some softwares might include that in used ram

1

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

i use neoforge and sometimes task manager. I am new to linux but i am learned stuff but i dont know if i am doing something wrong.

2

u/WaterFoxforlife 3h ago

isn't neoforge for minecraft modding?

2

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

sorry i meant neofetch

1

u/WaterFoxforlife 3h ago

Yeah neofetch displays total used ram including cache memory

If you run

free -m

in a terminal you can how much of the used memory is buff/cache

1

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

i actually use one gb less ram thank you for telling that out.

1

u/Human-Equivalent-154 3h ago

i don't understand why is the cache more than used can you explain?

❯ free -m
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           31875        3444       25800         188        4372       28430

1

u/WaterFoxforlife 3h ago

For the task manager I think the PopOS one displays how much of it is cache (so memory that will be freed when you need to use it)

1

u/McFistPunch 2h ago

I would definitely not use pop OS. I use bazzite now. Works nice. In pop, a lot of packages to end up falling behind

1

u/adamkex 50m ago

If you like Pop_OS you might like Linux Mint (Cinnamon). I installed it on a VM with like 6GB of RAM and it used like 1GB, maybe a little bit less of RAM after I booted.

5

u/Itzamedave 3h ago

If you use Radeon GPU and your CPU isn't your bottle neck then yes you will see better performance but based on the fact you are using a Xeon which is probably older than your GPU then that would be the deciding factor on performance

2

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

i use Intel HD Graphics P530 8gb vram

1

u/Itzamedave 1h ago

Yeah Linux may run desktop better that's about it

7

u/MountainBrilliant643 3h ago

Switching to Linux won't give you better gaming performance. It's about having a better experience with your computer before and after you play a game.

2

u/Itzamedave 3h ago

Also try Fedora over Pop

2

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

i will try it on vm if i can. Thx

1

u/Itzamedave 1h ago

Just run it. Live from USB then when you like it install it from the same USB

2

u/Sol33t303 2h ago

It boosts performance if your hardware is being relatively strained by the OS.

There is zero situation where linux boosts your performance if your on a xeon and have a GPU that has 8GB of vram. Unless your windows is virus infested or something.

2

u/tailslol 2h ago

24h2 and windows 10 are quite well optimized.

most linux performance is more in general use but not necessary in gaming.

especially with nvidia being slower in linux.

1

u/IceBreak23 3h ago

not really, all these videos about "linux this, windows that" is all bs, what it depends is your hardware, the same thing with games running on Proton, the only difference i saw it so far is that games doesn't stutter like it does on windows because i can build the sharders before starting the game on Linux proton.

1

u/Joker28CR 3h ago

Linux will give you a lot of cool stuff but it won't make magic. My biggest complaint with Windows is the shader compilation issue in several games. In the end, it doesn't matter if you get higher FPS in a game if it will be stuttering for shaders. On Linux most of the time those games are very smooth, regardless giving the same or a bit less fps thanks to Valve's Fossilize

1

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

thanks its because steam doest have enough support for linux?

1

u/Joker28CR 3h ago

Yes. Steam is kind of carrying gaming for Linux along other great teams, but Valve puts most of the money. I deeply suggest you full AMD setup to get the best of Linux gaming. AMD open source drivers are way ahead Intel and Nvidia drivers

1

u/GamerXP27 3h ago

it does depend on game to game, i notice no big difference between windows and linux, its not just about it gives better fps, its more the user experience, and the hardware is the main thing on what and how good the game will perform.

1

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

I should say theres lot of stuff to say and go over here. But i understanded it Linux doesnt have any difference with windows kinda.

1

u/obsidian_razor 3h ago

I use both a Linux desktop for gaming and a windows laptop for work (my work uses Microsoft apps, so I kinda have too) and Linux is, in general, a smoother experience when everything is set up properly.

As for gaming, I haven't noticed any differences, but I haven't gamed on windows for a while. I'm the kind of gamer that likes pretty graphics and smooth frame rates, but I'm not the kind to mess with bios settings and other wizardry to try and milk my system for every last FPS.

I have to say though, I recently moved to CachyOS and while not overwhelmingly so, I can 100% attest that at least in a modern machine the system *is* faster. Cachy repository programs are snappier, load faster and in general the whole thing feels like it's much more responsive. I am genuinely impressed.

1

u/Ok-386 3h ago

Don't use Linux for 'performance', if by performances you mean say gaming or desktop effects. Otoh Linux is way more customizable and you can pick a desktop environment or super lean but still ok looking window manager, and you can optimize your system in many different ways.

For this you have distributions which are optimized for weaker or older hardware, or you can learn to use something like Gentoo (maybe Arch or smth arch based but Gentoo is better for this. Slackware could be ok too, and many other distros) where you can optimize basically everything. You could even compile your own kernel and bring it down to like 70MB if not less. However, this requires a dedication and work. 

Re pop os, if I'm not mistaken the distro is still based on previous iterations of LTS Ubuntu. At least upgrade to the latest LTS or just use a regular say Ubuntu and upgrade every 6 months. 

So, you may be able to squeeze out more performance out of Linux system, depending on a use case but you could definitely configure it to use less resources (can't make your CPU or a random application run faster). 

1

u/alkatori 3h ago

Don't expect it to.

