|OT| The Linux Gaming Thread - Thread of the Millenium

[Parsnip]

I've been on KDE full time since 2008, never used Budgie, so can't compare the two.

KDE is quite configurable, so you can make it very Windows-like if that's the goal.


While there was a time when XFCE was more lightweight than KDE, I'm not sure that's the case anymore; certainly not for RAM usage, at least.

Unless you're talking about an extremely old computer (10+ years), I don't think performance is going to be a differentiating factor in favour of XFCE.

My distro (EndeavourOS) used XFCE for the live USB for a long time, but recently switched to KDE. There was a looong debate about that, and the conclusion was, if I recall, that KDE was much easier for them to work with, and that the putative performance / old hardware support delta was not conclusive enough to justify staying with XFCE.

Choose a desktop you like, and start worrying about performance-based alternatives only if you actually run into a performance wall you can't tweak away by disabling a few effects.

I mean it's not my PC so I won't choose a desktop I like.

I actually don't remember how old the PC is. If it wasn't old, I'd probably just install Win11 and not worry about any of this. But it's old enough to not have the TPM requirements, and while I know it's possible to get around that, it's too much of a hassle for me because I'm the IT support, basically. The system is only really used for browsing the web, occasional libre office and playing solitaire. And occasionally when my brother is in town he stays the nights there and plays Kingdom Two Crowns on it.

 

[BardsTales]

At some point soon I need to install Linux on my moms PC due to the whole Win10 support ending and all that, and of course I'm aiming to make the transition as seamless as possible.
I haven't 100% decided on distro just yet, but I'm leaning heavily on some Fedora atomic spin right now.

Same situation, I'm my mom's IT support and I live a bit far away so I can't just go over there every week to update something. Plus I want to start using Linux more myself because Microsoft got so much worse, there's also a boycott because MS is very involved with the genocide in Palestine...

I installed Linux Mint on a laptop and it worked really well immediately, very nice. I've had previous linux experience with a lot of distros but every year it gets better. The laptop immediately booted and the wifi worked, which I've struggled with in the past and I'm too old/lazy now to spend time compiling/linking wifi drivers by hand. I hope to install this on a pretty fast (well) desktop too for some gaming. I used to run Fedora and then Ubuntu but Fedora became very slow on my machine and Ubuntu had that terrible window manager then (Unity) and Mint was a very nice change. Mint Cinnamon feels a bit XP / Win7 like so hoping my mom will be able to get used to that.

The main advantage is that she's already been using Firefox and Thunderbird for web / email so that will be the exact same software. Just hoping that that specific laptop will be supported and nothing weird happens.

Also since I live far away I'd like some "take over de desktop remotely" software but not sure what to use yet. There's RustDesk but not sure that works well? For gaming I'm going to try Lutris, see what happens. Lutris - Open Gaming Platform

 

[Parsnip]

Same situation, I'm my mom's IT support and I live a bit far away so I can't just go over there every week to update something. Plus I want to start using Linux more myself because Microsoft got so much worse, there's also a boycott because MS is very involved with the genocide in Palestine...

I installed Linux Mint on a laptop and it worked really well immediately, very nice. I've had previous linux experience with a lot of distros but every year it gets better. The laptop immediately booted and the wifi worked, which I've struggled with in the past and I'm too old/lazy now to spend time compiling/linking wifi drivers by hand. I hope to install this on a pretty fast (well) desktop too for some gaming. I used to run Fedora and then Ubuntu but Fedora became very slow on my machine and Ubuntu had that terrible window manager then (Unity) and Mint was a very nice change. Mint Cinnamon feels a bit XP / Win7 like so hoping my mom will be able to get used to that.

The main advantage is that she's already been using Firefox and Thunderbird for web / email so that will be the exact same software. Just hoping that that specific laptop will be supported and nothing weird happens.

Also since I live far away I'd like some "take over de desktop remotely" software but not sure what to use yet. There's RustDesk but not sure that works well? For gaming I'm going to try Lutris, see what happens. Lutris - Open Gaming Platform

Yup.
I don't live too too far away, like 30 minutes walk and I try to visit at least once a week, but I'd rather not spend any of that time doing PC maintenance.

I've been doing more reading and while I still lean on Fedora, I think I'm just going to go with the regular non-atomic version of Fedora KDE at least for now. By their own word Kinoite "is not complete and there are still some features missing to make using it a great user experience". It's hard for me to judge if any of the issues linked would actually be relevant in this use case or if the page is even up to date, but hey.
I need to read up on some of it either way and maybe that will change my mind back to atomic. I'd probably prefer atomic actually.

