Unfortunately, Windows is the only option for some competitive games, but the better alternative for single player games without Ray Tracing. Let's hope that soon, things will improve on the Ray Tracing side
I'll probably be picking up a Radeon 9070 to replace my aging GTX 1070. Nvidia can keep that garbage 5070 12GB 👎. Radeon GPUs are more appealing to me now that I'm on Linux.
yep amd is the king for linux I was playing miles morales at 4k locked 60 fps and on windows 11 I was getting 50-57 fps and gpu usage was 95-100% but on arch linux I was getting 80% percent gpu usage at locked 60 fps so its like 20% better than windows I have 6800 xt btw
this is pretty amazing - non-RT performance is mostly better on Linux while RT is as good or slightly slower. Bear in mind - RT was enabled by default with MESA 23.2!
I think the issue is in Nvidia sponsored titles, I see that the performance drops there. I will need to investigate more though, so take what I said with a grain of salt.
Another banger! Thank you CG9. 🙏 Honestly the best Win vs Linux performance channel with high end hardware! I can't imagine how much time it takes for a single person, to install multiple Operating Systems, testing multiple games on them all and also with multiple settings! And the best part you have high end hardware for both Nvidia and AMD. Liked, as always!
I tested 4060 8 GB VRAM - gaming laptop Dream Machines with 14650HX - Even Cyberpunk 2077 with Pathtracing, DLSS 3.5 + FrameGen ( native not mod ) working very well ❤❤ That's the power of Open Source coders and Codewavers/Proton and all Linux devs community. Yeah. Impossible it's possible now thanks to hard work of many people. Big thanks to them❤ Thank you too for making that video. I shared it of course
@Genebriss with FG 75 FPS and DLSS Balanced. All is visible on my testing Fedora 41. Mangohud on. What you want from laptop with 4060, 8GB VRAM and 105W power GPU limit?
Not really, it's still bloated as windows, tried experimenting some tools for development (docker, docker-compose, local kubernetes) and of course games. so on laptops wth gtx graphic cards works slugish as windows (games >=2017). The problem it's in the kernel of all os, u can't handle every crap people want.
@@robertgosz4281 Yeah, the point seems to be the Linux Performance is not the Problem if the Linux GPU Driver is made Good. You just have to see the Open Source AMD Driver Tests as a Proof.Still that doesn't mean you cant play with Nvidia On Linux. but you tend to have worse Performance and more Bugs.
I can't be more glad that I stopped using Windows last year & switched to CachyOS. I've never been happy with an operating system until I switched to Linux. I also own the 7900 XTX right now & won't ever be going back to Nvidia. I'm aware of the RT performance situation with the gpu & it being worse on Linux, but with the Radeon 9070 around the corner we might start seeing big gains with RT optimizations on Linux.
I plan to buy the 9070 XT and see how it performa on Linux vs Windows. I just need it to be released and available in Spain. I hope that it's not toooo expensive as, for sure, shops will inflate the price as the demand will be high on the launch day.
thx for doing all these benchmarks. It's amazing how much linux gaming developed. I am curious about one thing. It seems that apparently there will be a benchmark tool for a CPU intensive game called Monster hunter wilds with the full game releasing end of february. If the benchmark tool releases i'd be happy to see a benchmark linux vs windows from you.
Also, do a stock Arch (zen kernel) vs CachyOS test on the same hardware. This will show if there are any reasons to switch to Cachy or stock Arch is enough.
@@Embereyi yep, there is 15% lower fps on arch-zen against cachyos-bore. For example The finals was 100 fps on 2k epic-low on arch with zen kernel, and about 130 fps on cachyos with bore kernel. The main cachyos kernel shows about 125fps. and more stuttering against bore.
@@supremetamer interesting, in this video he shows Garuda with the same Zen kernel, and for some reason it outperformed Cachyos kernel a bit how is that possible?
If you look closely, the FPS is about the same, but the screen smoothness of Garuda is very smooth, while the screen of other Cachyos win11 will be jerky.
This. I mention several times in my previous vidros, it's best to guide yourself by the frametime. The recording can behave like this sometimes, I don't know why, maybe it's because the external capture card gets warm...
Great, informative video. I have a 5800X3D and 7900XT. Marvel Rival runs considerably better on Linux than on my Windows system. My margin to Windows 10 was even higher with 20% more fps on 1440p. I use Arch with linux-zen kernel. Arch is now faster and easier to install with archinstall script than Calamares based installers last time I compared.
Yes, I heard. The reality is that these gaming distros makes it easier for newcomers by having package for gaming (installing runners, gamemode, proton-ge) or having everything set up for gaming from the start. On my mini pc, I have EndeavourOS which is rocksolid.
@@casuallygamin9 What to suggest to newcomers is such a difficult topic. I feel Bazzite is a better system for newcomers than Arch based rolling release distros, as it pushes update management into atomic operations by default making it easier to maintain for people with no or little knowledge of Linux. I don't like CachyOS and especially Garudo and Manjaro because they fragment the Arch ecosystem and advertise themselves as the better choice and actually being worse. EndeavourOS is a good choice as it is basically a pre-configured Arch system. At the same time pointless if you can get your KDE Arch Linux up and running faster with less confusion if you already have basic knowledge. Arch is very bad a marketing.