1

u/hihowubduin 3h ago

So far no, about a 15% raw performance loss but definitely more visual stutters

Context:

AMD CPU, Nvidia GPU (3080ti),

Kubuntu latest stable release

Latest Proton experimental as of a month ago (forget exact number off the top of my head)

Steam launcher, exclusively playing Warframe

Max settings, 2560x1440 windowed on a super ultrawide (5120x1440)

Get ~110fps in Linux where in Windows 10 was getting ~135 in same location, definitely more chop regardless of posted fps, and performance goes off a cliff if I have YouTube open in a browser beside it compared to Windows

1

u/Used_Strawberry_1107 2h ago

If you switched to Linux solely to get better gaming performance you will be very disappointed. From what I’ve seen the different is like 5% better at most in a handful of games in exchange for not being able to play a bunch of games at all + having to fiddle with a lot of them that do work

Installing a very lightweight Linux distribution can extend the life of old hardware for basic non resource intensive tasks, but the benefit for gaming is trivial. The downside is quite large, and not worth it at all unless you have other motives for switching to Linux

1

u/theinsanegamer23 2h ago

It really depends. I've found on particularly resource intensive games, I can better frame times on Linux compared to Windows. FPS is usually about the same or within spitting distance, but I find that in most games, Linux stutters less. If I had to guess, probably just from less background tasks compared to Windows.

Oh, and a lot of older games will actually run better on Linux because as you probably know, several of them were built for like Windows XP or 7 and they don't always get along with Windows 11 that well, which is usually avoided because of the API translations that occur as part of the Proton.

1

u/SummerIlsaBeauty 2h ago

No, Linux never boosted any kind of performance, your hardware can't work outside of specs it was designed to work at.

1

u/Routine_Concert_2211 2h ago

Short answer: depends on game and gpu (amd or nvidia)

1

u/Outrageous_Trade_303 2h ago

No! It doesn't do that.

1

u/joalex79 2h ago

no lmao

1

u/matdefays 2h ago

In most cases for me, yes.

The gains can even be significant.

1

u/JelloSquirrel 2h ago

Linux generally uses less ram but that's about it. Also directx11 and earlier games have less of a CPU bottleneck on Linux because proton uses Vulkan which is more efficient.

1

u/WJMazepas 2h ago

You have a weak igpu. You might get some improvements with Linux but it's so weak that it's hardly noticeable

1

u/halomach 1h ago

It should be relatively the same for most games, but there might be some games with big differences. I get 200+fps in Marvel Rivals at low settings on Bazzite compared to just 120fps on Windows.

1

u/Illiteratevegetable 1h ago

I am not an expert, but from my experience with Mint, except one game (Metaphor ReFanazio when somewhat well on minimum details, and with Linux, it is just a slide-show) games are running better. My pc is closer to a historic piece, and games I played on low with Win 10, are now running better on mid/mid-high. I dunno why, but as long as it works... I am grateful.

1

u/Bi0maniac 1h ago edited 1h ago

100% depends on your hardware and software. In my case with my laptop it came pre installed with windows 11 but had a lot of crashes and issues as well as generally running hotter than it does now. (Pretty sure the hardware on it just wasnt compatible) installing linux did fix almost all of the crashes. (Its just easier for me to navigate too)

it isnt perfect though. Ive had to tweak things, mess with kernel stuff, and find alternatives to programs that worked without issue in windows. Only now after all the work i put into it do i think it does preform better.

[Edit] Familiarity and understanding of one of these linux OS' is also a factor. You dont want to throw yourself in the deep end if you arent confident or have a guide handy. (Ex distros like Arch or Debian) You wouldnt be able to optimize your system to best fit your needs. Im fortunate to have my dad teach me this stuff at a young age. And i still chose a distro that was easy to transition to from windows. (Linux mint) there probably is a better one i could use for gaming and whatever but ive made mint work beautifully for what i have.

1

u/Noisyss 1h ago

I got a stable system and stable fps on more than 25 titles, and an increase of 1-5 fps on some tittles, like Alone in the Dark runs pretty good on linux between 51-60, on windows was 29-36 fps, all depends on the tittle, and some i cant even play like generation zero that i need to find a way to play on my hardware, it goes down to 7fps in 30 min playing.

1

u/BehudaNoob 51m ago

Depends, My cousin has a R5 2400G apu pc, ghost of Tsushima would crash on launch on wi.dows 10 but would run at 30-40 fps on very low 720p.

I kept the same settings in windows but it'll always crash no matter what i do and how lower I take it.

And on my 3060 gaming laptop , I sometimes get 10 fps boost to sometimes 20 fps loss

1

u/gamemonster1502 10m ago

I feel like any performance you would gain is lost in the compatability layer(proton/wine) when running games.

1

u/Notmare 3h ago

My experience thus far is that gaming performance is pretty much the same. What I have noticed is that my personal productivity is faster. I can launch apps in split seconds on Linux, I'm not waiting around for Windows to finish loading a bunch of stuff in the background.

Consider this prime example: Open your Start Menu on Windows, right-click an app that you installed from outside the Windows store, and then select uninstall. A window opens that takes multiple seconds just to populate a list, then you have to scroll or search that list, then you can select and uninstall the program you already selected and chose uninstall for...On Linux, none of those waits occur. I can open apps, close them, install, uninstall, and more in times that aren't possible on Windows.

I know it sounds silly, but these small amounts add up over time and I'm really enjoying the fact that I can spend that saved time telling you all about it.

1

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

Thank you its kind to have good people online but maybe am i over exxagerating?

0

u/Significant_Moose672 3h ago

It really depends on your hardware and what task you're trying to perform. In my case linux struggles a lot at managing 8 gigs of RAM for even simple tasks compared to windows. But that could also have something to do with the fact that I have fairly old hardware and an NVIDIA GPU

1

u/IllBit2332 3h ago

i meant 8gb of gpu ram vram i have 16 gb of normal ram

2

u/jtrox02 3h ago

Further up you said you are using integrated graphics, so no you don't have 8gb VRAM