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

arstechnica.com

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

#71

Post by spartanatreyu »

out-of-ideas wrote: post #43
spartanatreyu wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's little point benchmarking a debloated windows 11 since: 1. There is no standard debloated windows 11 to compare against since Microsoft adds more bloat each month. 2. Users aren't going to be running a debloated windows 11 anyway

and 3: its also windows 11 on the handheld - its not comparing a desktop (edit- or many desktops for that matter) with steamos on it vs some windows. (though i can see somebody debloating 11 and dropping it on the device - why not?) > We then installed Windows 11 on the handheld, downloaded updated drivers from Lenovo's support site, and re-ran the benchmarks on the same games downloaded through Steam for Windows.

You can be sure that gamers are going to install SteamOS onto their desktops once it supports more kinds of hardware.

Yes gamers could install Bazzite right now, but those that are open to switching away from Windows aren't going to if they don't have a large company that can fund the support focused primarily on the issues that gamers are going to experience.

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

#72

Post by haswell »

0x38B wrote: post #69
haswell wrote: post #13

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 impr…

Side note, Niri is a fantastic WM. When I saw the Phoronix article on HN talking about the addition of overview mode and more, I finally took the plunge and spent an afternoon converting over from Sway.¹ Anecdotally, I've seen less hangups on Niri around fullscreen games and floating windows, perhaps thanks to X11 running in xwayland-satellite. 1: the hardest part was finding a bar that supported i3status-rs; not a f…

I've been so happy with Niri after many many years bouncing around other WMs. It addresses the main issues I've had with other tiling window managers and has been such a joy to use.

The scrollable aspect just feels so natural and intuitive to me.

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

#73

Post by mrheosuper »

Melatonic wrote: post #19

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…

i've been daily drive ltsc windows for a while, don't see any software installation problem.

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

#74

Post by jsolson »

armada651 wrote: post #46
fooqux wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anti-cheat today is a stop-gap measure at best. For various reasons such as improved OS security and security concerns with this software, ring zero anti-cheat won't be around forever. Besides, it's a cat and mouse game where the vendor is the mouse. We already have the technology now to do it better. A combination of only sending what info a client should have, and server-side checks. As soon as something like UT sh…

> Besides, it's a cat and mouse game where the vendor is the mouse. The goal of anti-cheat isn't to stop the world's most advanced cheaters. Those are already unstoppable because they now use Direct Memory Access over the PCI-E bus, so the cheats don't even run on the same computer anymore. However since those cheaters are few and far in-between they can be handled through player reports. The goal is to stop the medi…

> Those are already unstoppable because they now use Direct Memory Access over the PCI-E bus, so the cheats don't even run on the same computer anymore.

Working on mostly server platforms, I had forgotten that IOMMU enablement (and, where relevant, enforcement) was not the default.

Consumer hardware and software is terrifying.

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

#75

Post by lenerdenator »

When SteamOS and Ganoo/L00nockz become first-class gaming citizens, that's when I'm building a gaming PC for the first time since 2012.

I'm a Mac guy now mainly because of my job and I like UNIX-y stuff now, but of course, gaming is even more lacking than Linux.

We're so close. Once AAA releases and GPU drivers get there, it's over the cliff, and I could see that being in the next five years.

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

#76

Post by boston_clone »

jekwoooooe wrote: post #39

The last missing piece for full Linux gaming is anticheat. Last I looked into it, the major vendors don’t want to support it due to lack of kernel security and the ones that do, game devs refuse to allow it (destiny for example) One we can play AAA games I am literally ditching windows forever. Steamos is the best thing that has happened to gaming

interestingly, I have no issues with the anti-cheat within Marvel Rivals; however, games that embedded an anti-cheat prior to the steam deck popularity don’t work as you described (PUBG, apex legends).

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

#77

Post by userbinator »

armada651 wrote: post #45
hypeatei wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as games are running on user hardware/OS, you'll always deal with cheating. Server-side checks and computation can only go so far. For example: in competitive shooters (where cheaters are most prevalent) you can't have things appearing out of thin air. The client needs to know about things ahead of time to play sounds and to give other environmental hints.

Exactly, nothing short of streaming the entire game fully rendered from the server will stop cheats. And even then you can probably still do aimbotting with modern day computer vision.

This reminds me of a discussion around 2 decades ago, where someone showed a picture of his "undetectable aimbot" for a turn-based artillery game: a ruler, a page of charts, and a handheld calculator; followed by a copious amount of discussion of whether that was considered cheating.

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

#78

Post by userbinator »

runako wrote: post #38

Back in the Windows XP days, I discovered that running Windows in a VMWare VM, hosted on Linux, was faster than running the same version of Windows bare on the same machine. I never came up with a good explanation for that.

Cache.

Disk cache, to be precise.

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

#79

Post by Jach »

MindSpunk wrote: post #67
sitkack wrote: post #22

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…

Ignoring that, you know, 99% of users are running Windows and not SteamOS. Test on what your users run. Proton is just an implementation of Win32, you're still just targeting Windows.

Only 95.45% now (https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey) but yeah.

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

#80

Post by cwillu »

jsolson wrote: post #74
armada651 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Besides, it's a cat and mouse game where the vendor is the mouse. The goal of anti-cheat isn't to stop the world's most advanced cheaters. Those are already unstoppable because they now use Direct Memory Access over the PCI-E bus, so the cheats don't even run on the same computer anymore. However since those cheaters are few and far in-between they can be handled through player reports. The goal is to stop the medi…

> Those are already unstoppable because they now use Direct Memory Access over the PCI-E bus, so the cheats don't even run on the same computer anymore. Working on mostly server platforms, I had forgotten that IOMMU enablement (and, where relevant, enforcement) was not the default. Consumer hardware and software is terrifying.

Not sure how that's relevant, unless you find it terrifying that owners of hardware have control over their hardware.
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