While I agree that Bazzite can be a good choice, I believe that people with new hardware may have some issues. For instance, when I had a look at Arc B580, arch based distros were the only option as, at that time, no other distro was on kernel 6.12. Now, imagine a newcomer having to deal with that. I think that SteamOS is going to be a great promoter for Linux and Arch, but only time will tell.
Thank you for such a great video. Are you planning to make one with Bazzite? In your experience, on which distro have you had the best performance with all AMD setup?
Yes, working on one with Bazzite as we speak. Just finished testing on Nobara 41 and now I'm moving to Bazzite. I think that I will have it ready in 4-5 days
Garuda Linux has been an incredible distro for me. I've used 10 or 15 versions of Linux and Garuda is by far the best. I'm not talking about the colour scheme. I'm talking about all the extras. Many commentors say stay away from non mainstream distros because they aren't stable. But Garuda is the most stable distro I've used.
@@casuallygamin9thx for answer. I use a 4090. After a while i setlle with Ghost Spectre Windows 11. But Garuda seems pretty well. Also Undervolting on NV is doable. So in Nvidia we loose against Windows right?
I did a video where I check CachyOS using the 4080 Super, and there was a performance deop when moving to Linux frim Windows. I won't lie, the reason why I still test on the 7900 XTX is that I thought that AMD will release first the 9000 fallowed by Nvidia. I will test for sure Garuda using the new 5000 series from Nvidia, I just have to buy one GPU as this is a small channel and all major brands are ignoring me. I have far to few views to receive review samples, so expect a video using NVIDIA hardware somewhere in February.
great comparison! but just keeping everything on stock settings would be more realistic test scenario for me, i don't want to spend much time on tweaking things. Just install and play. E.g. i would never turn off important windows defender settings in real life (since i don't use other antivirus).
Everything is stock in this test, or are you referring to the Windows settings? I use Avast as an antivirus. From the other changes that I mentioned, maybe Core Isolation is important as that can affect performance
@ yeah i refer to the windows settings. Since most of the windows defender settings are turned on by default at stock, i also still play on windows 11 and have core isolation on, since it is important. But no big deal after all, thank you for the video and response 👍
11 днів тому
Why do you think Garuda comes ahead? Is it because of the BORE kernel CachyOS uses? How do you think they'd both compare to pure Arch install.
Well, bith have optization kernel optimization applied. I would say to pcik whiever you like. As when it comes to Arch, both are Arch distros, built from Arch. You can compile everything and make Arch maybe a bit better, but I would not lose so much time. I suspect that if you are a person who likes to do everything, you would like to compile and apply every tweak outhere, I would go with Arch
I really don't know. I used the same settings, so I'm not sure why it is like this. I would advise looking at the frametime graph, as that is the one where you will see frame drops or spikes
Great video, I have a question though, do you happen to have or is able to test a Ryzen 7950X3D? I always wandered how the Linux scheduler behaves compared to Windows, specially on CachyOS. I currently run games on a machine very similar to yours, (7950X3D, RX 7900 XTX Nitro, 64GB), on Fedora 41.
Unfortunately I don't have another CPU, but as far as I know, Windows fares worse then Linux when there are multiple CCDs. This is why half a year ago Microsoft released a fix dor AMD CPUs.
@@casuallygamin9 Sure. For me it's less relevant though since I'm very happy with Linux in general and Fedora in particular. I've been using it sporadically since 2005 or so but now in 2025 it runs all my computers and laptops in the house.
I only play fighting games and recently switched to CachyOS from windows. I can not reacall a single combo drop due to stutter. While windows was a mess. Tekken 8 on windows gave me memory and fatal errors almost every time i boot it up.
I'm going to preface this by saying I've been a Linux user for years, and I ran Manjaro on my gaming PC to play competitive CSGO with very few issues. That being said, I've been playing CS2 in Windows 10 since it came out, and waiting to see how the Linux client matures before I make the switch back again. This is the first example I've seen of CS2 performance being higher on Linux vs. Windows... and to be honest, I'm very skeptical of these results. Every other benchmark comparison shows Linux underperforming significantly compared to Windows.
It's quite simple. Linux is better when your GPu is underutilized, to be more precise Arch. You will see in my next video that Fedora based distros are not that on the same level. CachyOS and Garuda have some kernel optimization applied as opposed to others. Arch by default is cutting edge, meaning that it sees first the optimization and then the other distros move to use the same kernel. I would recommend that you try CachyOS os. Bear in mind that if you are GPU bound those would perform more or less the same and it work with native as opposed to Nobara and Bazzite ( I couldn't make them run on native due to some issues with GOverlay)
I'm not sure to be honest as I didn't do anything special. Try the settings that I have used. Don't use exclusive Fullscreen. I don't know why there was such a big difference. I tested Windows several times, reinstalled the GPU drivers, tested with only drivers and the results ware more or less the same as with Minimal installation. By any chance, how many FPS are you getting in Windows
@@casuallygamin9 I will try your settings, i think the performance in game is better than windows but the training is messed up. In windows I the largest number I saw while standing still is 300-310 in cachyos at the same place its 270-288. R5 7600x RX 6800
Unfortunately it is almost impossible to compare game performance for competitive games. A lot of factors can play a role on FPD average. From what you say, you have good framerates on both OSs, ao you should stop worrying and just enjoy the game
Maybe a more fair comparison is a windows fully optimized for gaming (following performance guides, improving latency, etc) cachyOS will still win but the results shown don’t take this into consideration that for the normal person, if you are willing to switch to Linux for more FPS you are probably willing to optimize your windows following performance guides
I did optimize Windows, I didn't mention that I have a fixed Swap file as well. Are there more optimizations that you may know when compared to what I show in the video?
