[HN Gopher] Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars tes...
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Games run faster on SteamOS than Windows 11, Ars testing finds
Author : _JamesA_
Score : 124 points
Date : 2025-06-25 19:40 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
| PaulHoule wrote:
| Might be unfair to call Proton a "translation layer" because the
| Win32 API is not defined in terms of system calls but rather a
| set of functions exported from a DLL.
|
| Proton supplies a DLL that implements the Win32 API using Linux
| syscalls. Windows supplies a DLL that implements that Win32 API
| using Windows syscalls that you're not really supposed to use
| directly.
| homarp wrote:
| https://www.winehq.org/ calls it a compatibility layer that
| translates calls on the fly.
|
| so 'translation layer' is not that unfair.
| PaulHoule wrote:
| If it is forwarding to libc() as opposed to syscalls directly
| than maybe 'translation' is fair.
| delusional wrote:
| I think that's how it started out, and also how a lot of
| developers still conceptualize it. Wine has had to
| massively expand that scope to reach the maturity it has
| now. I think it's kind of straddling the line between
| "Implementation" and "translation".
|
| Philosophically its still a translation layer though. It
| doesn't really care about correctness if the no apps depend
| on it. Success is in meaningfully running client software.
| The implementation of the Windows Libraries are just a way
| to get there.
| Melatonic wrote:
| I suppose you could say that Wine has "aged" well :-)
| shmerl wrote:
| Wine is translating Windows ABIs (not APIs) into underlying
| Linux OS and userland. Translation simply means that normally
| Windows ABIs are meant to be used on Windows, they aren't
| native on Linux.
| randomNumber7 wrote:
| Does it implement sscanf() with accidental complexity of O(n^2)
| for compatibility?
| jimbob45 wrote:
| Borderlands 3? Homeworld 3? Who chose these games? Why not just
| use the current top 10 on Steam atm?
| dabber21 wrote:
| "To test the performance impact of this operating system
| choice, we started with the SteamOS version of the Legion Go S
| (provided by Lenovo) and tested five high-end 3D games released
| in the last five years using built-in benchmarking tools..."
|
| those games come with benchmark tools
| jimbob45 wrote:
| Borderlands 3 was 2019. Homeworld 3 has a 38% on Steam and
| sold poorly. I highly doubt it ever received patches or
| optimizations. Again, these feel unbelievably arbitrary, as
| if someone just wanted to push a narrative.
| jajuuka wrote:
| Seems more like a test of the hardware than Windows 11 and
| SteamOS since they ran into driver issues immediately. Not to
| mention those frame rates are terrible across the board. Just not
| very good hardware.
| vel0city wrote:
| It's the same hardware on each test. The only difference are
| the drivers and OS in question. Lenovo has been slow to
| officially ship updated GPU drivers for this device, but the
| exact same SoC is used on a number of handhelds.
|
| As for the performance, its a 15W handheld trying to play games
| that 600W PCs and 300W consoles struggled with just a few years
| ago.
| vel0city wrote:
| Some of these games are practically neck and neck for
| performance. I'm wondering if it's a similar situation to early
| Proton comparisons, where framerates were higher in Proton but
| when comparing still for still you could tell it just wasn't
| actually doing certain effects. Are there features that are being
| attempted in the Windows version that are just not functional and
| thus effectively disabled on the Proton one?
|
| But even then, assuming that is true, if they're pretty much the
| same would people care about maybe some fog looks a little
| different but you get an extra 15-20fps in a game? I think a lot
| of people would still prefer the boost in frames.
| brirec wrote:
| To my knowledge, this hasn't been the case for years, and I've
| never noticed any extra visual glitching on Linux.
| haswell wrote:
| In my purely anecdotal experience over the last few years,
| performance ranking is as follows:
|
| 1. Steam on Linux via Proton + Wayland (Niri)
|
| 2. Steam on Linux via Proton + X11 (Xfce)
|
| 3. Steam on Windows
|
| 4. Games on Linux launched via other means (it's possible I was
| missing out on certain flags/optimizations, but this is just
| about the average experience)
|
| The biggest thing I noticed when switching to Linux was an
| improvement in framerate _consistency_ , i.e. I'd have fewer
| situations where the framerate would drop momentarily. Games felt
| more solid and predictable.
