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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

#91
post #80
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

[deleted]

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

#92
Quote:

   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
That's not just a buried lede, this title is straight up wrong (or at least, not backed up by data)

With SteamOS coming to arbitrary hardware, that is a very bold claim to make. And not one that ars has data to back up, apparently.

It's also an embarrassment of an article because they were gifted the steam version of the handheld, then compared that performance against them installing windows... on the steam version of the handheld. Why not buy the version with Windows by default?

Personally I'm nearly certain that SteamOS would give better apples to apples performance than windows, but we shouldn't give an article that shits on both the scientific method and journalistic integrity the light of day

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

#93
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But maybe figure out how to start getting those third party Linux porting studios paid to work on Proton...

The answer is pretty simple here - hire CodeWeavers to work on supporting your game in Proton/Wine rather than some other porting shop doing an old rewrite-style port.

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

#94

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.

I'm on Windows 10 LTSC which will receive updates until 2032. You'll likely have to add stuff to the OS to install the Windows Store and UWP apps but otherwise regular apps just work.

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

#96
post #26

How about if installed on Microsoft Dev Drive instead of plain NTFS?

You can also achieve nearly the same level of performance by adding exclusions to Windows defender. I typically exclude the game process as I still would want folders scanned when updates / downloads are running. There's a noticable improvement to load times, streaming texture latency, and CPU utilisation.

I don't believe ReFS is contributing so much to the performance improvements seen when using Dev Drives. Removing storage filters from volumes can go a long way.

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

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'm on Windows 10 LTSC which will receive updates until 2032. You'll likely have to add stuff to the OS to install the Windows Store and UWP apps but otherwise regular apps just work.

yeah i did not install windows store, but i recall installing Steam and other software like that is smooth.

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

#98
post #69
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…

Steam won't launch for me in xwayland-satellite here... I just assumed steam+wayland = broken. I have a kind of weird setup using sway with xwayland disabled and running xwayland-satellite though.

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

#99

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…

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

2. Many are if this makes their game playable and there is an easy way to debloat

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

#100
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…

> The biggest thing I noticed when switching from X11/Xfce to Wayland/Niri was just an overall increase in framerate.

Was it with any specific game? I just tried the GOG version of The Witcher 3 "Complete Edition" (which is the remastered one) with the Direct3D 12 renderer under both Xorg/Window Maker and Wayland/KDE using umu-run (essentially proton without Steam) and it had identical performance in both cases (i also tried to use Niri but it would launch in 60Hz mode and for some reason wouldn't allow the game to run at a higher framerate with vsync disabled regardless of any option i chose) in either low or high settings (which is basically what i expected since the window system shouldn't be a bottleneck unless something is either broken or you are running at something like 20000fps :-P).

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