@@Titanium1337 I had a look at it. Good stuff. A few I'm doing like disabling services and other things that I don't use, but there are more that I was not aware of. It's wired that you are censored though
@@GamerEnLinux It is Proton. On DXVK github tracker there is an issue filed for Total War Troy perf diff too, which uses same engine with game tested here. DXVK can't deal well with whatever that engine does it seems.
Test more DX11 games - this is the best way to showcase the superiority of Linux gaming over Windows on AMD cards. On Windows, the DXNAVI DX11 driver handles DX11 games terribly, with constant stuttering. On Linux, however, thanks to DXVK, you get a significant improvement in both FPS and frametimes. To experience this, test the following games: Assassin's Creed Origins, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Stray, Just Cause 3, Far Cry 4, and Far Cry 5. For example, simply enter Alexandria in Assassin's Creed Origins on both Windows and Linux - the difference in performance will blow your mind, trust me. For DX12 games, you'll either see a slight FPS boost or no increase at all, aside from improved frametime stability. However, in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, the performance boost on Linux is remarkable for some reason.
I won't say that Linux is better than Windows as RT performance is dragging, for now. I can say that it is a good alternative to Windows, but keep in mind that some games may not work. If you olay only new single pkayer games, than I can argue that it may be a bit better than Windows on AMD hardware. AMD GPUs tend to be better in Linux than Nvidia ones.
@@casuallygamin9 was just curious how performance compares to windows. i actually use vanilla arch (by the way) and i got the 4090, my cpu is a bit lacking though (5900x), 100% of my games are playable cuz i dont play kernel anticheat slop. i also never use ray tracing and i hate huang for introducing it. i think ray tracing looks stupid and its only a gimmick to sell dlss (aka the another gimmick which i dont use as well)
Actually CachyOS is not purely focused to be a gaming distro. It is meant to give a snappy and responsive system to the user using anything. I have seen many people telling that cachyos gives them smoother desktop usage. On the other hand Garuda is primarily focused on arch and uses tweaks that help with gaming and may not be very suitable for normal usage.
9 out of 10 times AMD works better on Linux than windows, and it does that without daily Windows updates, blue screen of deaths, Recall spyware, Kernel level Anti-Cheat malware, etc etc. Good example is Marvel rivals, not only you get better performance, but you also don't need to install Kernel level malware on your PC
I have news for you in Linux the same anticheat engine runs in Linux as Windows. If it didn't you couldn't play the game only difference is it's in a wine bottle.
DO NOT use Garuda Linux it will break eventually and even if you do see "fps increase" it's due to a trade off. It's an awful mess of an OS, DO NOT touch it.
I had it for a few days and I didn't have issies with it. Sorry to hear that you had issues with it. I'm curious what was the issues that you encountered, as this may help others that are using it or may consider it
@@casuallygamin9 It's poorly made and maintained like Manjaro they screw up packages leading to breakage. God forbid you install something from the AUR you're really asking for it. Furthermore the clever ways in which Garuda break are so insidious btrfs snapshots with someone like Timeshift will NOT work.
@@SS-gu2tx Garuda maintainers have nothing to do with the AUR. That is the AUR that is packages that are put forth and maintained by whoever puts them out, anyone can submit a package to the AUR. I ran Garuda for over a year at one point without ever having an issue.
@@Andriej69 It's arch in general you run a bigger chance of an update being pushed and breaking. Rolling release you always have an increased chance of something going wrong and you'll have to fix it. It's why arch isn't usually suggested for newcomers to Linux. Arch you get the latest first but there is a risk it's a downside just like running something like Debian has a downside of having old packages.
I actually tested, and there was no difference. I used internal benchmarks tools to see the averages, and compare with the results when using MSI Afterburner. You may have issues on Nvidia GPUs when reading the GPU power
@ No nvidia here! Ive got the same rig as you. My 9800x3d performed better with afterburner removed and helped alot with the .1% dips, that and rolling back to 23H2. Cheers on the great video!
@@tommyboi4872 I was having issues with the latest updates. I was losing performance. The moment I install any updates in WIndows, it goes down the drain. I would recommend that you use the Windows patch for the AMD CPUs if you went back to 23h2, as at least on my rig, I had a performance increase between 2 to 10% in some games.
1% lows have always been all Over the place with windows, because it's so unstable. Linux is stable, therefore the lows are way more controlled. 99.99% of Servers around the world run on Linux, even Microsoft's own servers are on Linux, just because it's more reliable.
Nope windows is trash for .1% all that telemetry and bloated os. Native games for windows getting outpaced by linux. Now imagine when linux gets more native support as it’s getting more popular and steamos will pave the way for linux gaming.
Actually CachyOS is not purely focused to be a gaming distro. It is meant to give a snappy and responsive system to the user using anything. I have seen many people telling that cachyos gives them smoother desktop usage. On the other hand Garuda is primarily focused on arch and uses tweaks that help with gaming and may not be very suitable for normal usage.
