Windows vs. Linux gaming: Test reveals clear winner, but community disagrees

[The Yar]

If I have to choose a specific distro for gaming then it's not a viable solution, especially since more often than not some tweaks are required from my experience.

Ah, yes, because Windows is famous for not needing tweaks to be an enjoyable experience.

That is correct.

[MickeyW]

Fine, use a tweaked-out version of Linux for the benchmark. To be fair, you then have to use a similarly-tweaked version of Windows for comparison,though - so all the gains folks are imagining will be erased.

Since, similarly-tweaked version of Windows does not exist, Linux wins. Appropriate comparison was like picking the car model of the same line but with lowest powered engine (Linux) and on the other side comparing it with highest powered engine (Windows). You just need to pick comparable model, not tune the engine (though you can do that as well).

[CajunMoses]

It's very hard for a single distribution to represent "Linux." Better to perform a gaming test with an aggregate of distros that represent at the least top 80% of the distros most frequently used for gaming. Average each test result weighted by frequency of use to get representative "Linux" results.

[hwertz]

I'm not going to excuse away their results.  The big boost people see on Linux is often with DX9/10/11 games, DX12 there's less 'cruft' to cut through and get nice speedups, so these results don't surprise me too much soince these are all modern dx12 games.

[Via]

first of, they didnt use CatchyOS.
second, they used fresh windows install - keep it for a month or two it will be so full of s*** that it will slow anything down.

linux porforms 10% or more better.

[Baldrick]

Oh no, a game ran at a mere 140fps on Linux instead of 149fps on Windows. The horror!

Seriously?

Whilst glossing over the horrific privacy issues and appalling vibe-coded monthly security patches that take an hour to apply, require multiple reboots, and that have a 50-50 chance of breaking something important.

Not to mention the rampant viruses and malware.

The peace of mind of a private, secure Operating System, and chill patching is well worth the lost 9fps IMHO.

[TheNTSyncPrimitive]

Reading through the comments I can confirm not concur on THIS:

Windows deteriorates badly after a fresh install... My Linux box? Nothing - just pure drift down the road - !

I have better performance in all Vulcan and GL based games... IDTech and Cyberpunk is outperforming Windows - easily!

So benchmarks on raw performance is debatable - because the Linux kernel is purpose built for different distros.

Ultimately, as someone stated - if I have to pay 9 frames? That's probably the biggest investment and value add possibly imaginable.... Because by the end of the day, the gamer doesn't care! The gamer like anyone else JUST LIKES THINGS THAT WORK — EVERY - SINGLE - DAY ;^)

[Ye]

I don't think a 5, 10 or 20% FPS advantage to Windows wouldn't get a Linux user to switch to Windows. I wouldn't switch if games ran 50% better on Windows with the same hardware.

Correct, me neither. Fortunately, it's not 50%, but more like low single to double digits %, but games that require anti-cheat and, as such, don't work on Linux is the biggest issue.

Windows 11 came out on top in every game tested. In Cyberpunk 2077, it achieved 149 FPS at 1440p compared with 140 FPS on Linux. In Arc Raiders, Windows reached 145 FPS versus 133 FPS, with an even larger gap in the 1% lows: 131 FPS compared with 94 FPS. Marvel Rivals also performed well on Linux at 110 FPS, although Windows still edged ahead with 116 FPS. Fortnite, meanwhile, would not launch at all because Easy Anti-Cheat does not support Linux. Valorant, Xbox Game Pass titles and several other games that rely on incompatible anti-cheat systems also remain unavailable on Linux.

This is a joke of a difference, except for the 131 vs 94 FPS 1% lows (would still not switch to Win, ofc).