 

[Parsnip]

Oh right I completely forgot that I looked at the non-gaming focuses "sister" of Bazzite at some point, Aurora. It's also atomic and based on Fedora and probably more in line with what my mom's PC needs.

I really need to check the specs of the system next time I'm there though.

 

[Parsnip]

So I've been thinking about this linux stuff a bunch lately and instead of dual booting at first, I'm thinking about imaging my current Windows installation into a disk image, back that up on separate drive and just nuke my boot drive and go full linux on it.
And then run that imaged Windows inside a VM for a bit and get whatever files I need from it over time, and possibly keep it around as a backup in case I need a Windows installation for some specific game, photoshop or whatever.
Does that sound reasonable and workable?

Been reading about QEMU and KVM, single GPU passthrough and all kinds of fun stuff in relating to this.
Though I do have some questions about VMs in general that I haven't been able to find a clear answer on, quite possibly because the answer is obvious to anyone who has been working with VMs that they don't even think about it.

And some linux "best practices" elude me that I need to figure out before jumping in. Like, for example on Windows I have a "PortableTools" folder that sits at the root of my boot drive and it has stuff like FanControl, SAM, ColorControl etc. Not necessarily actually portable since some of them put config files in the Windows appdata. But stuff I didn't have to run an installer for, just unzip and run. Do such programs have a correct location in the linux file system? I have been googling around of course but found a bit conflicting info on that. Possible suggestions I've seen are things like just using /opt or $HOME/.local/opt or $HOME/.local/bin and such. Maybe it depends a bit on the program itself, I need to look into this a bit more. In truth it probably doesn't matter too too much and I'm overthinking it, but I guess I'm trying to unlearn some possibly bad Windows habits.

 

[undu]

Does that sound reasonable and workable?

I think the data-copying can be done, although having an extra nvme would help; fo running the VM with passthrouhh, last time I checked you'll need 2 GPUs because the GOU couldn't be detached from the host Linux and passed to the guest (VM); and later be reattached to the host Linux

The copying can be done with the commandline tool dd (please do read the manual thoroughly, it can destroy disks easily)

 

[jads653]

So I've been thinking about this linux stuff a bunch lately and instead of dual booting at first, I'm thinking about imaging my current Windows installation into a disk image, back that up on separate drive and just nuke my boot drive and go full linux on it.
And then run that imaged Windows inside a VM for a bit and get whatever files I need from it over time, and possibly keep it around as a backup in case I need a Windows installation for some specific game, photoshop or whatever.
Does that sound reasonable and workable?

Been reading about QEMU and KVM, single GPU passthrough and all kinds of fun stuff in relating to this.
Though I do have some questions about VMs in general that I haven't been able to find a clear answer on, quite possibly because the answer is obvious to anyone who has been working with VMs that they don't even think about it.

And some linux "best practices" elude me that I need to figure out before jumping in. Like, for example on Windows I have a "PortableTools" folder that sits at the root of my boot drive and it has stuff like FanControl, SAM, ColorControl etc. Not necessarily actually portable since some of them put config files in the Windows appdata. But stuff I didn't have to run an installer for, just unzip and run. Do such programs have a correct location in the linux file system? I have been googling around of course but found a bit conflicting info on that. Possible suggestions I've seen are things like just using /opt or $HOME/.local/opt or $HOME/.local/bin and such. Maybe it depends a bit on the program itself, I need to look into this a bit more. In truth it probably doesn't matter too too much and I'm overthinking it, but I guess I'm trying to unlearn some possibly bad Windows habits.

Do you have a CPU that has integrated graphics? If so an other option could be to use the integrated graphics in Linux for desktop, use the GPU for gaming. You then pass the GPU to the VM whenever you require the VM. Looking Glass is quite awesome for this kind of use case. Looking Glass - Home. Do keep in mind that most anti cheat won't work in VMs these days. There are workarounds but that can either get you banned if detected or in the case of Valorant not work at all.

Installing software in Linux often goes through a software repository. To install Chrome I just go to an appstore kind of application and select it from there. This is provided by your Linux distro maker. That is a bit different then installing portable software. Pretty much all "portable" software in Linux is either provided as a Flatpack or AppImage. As an example Nvidia just released a native Geforce Now application that is just a flatpack. Config files are saved to a hidden folder in your home directory, flatpacks are "installed" into the home directory as well. Both formats run in their own little sandbox, there are even Linux distros that exclusive use flatpacks..