To install games is as easy as in Windows, at least on Steam, you can set the compatibility mode to Proton Experimental and and never look back. For the other game launchers, you have to use a store launcher as those are not native( like Gog, epic store). As for app installtion, it's harder because you are used to Windows where you have to search on the web for apps, while in Linux you have a place where most of the apps are stored and can be installed from there. Linux is more like Android or IOS, think Play Store and Apple Store, where you can find all the apps while on Windows you most on different websites when looking for that given application. When it comes to updates, nowdays Linux and Windows are in the same league. Both can break because of an update, and both support a rollback functionality. What makes Linux a lot harder is that when something goes wrong, you can do a lot of things from the CLI, while most fixing on Windows are done through the GUI ( the majority don't know that PowerShell or CMD exist). With that said, not all apps work in Linux and like you said, some games that require anticheat are not supported. And to be honest, not all single player games may work under Linux. With that said, choose the OS that best suites your needs. Think of the Operating System as a tool to reach your goals.
Linux is making Windows look stupid now, and just in time for the slated EOL of Windows 10! So glad I moved over to Arch Linux back in 2023 now lol
Unfortunately, Windows is the only option for some competitive games, but the better alternative for single player games without Ray Tracing. Let's hope that soon, things will improve on the Ray Tracing side
I'll probably be picking up a Radeon 9070 to replace my aging GTX 1070. Nvidia can keep that garbage 5070 12GB 👎. Radeon GPUs are more appealing to me now that I'm on Linux.
Yes, AMD GPUs tend to perform better in games than Nvida GPUs
yep amd is the king for linux I was playing miles morales at 4k locked 60 fps and on windows 11 I was getting 50-57 fps and gpu usage was 95-100% but on arch linux I was getting 80% percent gpu usage at locked 60 fps so its like 20% better than windows I have 6800 xt btw
I think that if you have AMD hardware and play new single player games, Linux is the better choice
this is pretty amazing - non-RT performance is mostly better on Linux while RT is as good or slightly slower. Bear in mind - RT was enabled by default with MESA 23.2!
I think the issue is in Nvidia sponsored titles, I see that the performance drops there. I will need to investigate more though, so take what I said with a grain of salt.
Another banger! Thank you CG9. 🙏
Honestly the best Win vs Linux performance channel with high end hardware!
I can't imagine how much time it takes for a single person, to install multiple Operating Systems, testing multiple games on them all and also with multiple settings! And the best part you have high end hardware for both Nvidia and AMD.
Liked, as always!
It took a bit more than 30 hours from start till posting
@OraOraOra the worst is when they use the long term service (LTS) linux kernel so it doesn't even boot on the latest hardware
Amazing high quality content as always. Thank you. Looking forward to Nobara 41 vs Bazzite.
@@mrlukyxd I would like that one too....🙌
It's the next video :)
Linux is known to generally have better cpu scheduler compared to windows, in more cpu intensive games the difference will be more noticeable
This is true
I tested 4060 8 GB VRAM - gaming laptop Dream Machines with 14650HX - Even Cyberpunk 2077 with Pathtracing, DLSS 3.5 + FrameGen ( native not mod ) working very well ❤❤
That's the power of Open Source coders and Codewavers/Proton and all Linux devs community. Yeah. Impossible it's possible now thanks to hard work of many people. Big thanks to them❤ Thank you too for making that video. I shared it of course
"working very well" means 37 fps with upscaling, doesn't it?
@Genebriss with FG 75 FPS and DLSS Balanced. All is visible on my testing Fedora 41. Mangohud on. What you want from laptop with 4060, 8GB VRAM and 105W power GPU limit?
Not really, it's still bloated as windows, tried experimenting some tools for development (docker, docker-compose, local kubernetes) and of course games. so on laptops wth gtx graphic cards works slugish as windows (games >=2017). The problem it's in the kernel of all os, u can't handle every crap people want.
Insane video! Thanx so much for this! :)
keep them coming tnx
On Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (5:34), you can see that 0.1% lows avg on linux is higher to avg on windows :O
I was not believing it myself. I checked a few times on Windows, maybe I had the settings wrong, but that was not the case
@@casuallygamin9 I know. It happened already to me as well. It is just amazing how linux gaming evolved lately. Great content btw
Your benchmarks prove one thing. If you want to play on Linux you need an AMD card. For NVIDIA it is still a dream to be able to play smoothly.
I have a Nvidia card and it's not that bad, you lose around 20% performance compared to Windows. Nvidia will improve their drivers
No, it's not. I play Wukong with RT on Linux with Nvidia no problem.
Yeah, it runs without any issue
@@robertgosz4281 Yeah, the point seems to be the Linux Performance is not the Problem if the Linux GPU Driver is made Good. You just have to see the Open Source AMD Driver Tests as a Proof.Still that doesn't mean you cant play with Nvidia On Linux. but you tend to have worse Performance and more Bugs.
I can't be more glad that I stopped using Windows last year & switched to CachyOS. I've never been happy with an operating system until I switched to Linux.
I also own the 7900 XTX right now & won't ever be going back to Nvidia.
I'm aware of the RT performance situation with the gpu & it being worse on Linux, but with the Radeon 9070 around the corner we might start seeing big gains with RT optimizations on Linux.
I plan to buy the 9070 XT and see how it performa on Linux vs Windows. I just need it to be released and available in Spain. I hope that it's not toooo expensive as, for sure, shops will inflate the price as the demand will be high on the launch day.