|
| The biggest thing I noticed when switching from X11/Xfce to
| Wayland/Niri was just an overall increase in framerate. I'd
| failed this jump many times over the years, so it was notable
| when I jumped and stayed there earlier this year.
|
| It does feel like games take longer to _launch_ on average, but
| this makes sense given the fact that it 's launching via
| Proton/Wine.
| thewebguyd wrote:
| Interestingly enough, I've had games that had both a native
| Linux port and Windows version, and the Windows version through
| Proton ran better than the native Linux version. This ended up
| being true for Civ5, Civ6 and Cities Skylines (1).
|
| With those admittedly limited examples though, I don't
| experience the same ranking in performance, but I attribute
| that to my non-gaming hardware vs. any problem with Linux or
| Proton/Wine. I play on a laptop with an Nvidia 3050 laptop GPU,
| and I get much better performance in Windows still. In Cities
| Skylines, for example, I'll get ~20 fps on Linux via Proton
| (but I do experience what you said, it's consistent no major
| spikes or drops) while on Windows I get between 45-60fps up
| until about 15k population or so.
|
| Other games, despite working, remain unplayable to me due to
| performance. I can play Diablo 4 on windows no problem on
| medium settings, but even on low it's just too unresponsive on
| Linux.
|
| Anyway, just my anecdotal experience. Those with dedicated
| gaming rigs will be more than fine with Linux, but those of us
| on underpowered hardware still seem better off with Windows,
| unfortunately.
| nialv7 wrote:
| Linux port if there is one is usually done by a third party
| porting studio, which is not necessarily at the same quality
| as the original codebase. Also the devs just don't have the
| manpower/bandwidth to spare for Linux users given how small
| this community is.
|
| It's better value for money for both the gamers and the devs
| if the devs just choose to engage with valve and get their
| game running perfectly under proton.
| unaindz wrote:
| To be you should compare the windows version on windows, no
| proton against the Linux version. DXVK, which proton uses,
| makes some games run better in windows than "native".
| haswell wrote:
| > _Those with dedicated gaming rigs will be more than fine
| with Linux, but those of us on underpowered hardware still
| seem better off with Windows, unfortunately._
|
| That's interesting and good to know. I'm running an 10th gen
| i9 with an RTX 3090, so I have plenty of headroom performance
| wise. I've been wondering about Linux gaming on lower end
| hardware for my younger brother's sake, and hadn't assumed it
| would be worse.
|
| One thing to note: I've had all kinds of issues with power
| management impacting performance. If I let the computer
| sleep/standby, I'll get 50% slower framerate until I reboot.
|
| Given the fact that you're on a laptop, I wonder if power
| management has contributed to the slowness.
| Melatonic wrote:
| Windows 11 is also bloated as hell by default. Curuios how they
| compare to a very optimized and debloated windows 11?
|
| Anybody know if Steam and games in general refuse to install in
| Windows LTSC? Its basically the stripped down ultimate lean
| version of windows. Boots insanely fast - no tracking bullshit -
| no windows store or candy crush. Battery life hugely improved. No
| big updates - security only - and for a longer supported time.
|
| I know Adobe has forced their installers now to refuse to
| outright install on LTSC (for no real reason) which is annoying
| as hell. First they stopped it installing on Windows Server.....
|
| Hopefully we do not see the same thing with graphics drivers and
| Steam and games because right now its the ultimate gaming OS
| (especially if you are running it as a second OS while daily
| driving Linux or MacOS)
| sitkack wrote:
| Given that Windows games run faster via Proton on SteamOS,
| developers should prioritize targeting SteamOS APIs--not Windows.
| This ensures compatibility with Windows while maximizing
| performance. Game engines like Unity and Unreal must adopt
| SteamOS as the primary target, with CI systems rigorously testing
| both platforms. SteamOS, not Windows, should be the baseline for
| optimization.
|
| Does Valve run a SteamOS CI/CD farm? I could see a Rust based
| template and library for calling into this set of APIs that you
| could upload your well structured project and it would build and
| test for all platforms. Rust would just be the skeleton, your
| game logic could be in anything Rust could link to.
| chasil wrote:
| Are we surprised?
|
| https://blog.zorinaq.com/i-contribute-to-the-windows-kernel-...
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38936868
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