 

[Parsnip]

I think the data-copying can be done, although having an extra nvme would help; fo running the VM with passthrouhh, last time I checked you'll need 2 GPUs because the GOU couldn't be detached from the host Linux and passed to the guest (VM); and later be reattached to the host Linux

The copying can be done with the commandline tool dd (please do read the manual thoroughly, it can destroy disks easily)

Single GPU passthrough is definitely a thing, these days at least, but a bit of a hassle to setup as you might expect.

Do you have a CPU that has integrated graphics? If so an other option could be to use the integrated graphics in Linux for desktop, use the GPU for gaming. You then pass the GPU to the VM whenever you require the VM. Looking Glass is quite awesome for this kind of use case. Looking Glass - Home. Do keep in mind that most anti cheat won't work in VMs these days. There are workarounds but that can either get you banned if detected or in the case of Valorant not work at all.

Installing software in Linux often goes through a software repository. To install Chrome I just go to an appstore kind of application and select it from there. This is provided by your Linux distro maker. That is a bit different then installing portable software. Pretty much all "portable" software in Linux is either provided as a Flatpack or AppImage. As an example Nvidia just released a native Geforce Now application that is just a flatpack. Config files are saved to a hidden folder in your home directory, flatpacks are "installed" into the home directory as well. Both formats run in their own little sandbox, there are even Linux distros that exclusive use flatpacks..

Sadly no integrated graphics.

The thing about recommended filesystem locations is specifically in regards to software that I don't expect to find through official distro repos. Though I guess anything's possible.




Also I just realized that this is a Linux Gaming thread and not a generic linux thread, but hey. I'll definitely continue gaming on my system, so it counts.

 

[Le Pertti]

Also I just realized that this is a Linux Gaming thread and not a generic linux thread, but hey. I'll definitely continue gaming on my system, so it counts.

Well at least its more on topic than me talking about linux in the steam thread.XD

Funny that Im already looking at distros for a future PC when Im like two years away from actually saving up for one.

 

[Parsnip]

The VM solution would be hopefully temporary, but my main big brain thought about doing that instead of dualbooting is that, well, I am already dualbooting. Kind of. Well, I was. I have a second partition that has EndevaourOS installed, that I fully intended to start using more and like, slowly grow that partition while shrinking the Windows partition. But I never used it. And then at some point I updated the bios and that nuked the systemd boot setup and while it seems easy enough to fix, I've been too lazy. And like I said I wasn't using it anyway. I kept postponing doing any further setup to it and just ignored it, so my galaxy brain idea is that I'll just install linux as the main driver, because otherwise I'm just going to keep pushing it back until oops it's October 2026 and I've been on an unpatched Win10 for a year.

One of the next things I probably should do is uninstall a bunch of big games before I start the whole imaging process.
And then I suppose the most sensible way to proceed would be to grab some live usb linux and do the imaging process from there so the partition won't be in use. Just need to make sure I know how to then turn the partition into a virtual drive that the VM can use without a hassle.

Trying my best to prepare and actually research in advance, for once.

 

[Parsnip]

It also just occurred to me that I have an empty 500gb sata ssd drive that's just sitting there empty, already installed on my system.
So maybe I'll shrink my Windows install and plop it there, and dual boot that way. Maybe I'm overcomplicating the matter with this VM business.

Either way, what I absolutely will do is nuke my current boot drive and just put some distro on it, other stuff is a bit up in the air I guess.

 

[Parsnip]

Well, I have now migrated my Win10 install to this older samsung sata ssd and am currently running from it.
Next step is actually pick the distro I want and do some installing.

I've been going back and forth with the whole atomic/immutable thing. Maybe I'll go with something more "traditional" at least for now.
So I'm leaning on CachyOS at the moment. Not sure when I have the time to jump in, maybe tomorrow, maybe a week from now, who knows.

 

[jads653]

Some cool stuff happening for RDNA3 users in a Proton fork called Proton-EM . FSR4 support that is steadily improving. Release Proton-EM 10.0-23 · Etaash-mathamsetty/Proton. It has gotten to the point where the performance is around Xess level. Meaning it's actually adding performance over native rendering. Still quite a bit slower than FSR3, but it is amazing to see what is possible. Sadly RDNA2 will never support it because it is missing hardware.