It’s so good to see someone doing this kind of benchmarks. Linux is awesome for games nowadays.
There is still room to improve, Ray Tracing needs a bit more work
@@casuallygamin9Yeah, it's true.
Thank you. I will use Garuda Linux. It seems to be a very good distribution.
Give it a shot and see if you like it
Nice video! I wonder if the release of SteamOS will serve as incentive to other developers to port their games natively to Linux.
I truly think so. After some time a lot more companies will pay attention to Arch Linux, as SteamOS is based on it
thx for doing all these benchmarks. It's amazing how much linux gaming developed. I am curious about one thing. It seems that apparently there will be a benchmark tool for a CPU intensive game called Monster hunter wilds with the full game releasing end of february. If the benchmark tool releases i'd be happy to see a benchmark linux vs windows from you.
I'm planning to get that game. I will include it in these comparisons for sure
Also, do a stock Arch (zen kernel) vs CachyOS test on the same hardware. This will show if there are any reasons to switch to Cachy or stock Arch is enough.
Arch zen is 15-30% lower then cachyos-bore on my 7800x3d+7800xt
@supremetamer I have 7800x3d and 7900 xtx, what do you mean by 15-30% lower? In FPS?
@@Embereyi yep, there is 15% lower fps on arch-zen against cachyos-bore. For example The finals was 100 fps on 2k epic-low on arch with zen kernel, and about 130 fps on cachyos with bore kernel. The main cachyos kernel shows about 125fps. and more stuttering against bore.
@@supremetamer interesting, in this video he shows Garuda with the same Zen kernel, and for some reason it outperformed Cachyos kernel a bit
how is that possible?
@@Embereyi Garuda has its own patched kernel, it is not vanilla arch zen kernel, I think.
Amazing video, congratulations!
Amazing video thanks mate
Glad you liked it
These are pretty good results considering NTSYNC still isn't enabled for an even greater performance under Proton for games that need it.
It will be enabled in Kernel 6.14, but I may be wrong
oh hello again, another great video
BASED
If you look closely, the FPS is about the same, but the screen smoothness of Garuda is very smooth, while the screen of other Cachyos win11 will be jerky.
That's probably just a quirk with the screen recording the frame times look identical
This. I mention several times in my previous vidros, it's best to guide yourself by the frametime. The recording can behave like this sometimes, I don't know why, maybe it's because the external capture card gets warm...
Great, informative video.
I have a 5800X3D and 7900XT. Marvel Rival runs considerably better on Linux than on my Windows system. My margin to Windows 10 was even higher with 20% more fps on 1440p.
I use Arch with linux-zen kernel.
Arch is now faster and easier to install with archinstall script than Calamares based installers last time I compared.
Yes, I heard. The reality is that these gaming distros makes it easier for newcomers by having package for gaming (installing runners, gamemode, proton-ge) or having everything set up for gaming from the start. On my mini pc, I have EndeavourOS which is rocksolid.
@@casuallygamin9 What to suggest to newcomers is such a difficult topic.
I feel Bazzite is a better system for newcomers than Arch based rolling release distros, as it pushes update management into atomic operations by default making it easier to maintain for people with no or little knowledge of Linux.
I don't like CachyOS and especially Garudo and Manjaro because they fragment the Arch ecosystem and advertise themselves as the better choice and actually being worse.
EndeavourOS is a good choice as it is basically a pre-configured Arch system.
At the same time pointless if you can get your KDE Arch Linux up and running faster with less confusion if you already have basic knowledge.
Arch is very bad a marketing.
While I agree that Bazzite can be a good choice, I believe that people with new hardware may have some issues. For instance, when I had a look at Arc B580, arch based distros were the only option as, at that time, no other distro was on kernel 6.12. Now, imagine a newcomer having to deal with that.
I think that SteamOS is going to be a great promoter for Linux and Arch, but only time will tell.
@@casuallygamin9 True. More likely they might get the suggestion to use Mint or Ubuntu and suffer even more.
Now make Gaming Dİstros VS Windows
Bazzite, Nobara etc.
This will inspire many gamers too.
I'm working on this comparison right now
@@casuallygamin9 Great bro, well done.
Great video ! Could you make one also comparing with mesa-git ? thanks !
I will have a look at it in a future video for sure
Thank you for such a great video.
Are you planning to make one with Bazzite? In your experience, on which distro have you had the best performance with all AMD setup?
Yes, working on one with Bazzite as we speak. Just finished testing on Nobara 41 and now I'm moving to Bazzite. I think that I will have it ready in 4-5 days
Garuda Linux has been an incredible distro for me. I've used 10 or 15 versions of Linux and Garuda is by far the best. I'm not talking about the colour scheme. I'm talking about all the extras. Many commentors say stay away from non mainstream distros because they aren't stable. But Garuda is the most stable distro I've used.
Happy to hear you liked it
You used garuda gaming kde?
Yes
@@casuallygamin9 k ty
Try it with a nvidia card. Also does meanwhile RTX HDR work? I used a long time cachy, but Garuda impress me now
I did test with a 4080 Super. HRD is not working properly, at least when I tried
@@casuallygamin9thx for answer. I use a 4090. After a while i setlle with Ghost Spectre Windows 11. But Garuda seems pretty well. Also Undervolting on NV is doable. So in Nvidia we loose against Windows right?
