Linux/SteamOS: a better Windows than Windows :D
this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
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What surprises me is that when windows is faster the difference isn't that significant but that when Linux is faster it's by a lot.
For example 59.1 vs 59.8 FPS in Borderlands isn't that significant of a difference but 52.4 vs 44.6 FPS in Cyberpunk certainly is.
Really makes you wonder just how badly Microsoft fucked up Windows for things to end up like this.
Half of Windows 11 is probably coded by Copilot at this point.
The other half is legacy parts unchanged since Windows XP.
FPS is not that meaningful of a metric if you get worse graphics or flitches due to wine not implementing something. It might be something that you can't see of course.
Is this an actual concern or a theoretical one? I think I heard that some nvidia specific features don't work out of the box in some games but never heard issues due to wine 'not implementing something'. I feel like that would just cause a crash, no?
Actual concern, had these subtle issues with wine games multiple times. Often they aren't game breaking just annoying.
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
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.
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.
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.
Linux has many performance benefits over Windows on the count of there being much less bloat and unnecessary garbage included but also SteamOS has the extra benefit of running games and apps independently in gaming mode with little to no background processes, kind of like how games run on a Console. Background apps and the Desktop do chew up resources which won't be used by the games.
Nah, more like, Linux has better process scheduling, better CPU scheduling and better I/O scheduling.
I'm sure the lack of constantly running ai spyware has a little to do with it.
That too.
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.
Yep, the Windows compositor is actually a pretty big resource hog all things considered. Plus it fucks with frame pacing
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.
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.
What is slightly older? I'm using a 3070 and my frame rates are the same or better in Linux.
A lighter weight OS designed for this specific use case is more efficient than a general purpose OS. This isn't surprising.