 

[Dinjoralo]

Its wild that I've been on Linux for over half a year. It really does become like home in a way Windows can't.

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

Hell yeah.

 

[jads653]

GitHub - PancakeTAS/lsfg-vk: Lossless Scaling Frame Generation on Linux via DXVK/Vulkan early work but a port of Lossless Scaling Framegen is available for Linux. No gamescope support at the moment. Really useful for games that are locked at 60 or emulators.

 

[NarohDethan]

I use a TV as a monitor, and yesterday I turned it off for a moment, and when I turned it back on, video wouldn’t come out. What gives? I had to hard reset.

 

[jads653]

GitHub - PancakeTAS/lsfg-vk: Lossless Scaling Frame Generation on Linux via DXVK/Vulkan early work but a port of Lossless Scaling Framegen is available for Linux. No gamescope support at the moment. Really useful for games that are locked at 60 or emulators.

Development is coming along quite quickly. One of the original Lossless Scaling developers is helping to get it running. Result is that in the latest version the newest version of Lossless Scaling can be used. Hopefully in a couple of months we will have an easy decky loader plugin.

 

[LEANIJA]

I use a TV as a monitor, and yesterday I turned it off for a moment, and when I turned it back on, video wouldn’t come out. What gives? I had to hard reset.

I had something like that happen before...I dont recall the issue now tho, because I solved it and then forgot about it. I think it had something to do with either sending the computer to sleep or hibernate. In any case, try pressing ctrl+alt+F2 (or F3, F4) to see if another TTY (teletypewriter, an archaic name; but essentially, another terminal) comes up. See then if the screen comes back up when you press ctrl+alt+F1 (that would be your default user session)
If not, you can login and restart the computer with the command "sudo reboot now" (sudo is the command giving you super user rights) from TTY2 or TTY3

or "startx" to attempt starting up X11, if you are using that. I forgot what starts up Wayland. In either case, that would be a separate session.

But your best guess is checking whether youre putting the PC to sleep or hibernation, and whichever it is, try the other one.

Edit:
I just checked my config – its hiberate that works without problems on my system (sleep gives – or gave, I havent used it in a while – problems)

 

[NarohDethan]

I had something like that happen before...I dont recall the issue now tho, because I solved it and then forgot about it. I think it had something to do with either sending the computer to sleep or hibernate. In any case, try pressing ctrl+alt+F2 (or F3, F4) to see if another TTY (teletypewriter, an archaic name; but essentially, another terminal) comes up. See then if the screen comes back up when you press ctrl+alt+F1 (that would be your default user session)
If not, you can login and restart the computer with the command "sudo reboot now" (sudo is the command giving you super user rights) from TTY2 or TTY3

or "startx" to attempt starting up X11, if you are using that. I forgot what starts up Wayland. In either case, that would be a separate session.

But your best guess is checking whether youre putting the PC to sleep or hibernation, and whichever it is, try the other one.

Edit:
I just checked my config – its hiberate that works without problems on my system (sleep gives – or gave, I havent used it in a while – problems)

Thanks, I’ll keep mucking with it ;D

 

[Cacher]

Installed Mint because of the win10 fiasco. Game performance took a hit (nvidia) and lossless scaling isn't mature yet, so I will play less demanding games in the foreseeable future.

Being someone with no programming knowledge, there's a lot to learn. But I love tinkering on steam deck so it's not a complete fresh start. Wish me luck.

Edit: Just setup lossless scaling. Frame generation runs well. Hoping that upscaling will come, too.

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

Game performance took a hit (nvidia)

How much of a hit? Last time I checked I was usually well within 15%. Generally much less. If it's more than that, it's probably worth looking into to see if it's game-specific or if something's not quite right with your drivers in general.

 

[Cacher]

How much of a hit? Last time I checked I was usually well within 15%. Generally much less. If it's more than that, it's probably worth looking into to see if it's game-specific or if something's not quite right with your drivers in general.

I encountered constant stuttering in Girls' Frontline 2 with the same graphical settings used in window. Didn't record the performance (I hadn't installed mangohud back then) but it was really bad.

Now, after turning down the resolution scale (no idea why I set it over 100%), shadow quality and changing the wine version (through lutris), it runs smoothly. I honestly don't notice any graphical downgrade despite the changes in settings, so I am happy with it.