Yes, when using a 4080 Super I lose around 20% performance to Windows
@@casuallygamin9even on Garuda? Cause you older vids arent on Garuda. Please try😊
I did a video where I check CachyOS using the 4080 Super, and there was a performance deop when moving to Linux frim Windows. I won't lie, the reason why I still test on the 7900 XTX is that I thought that AMD will release first the 9000 fallowed by Nvidia. I will test for sure Garuda using the new 5000 series from Nvidia, I just have to buy one GPU as this is a small channel and all major brands are ignoring me. I have far to few views to receive review samples, so expect a video using NVIDIA hardware somewhere in February.
great comparison! but just keeping everything on stock settings would be more realistic test scenario for me, i don't want to spend much time on tweaking things. Just install and play. E.g. i would never turn off important windows defender settings in real life (since i don't use other antivirus).
Everything is stock in this test, or are you referring to the Windows settings? I use Avast as an antivirus. From the other changes that I mentioned, maybe Core Isolation is important as that can affect performance
@ yeah i refer to the windows settings. Since most of the windows defender settings are turned on by default at stock, i also still play on windows 11 and have core isolation on, since it is important. But no big deal after all, thank you for the video and response 👍
Why do you think Garuda comes ahead? Is it because of the BORE kernel CachyOS uses? How do you think they'd both compare to pure Arch install.
Well, bith have optization kernel optimization applied. I would say to pcik whiever you like. As when it comes to Arch, both are Arch distros, built from Arch. You can compile everything and make Arch maybe a bit better, but I would not lose so much time. I suspect that if you are a person who likes to do everything, you would like to compile and apply every tweak outhere, I would go with Arch
The Recording of the Garuda Linux is Looking smooth a.f. and vboth other, windows and cachy are choppy kind of. I am curious why it is that way :-)
I really don't know. I used the same settings, so I'm not sure why it is like this. I would advise looking at the frametime graph, as that is the one where you will see frame drops or spikes
@casuallygamin9 so the chopping its just in videos after you stop recording not while gaming?
Yes, it's because of the recording
@@the-cuteaxe Yes, my advice is to look at the frmaetime for every game. That is the best way to determine if a game is stuttering
Great video, I have a question though, do you happen to have or is able to test a Ryzen 7950X3D?
I always wandered how the Linux scheduler behaves compared to Windows, specially on CachyOS.
I currently run games on a machine very similar to yours, (7950X3D, RX 7900 XTX Nitro, 64GB), on Fedora 41.
Unfortunately I don't have another CPU, but as far as I know, Windows fares worse then Linux when there are multiple CCDs. This is why half a year ago Microsoft released a fix dor AMD CPUs.
Let me know in the comments below your favorite distro...
Important: Some video were corrupted due to the AverMedia app
Fedora here.
@@redguard128 Next I will check fedora based gaming distros
@@casuallygamin9 Sure. For me it's less relevant though since I'm very happy with Linux in general and Fedora in particular. I've been using it sporadically since 2005 or so but now in 2025 it runs all my computers and laptops in the house.
I'd love to see a comparison that includes regular Fedora as well, not just gaming-focused distributions.
I use Arch btw
I will do that, first I want to see which one of the gaming distros perform better and after compare to regular Fedora
I only play fighting games and recently switched to CachyOS from windows. I can not reacall a single combo drop due to stutter. While windows was a mess. Tekken 8 on windows gave me memory and fatal errors almost every time i boot it up.
CachyOS is amazing. It is my go to distro for gaming, but I like EndeavorOS as well.
I'm going to preface this by saying I've been a Linux user for years, and I ran Manjaro on my gaming PC to play competitive CSGO with very few issues.
That being said, I've been playing CS2 in Windows 10 since it came out, and waiting to see how the Linux client matures before I make the switch back again.
This is the first example I've seen of CS2 performance being higher on Linux vs. Windows... and to be honest, I'm very skeptical of these results. Every other benchmark comparison shows Linux underperforming significantly compared to Windows.
It's quite simple. Linux is better when your GPu is underutilized, to be more precise Arch. You will see in my next video that Fedora based distros are not that on the same level. CachyOS and Garuda have some kernel optimization applied as opposed to others. Arch by default is cutting edge, meaning that it sees first the optimization and then the other distros move to use the same kernel.
I would recommend that you try CachyOS os. Bear in mind that if you are GPU bound those would perform more or less the same and it work with native as opposed to Nobara and Bazzite ( I couldn't make them run on native due to some issues with GOverlay)
My rx 7700xt struggle horribly with ray tracing on linux due to vram limitations. I think it's caused by dxvk extra vram usage
The reality is that Ray Tracing adds a bit more than 1GB of vram usage as opposed with it turned OFF
How did you get such high fps in the finals? I always get less than windows in training
I'm not sure to be honest as I didn't do anything special. Try the settings that I have used. Don't use exclusive Fullscreen. I don't know why there was such a big difference. I tested Windows several times, reinstalled the GPU drivers, tested with only drivers and the results ware more or less the same as with Minimal installation. By any chance, how many FPS are you getting in Windows
@@casuallygamin9 I will try your settings, i think the performance in game is better than windows but the training is messed up. In windows I the largest number I saw while standing still is 300-310 in cachyos at the same place its 270-288. R5 7600x RX 6800
Unfortunately it is almost impossible to compare game performance for competitive games. A lot of factors can play a role on FPD average. From what you say, you have good framerates on both OSs, ao you should stop worrying and just enjoy the game
@ Nah I want to squeeze every bit of FPS possible lol, a 20-30fps difference is something to worry about
Try my settings and see if you can get better results in Linux.
msi AB alternative on linux ? /vid to conf ?
