this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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Linux Gaming

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Interesting video showing almost no difference in performance between gaming distros and Windows 11 LTSC. What is your opinion on this?

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

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).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 hours ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 hours ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 13 hours ago

That will happen when they launch Fremont (Steam console).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

It confirms virtually all previous testing.