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

changing the wine version (through lutris)

Note that this game is on Steam, so running it through Proton / Steam Play is also an easy option, and regardless of what method you use, ProtonDB is a precious resource for getting an idea of general performance, pitfalls, specific Proton or wine versions, weird command-line options to try, etc.

(not sure why there are two of those; regional versions?)

https://www.protondb.com/app/3347400

https://www.protondb.com/app/3308670

(you probably know that already, but I thought it worth mentioning protondb, just in case; it's such a useful resource).

 

[Cacher]

Note that this game is on Steam, so running it through Proton / Steam Play is also an easy option, and regardless of what method you use, ProtonDB is a precious resource for getting an idea of general performance, pitfalls, specific Proton or wine versions, weird command-line options to try, etc.

(not sure why there are two of those; regional versions?)

https://www.protondb.com/app/3347400

https://www.protondb.com/app/3308670

(you probably know that already, but I thought it worth mentioning protondb, just in case; it's such a useful resource).

Oh yeah. The two entries are different servers for different regions and managed by different companies. I am playing on the server which is region locked here so I play it through direct PC client instead of steam version, so it requires installation through lutris. Yeah, I know how stupid that sounds, but many people are also doing it (so the steam CCU of this game is not accurate at all).

Thanks for the advice. I found out that the game may not launch with GE-Proton. Around 30% successful rate like many people said on protondb. But with wine version 10 8.26 (brain fart, it's the default version) I can launch it 100% without problem. Maybe I should report my findings there.

 

[LEANIJA]

Oh yeah. The two entries are different servers for different regions and managed by different companies. I am playing on the server which is region locked here so I play it through direct PC client instead of steam version, so it requires installation through lutris. Yeah, I know how stupid that sounds, but many people are also doing it (so the steam CCU of this game is not accurate at all).

Thanks for the advice. I found out that the game may not launch with GE-Proton. Around 30% successful rate like many people said on protondb. But with wine version 10 8.26 (brain fart, it's the default version) I can launch it 100% without problem. Maybe I should report my findings there.

You can also install that version you're playing via Steam as a third-party game. Here's a detailed guide on how to do that, made for Battlenet, but applicable for any game (as far as I know):

How to install Battle.net on Linux, SteamOS and Steam Deck for World of Warcraft and Starcraft

Want to get Battle.net on your Linux system like SteamOS and Steam Deck? Here's a guide giving you the options to play World of Warcraft and Starcraft.

www.gamingonlinux.com

 

[Cacher]

You can also install that version you're playing via Steam as a third-party game. Here's a detailed guide on how to do that, made for Battlenet, but applicable for any game (as far as I know):

How to install Battle.net on Linux, SteamOS and Steam Deck for World of Warcraft and Starcraft

Want to get Battle.net on your Linux system like SteamOS and Steam Deck? Here's a guide giving you the options to play World of Warcraft and Starcraft.

www.gamingonlinux.com

I didn't know how to utilise the search function in Lutris. Very useful site, too. Thank you.

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

detailed guide on how to do that, made for Battlenet

For battle.net specifically, the last step (pointing to the installed exe) is not necessary.

If you keep pointing to the installer, it will just detect that it's already installed and launch battle.net

 

[LEANIJA]

For battle.net specifically, the last step (pointing to the installed exe) is not necessary.

If you keep pointing to the installer, it will just detect that it's already installed and launch battle.net

interesting – didnt know that, they mustve changed that behaviour at some point

 

[Cacher]

Downloaded Stellar Blade demo to try running DX12 game on Linux with a nvidia card. Ouch, it was a stutter fest.

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

Downloaded Stellar Blade demo to try running DX12 game on Linux with a nvidia card. Ouch, it was a stutter fest.

Is that a VRAM issue? ProtonDB show it working fine for most people, including on nvidia cards.

https://www.protondb.com/app/3489700

Note that SB uses the Denuvo malw... sorry, "DRM". Each time you change Proton version, it counts as an activation. I think the limit is 5/24h or something.


While DX12 games have a much larger perf penalty than DX11 (where Linux is often ahead of Windows in perf), I've played plenty without any problem over the years. Don't assume DX12 + Linux + nvidia => automatic stutter

Since 2022, the only game for which I had to boot Windows because of perf/ stutter is Hogwarts. Because it was bad enough in Win already that the perf penalty on top was just too much.