No, that is GOverlay. Msi Afterburner is only for windows. Something similar on Linux is CoreCtrl which can help you overclock or fine tune your GPU.
@@casuallygamin9 ty
@@casuallygamin9 Also for GPU there is LACT which allows for overclocking and doing fan curves
@@bradmiles1984 I heard of it, but I never used it
So, It looks like my mind is made, the only issue are older games that cause issues even on Windows...
I would advise to use ProtonDB to see which of your games work on Linux, and after decide
Maybe a more fair comparison is a windows fully optimized for gaming (following performance guides, improving latency, etc) cachyOS will still win but the results shown don’t take this into consideration that for the normal person, if you are willing to switch to Linux for more FPS you are probably willing to optimize your windows following performance guides
I did optimize Windows, I didn't mention that I have a fixed Swap file as well. Are there more optimizations that you may know when compared to what I show in the video?
@@casuallygamin9Ghost Spectre Windows 11 and Chris Titus Tool on it. Its awesome gaming powwaaa
@@casuallygamin9 i think im getting censored by youtube, i sended u a email
@@Titanium1337 I had a look at it. Good stuff. A few I'm doing like disabling services and other things that I don't use, but there are more that I was not aware of. It's wired that you are censored though
I think Total War use a native version right? just i dont know if use Vulkan or OpenGL if is opengl that why is inferior.
I'm not sure to be honest, bit it is kinda strange. I would need to investigate later
@@GamerEnLinux It is Proton. On DXVK github tracker there is an issue filed for Total War Troy perf diff too, which uses same engine with game tested here.
DXVK can't deal well with whatever that engine does it seems.
It is not native
Test more DX11 games - this is the best way to showcase the superiority of Linux gaming over Windows on AMD cards. On Windows, the DXNAVI DX11 driver handles DX11 games terribly, with constant stuttering.
On Linux, however, thanks to DXVK, you get a significant improvement in both FPS and frametimes.
To experience this, test the following games: Assassin's Creed Origins, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Stray, Just Cause 3, Far Cry 4, and Far Cry 5. For example, simply enter Alexandria in Assassin's Creed Origins on both Windows and Linux - the difference in performance will blow your mind, trust me.
For DX12 games, you'll either see a slight FPS boost or no increase at all, aside from improved frametime stability. However, in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, the performance boost on Linux is remarkable for some reason.
I will include a couple in my next video
Both Linux distro's use 20 to 30% less RAM than Windows. Btw what is that PMEM on the side of Linux?
Process memory, it shouws how much memory does the game use, this is different from allocated.
insane difference in ratchet and clank, is radeon so much better on linux or linux is better for gaming?
I won't say that Linux is better than Windows as RT performance is dragging, for now. I can say that it is a good alternative to Windows, but keep in mind that some games may not work. If you olay only new single pkayer games, than I can argue that it may be a bit better than Windows on AMD hardware. AMD GPUs tend to be better in Linux than Nvidia ones.
@@casuallygamin9 was just curious how performance compares to windows. i actually use vanilla arch (by the way) and i got the 4090, my cpu is a bit lacking though (5900x), 100% of my games are playable cuz i dont play kernel anticheat slop. i also never use ray tracing and i hate huang for introducing it. i think ray tracing looks stupid and its only a gimmick to sell dlss (aka the another gimmick which i dont use as well)
Its suprising that Garuda Linux outperforms CachyOS!
Yeah I might try it, I tries it before but had problems
I was as well
Actually CachyOS is not purely focused to be a gaming distro. It is meant to give a snappy and responsive system to the user using anything. I have seen many people telling that cachyos gives them smoother desktop usage.
On the other hand Garuda is primarily focused on arch and uses tweaks that help with gaming and may not be very suitable for normal usage.
Please Test Archlinux with Zen-Kernel, CachyOS and Linux Mint 22.1 with Xan_Modkernel
I will take it into consideration, but I'm not sure if this is gonna be soon
So Garuda is the best Linux for gaming?
It is a good option, most distros perform more or less the same. Try it and if you like it, stick with Garuda, if not, check CachyOS
@@casuallygamin9 pode deixar, vou dar uma olhada, muito obrigado
Can u test it vs win11 iot ltsc?
I never used that version. Does it bring performance differences or tweaks?
estoy usando CachyOS, ojala hagas una comparativa CachyOS VS NObara VS Bazzite
En el siguiente video voy a comparar Nobra y Bazzite con Windows
Windows games running better on Linux than Windows is wild.
Linux trades blows with Windows in Linux
9 out of 10 times AMD works better on Linux than windows, and it does that without daily Windows updates, blue screen of deaths, Recall spyware, Kernel level Anti-Cheat malware, etc etc. Good example is Marvel rivals, not only you get better performance, but you also don't need to install Kernel level malware on your PC
Weren't people getting banned for playing Rivals on linux?
@@xviii5780 why would they? Devs implemented Linux support.
@@xviii5780 No they weren't.
