Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds

[LazyLion]

Nearly a decade ago, Ars testing found that Valve's "Steam Machines"-era version of SteamOS performed significantly worse than Windows when SteamOS's Linux game ports were tested on the same hardware as their Windows counterparts. Today, though, Ars testing on the Lenovo Legion Go S finds recent games generally run at higher frame rates on SteamOS 3.7 than on Windows 11. The performance advantage is yet another way that Valve's upstart OS is differentiating itself from the "default" Windows installation used by most PC gamers for decades now.

Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds

Lenovo Legion Go S gets better frame rates running Valve’s free operating system.

arstechnica.com

 

[longboy]

SteamOS uses the same Linux backbone that most recent Linux distros come with as standard.

Elden Ring and Wukong runs faster on Linux than on the same pc with Win 11.

No bloatware and dialling out to foreign IP's or logging and such in Linux. Mint Cinnamon edition is one of the best distros for Linux newbies - It's very similar to Win 11. Everything Windows can do Mint can do and most of the time better too.

Even if you need to run MS-Office in Linux - all it takes is 1 download of WINE for Linux and you can run any windows-only software on it.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

I cannot believe Microsoft has waited so long to bring its, now just announced, gaming-centric version of Windows 11.

I wonder what it will look like when it releases later in the year and if vendors will pick it over Steam OS.

 

[AlphaJohn]

I cannot believe Microsoft has waited so long to bring its, now just announced, gaming-centric version of Windows 11.

I wonder what it will look like when it releases later in the year and if vendors will pick it over Steam OS.

I just hope we don't see another Netbook slaughter event.

1st Lot of Eee PCs that dropped all ran Linux and Microsoft wanted join the fray. Windows where not capable of running on such low end systems that the Netbooks upped price/performance till they eventually matched Laptop, killing the entire market.

I can totally see them kill the handheld market as well.

 

[kolaval]

I don't think they care about PC gaming.
They can do a gaming optimized windows whenever they want with their resources.
They want you on Xbox and businesses on azure, that's where they make their money, subscriptions.

 

[Lupus]

I just hope we don't see another Netbook slaughter event.

1st Lot of Eee PCs that dropped all ran Linux and Microsoft wanted join the fray. Windows where not capable of running on such low end systems that the Netbooks upped price/performance till they eventually matched Laptop, killing the entire market.

I can totally see them kill the handheld market as well.

Well no, tablets killed netbooks

 

[AlphaJohn]

Well no, tablets killed netbooks

That helped yes, but Microsoft had a hand in as well, esp remember Windows 10 License forcing laptop Specs on OEMs.

Well, technically, it did not completely die either; the idea migrated to Chromebooks we have now.

 

[DarkStarMonday]

Not trying to hijack the thread but this is old news.

I’ve been using steam OS and bazzite for age’s now.

Windows 11 OS for handhelds will probably be similar to the armoury crate on Ally’s.

 

[Apollo[ZA]]

Installed Bazzite and not bad

Only benched RDR2 on Ultra settings, 1440p. High 141 fps, Low 100 fps on a i5-13600K + 6950 XT.

 

[Nerfherder]

Not trying to hijack the thread but this is old news.

I’ve been using steam OS and bazzite for age’s now.

Windows 11 OS for handhelds will probably be similar to the armoury crate on Ally’s.

Can anyone just get Steam OS ?

 

[Fulcrum29]

ArsTechnica didn't do a broad review. It is limited to the AMD Ryzen Z2 (Go) and its game selection. It is known that the Z2 Go does not behave well on Windows. Will this be remedied, dunno.

I do use Linux to game at times. I switch between Windows and Arch (CachyOS), and I have had good results with CachyOS. Most games I play are within margin. Though some might not see it as an issue, anti-cheats (that are DRM-inclusive) that are targeted at the kernel are, well, not good. Either it doesn't work, or it is limited. Now Linux is the go-to OS to cheat in multiplayer games, and even though Linux is very secure, cheat developers can hook into almost anything.

Anyhow. Linux is more than capable at playing games today. For those with Nvidia GPUs. Mesa3D is working on supporting more GPUs. RTX 50 support is a priority, and GeForce 600 and 700 support are in the pipeline. NVK+Zink is making good progress. Older GPUs that don't support Vulkan 1.3 might not support all games. Vulkan 1.3 is needed.

This said. For some reason, people say that Nvidia is not contributing to open source, but they have almost put the most into enabling their hardware on Vulkan, and open-sourcing legacy technologies. Strange, though, how sentiment works. It won't be long until we see more inclusive support within the Linux environment.

Time will tell how ray-tracing and path tracing support will go, though emulation is possible and already implemented; the overhead, IMHO is not acceptable. It is all good in single-player games, but the latencies will strangle multiplayer experiences. This is important, as we are moving toward neural networking. The DirectX team is ahead here, though there is, at this time, no adoption.

For Linux users, it's worth being on the latest stable kernel.

At this point in time, with a modern system, the gaming average is higher on Windows. Especially when you calculate in CPU-bound benchmarks.

 

[Apollo[ZA]]

Installed Bazzite and not bad

Only benched RDR2 on Ultra settings, 1440p. High 141 fps, Low 100 fps on a i5-13600K + 6950 XT.

Out of interest sake, exact same setup on Mint. High 136, Low 93. Also noticed a bit of micro stutter.

Wanted to try Nobara but had crashes and non responsive system update so that was enough to just bail on it.

 

[DarkStarMonday]

Can anyone just get Steam OS ?

Yes you can download the image and then install it.

I would recommend Ryzen AMD hardware as that’s what it was designed on.

Type Steam OS download in your search engine and it’ll take you to the download and FAQ and how to install.

Bazzite below

Bazzite - The operating system for the next generation of gamers

Bazzite makes gaming and everyday use smoother and simpler across desktop PCs, handhelds, tablets, and home theater PCs.

bazzite.gg

 

[DarkStarMonday]

 

[NarrowBandFtw]

Mint Cinnamon edition is one of the best distros for Linux newbies

bro's not lying, omg!

tried a number of distros over the years (suse, slackware, redhat, various Ubuntus) and gaming was always the problem, most recently tried the latest Ubuntu LTS with Proton etc installed and after hours of re-downloading Steam games and tinkering it just wasn't working well, went right back to Windows 10

last night:
- install Linux Mint
- install proprietary NVidia drivers
- install Steam flatpack
- mount NTFS drive that has the Steam library

ok so all Steam games crashed hard, which is not normal, had to tinker with permissions / the way the NTFS drive was mounted and viola! Games just work! That's a first for me despite many prior attempts.

I do believe this is it, no more switching back to Windows ever again, next step is to get rid of NTFS