I have news for you in Linux the same anticheat engine runs in Linux as Windows. If it didn't you couldn't play the game only difference is it's in a wine bottle.
@@bradmiles1984 yes, but it won't touch my Kernel. There is a massive difference between user lvl and kernel lvl.
Can you take video about endeavour setup
There is nothing special, install it, after Install setam and lutris, fallowed by gamemode. Make aure to run steam native.
@ thanks♥️
Now do a comparison using HDR.
Hdr doesn't work properly, as far as I know
@choose@Windows for gaming. @ Nice comparison btw. I’m curious if you used Windows 11 IoT LTSC or stripped down version how it would compare.
Огромное спасибо вам 😊 за проделанную работу!!
И отдельно за cs2❤❤❤
Garuda is smooth
I was pleasantly surprised
DO NOT use Garuda Linux it will break eventually and even if you do see "fps increase" it's due to a trade off. It's an awful mess of an OS, DO NOT touch it.
I had it for a few days and I didn't have issies with it. Sorry to hear that you had issues with it. I'm curious what was the issues that you encountered, as this may help others that are using it or may consider it
@@casuallygamin9 It's poorly made and maintained like Manjaro they screw up packages leading to breakage. God forbid you install something from the AUR you're really asking for it.
Furthermore the clever ways in which Garuda break are so insidious btrfs snapshots with someone like Timeshift will NOT work.
@@SS-gu2tx Garuda maintainers have nothing to do with the AUR. That is the AUR that is packages that are put forth and maintained by whoever puts them out, anyone can submit a package to the AUR. I ran Garuda for over a year at one point without ever having an issue.
I've heard exact thing several times from different people, not even specifically about AUR. I think CachyOS or Endeavour are a better choice
@@Andriej69 It's arch in general you run a bigger chance of an update being pushed and breaking. Rolling release you always have an increased chance of something going wrong and you'll have to fix it. It's why arch isn't usually suggested for newcomers to Linux. Arch you get the latest first but there is a risk it's a downside just like running something like Debian has a downside of having old packages.
Nobara ❤
Wonder which one is better and why?
Next, I will compare Nobara 41 with Bazzite
@casuallygamin9 Are you gonna do garuda vs nobora 41
Bazzite vs Nobara. I'm gonna see which Fedora distro does better
@@casuallygamin9 It would be amazing if you do that for each main distro, debian, fedora and arch!
well try again with more accurate
Thanks, I think 🤔
Pretty sure you lose performance with msi afterburner on AMD hardware, might be why your .1%’s are so much worse on windows!
I actually tested, and there was no difference. I used internal benchmarks tools to see the averages, and compare with the results when using MSI Afterburner. You may have issues on Nvidia GPUs when reading the GPU power
@ No nvidia here! Ive got the same rig as you. My 9800x3d performed better with afterburner removed and helped alot with the .1% dips, that and rolling back to 23H2. Cheers on the great video!
@@tommyboi4872 I was having issues with the latest updates. I was losing performance. The moment I install any updates in WIndows, it goes down the drain. I would recommend that you use the Windows patch for the AMD CPUs if you went back to 23h2, as at least on my rig, I had a performance increase between 2 to 10% in some games.
1% lows have always been all Over the place with windows, because it's so unstable. Linux is stable, therefore the lows are way more controlled. 99.99% of Servers around the world run on Linux, even Microsoft's own servers are on Linux, just because it's more reliable.
Nope windows is trash for .1% all that telemetry and bloated os. Native games for windows getting outpaced by linux. Now imagine when linux gets more native support as it’s getting more popular and steamos will pave the way for linux gaming.
OMG! CachyOS is getting curb stomped by Garuda now! What are they doing?!
Shocked too ngl
These are close to be honest
@@casuallygamin9 Most dirstros if optimized are within margin of error on AMD hardware.
@@bradmiles1984 I know as I showcased a few here. The performance difference seem to be minimal, at least in games
Actually CachyOS is not purely focused to be a gaming distro. It is meant to give a snappy and responsive system to the user using anything. I have seen many people telling that cachyos gives them smoother desktop usage.
On the other hand Garuda is primarily focused on arch and uses tweaks that help with gaming and may not be very suitable for normal usage.
Linux is still a pain in the .... to install games and apps... no thanks. And most games with anticheat not even working
To install games is as easy as in Windows, at least on Steam, you can set the compatibility mode to Proton Experimental and and never look back. For the other game launchers, you have to use a store launcher as those are not native( like Gog, epic store). As for app installtion, it's harder because you are used to Windows where you have to search on the web for apps, while in Linux you have a place where most of the apps are stored and can be installed from there. Linux is more like Android or IOS, think Play Store and Apple Store, where you can find all the apps while on Windows you most on different websites when looking for that given application. When it comes to updates, nowdays Linux and Windows are in the same league. Both can break because of an update, and both support a rollback functionality. What makes Linux a lot harder is that when something goes wrong, you can do a lot of things from the CLI, while most fixing on Windows are done through the GUI ( the majority don't know that PowerShell or CMD exist). With that said, not all apps work in Linux and like you said, some games that require anticheat are not supported. And to be honest, not all single player games may work under Linux. With that said, choose the OS that best suites your needs. Think of the Operating System as a tool to reach your goals.
Yes, Linux can give you more fps, but it means absolutely nothing and changes nothing
It is an alternative to Windows, so you have more choices