 

[Cacher]

Is that a VRAM issue? ProtonDB show it working fine for most people, including on nvidia cards.

https://www.protondb.com/app/3489700

Note that SB uses the Denuvo malw... sorry, "DRM". Each time you change Proton version, it counts as an activation. I think the limit is 5/24h or something.


While DX12 games have a much larger perf penalty than DX11 (where Linux is often ahead of Windows in perf), I've played plenty without any problem over the years. Don't assume DX12 + Linux + nvidia => automatic stutter

Since 2022, the only game for which I had to boot Windows because of perf/ stutter is Hogwarts. Because it was bad enough in Win already that the perf penalty on top was just too much.

Not sure what's the reason behind. When changing graphic settings it has a VRAM bar on the side, and my settings didn't fill up the VRAM. No matter how I changed the settings, the stutter didn't go away so likely something else causing it. I also tried it on window before the switch to Linux so I can make the comparison. The stutter wasn't there.

Edit: Mine is a 1080 Ti (11GB Vram). GE-Proton 10-10. Kernel 6.14. Ntsync should have been running, too. Maybe I will do some extra testing tonight.

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

Edit: Mine is a 1080 Ti (11GB Vram)

A good card, that....

...but Nvidia is going to drop support for the 10 series (Pascal): Unix graphics feature deprecation schedule

You'll have to stop updating drivers, both on Windows and Linux, after 580 (on most distros there are *-legacy packages / PPAs)

When changing graphic settings it has a VRAM bar on the side, and my settings didn't fill up the VRAM

Mangohud will be more reliable.
If it's not VRAM, are you sure all shaders are pre-compiled?

Rather than trying to guess blindly, since I'm somewhat interested in Stellar Blade (I have a vague understanding that it's basically Sekiro but with more anime jiggle physics?), I've installed the demo. That answers the shaders question: the game itself forces a precompile.

I've no idea what's going on, but there are explosions, scantily clad anime girls with swords, and misshapen monsters. All on Very High settings, locked at 60 FPS (haven't found the setting to unlock FPS), and... completely fluid; butter smooth, even. Good for me, but not helpful here. I'll do a little bit more testing this week.

Did you have to get deep into the game to see stutters, or does the opening scene suffice?

I'm on Proton experimental, arch, 4070. 5900X.

If you're on a 10 series GPU, how is your CPU? My fear is that an older computer may take a heavier hit from the translation layer's overhead. And nvidia may not have optimised 10 series drivers for Linux to the same extent as for more recent cards. What I said earlier about the performance difference being ~10%, 15% max may well not be true for your hardware. When I tried Linux gaming with my 1070, performance definitely wasn't there, but that was many years ago so don't know how much I can extrapolate from that. It would be nice to hear from someone else on the 10 series...

Another variable is X11 vs Wayland. Try the latter if not already on it.

Sorry for the wall of text and good night.

 

[Cacher]

A good card, that....

...but Nvidia is going to drop support for the 10 series (Pascal): Unix graphics feature deprecation schedule

You'll have to stop updating drivers, both on Windows and Linux, after 580 (on most distros there are *-legacy packages / PPAs)


Mangohud will be more reliable.
If it's not VRAM, are you sure all shaders are pre-compiled?

Rather than trying to guess blindly, since I'm somewhat interested in Stellar Blade (I have a vague understanding that it's basically Sekiro but with more anime jiggle physics?), I've installed the demo. That answers the shaders question: the game itself forces a precompile.

I've no idea what's going on, but there are explosions, scantily clad anime girls with swords, and misshapen monsters. All on Very High settings, locked at 60 FPS (haven't found the setting to unlock FPS), and... completely fluid; butter smooth, even. Good for me, but not helpful here. I'll do a little bit more testing this week.

Did you have to get deep into the game to see stutters, or does the opening scene suffice?

I'm on Proton experimental, arch, 4070. 5900X.

If you're on a 10 series GPU, how is your CPU? My fear is that an older computer may take a heavier hit from the translation layer's overhead. And nvidia may not have optimised 10 series drivers for Linux to the same extent as for more recent cards. What I said earlier about the performance difference being ~10%, 15% max may well not be true for your hardware. When I tried Linux gaming with my 1070, performance definitely wasn't there, but that was many years ago so don't know how much I can extrapolate from that. It would be nice to hear from someone else on the 10 series...

Another variable is X11 vs Wayland. Try the latter if not already on it.

Sorry for the wall of text and good night.

Thanks for the post and test! Good night

Yes, the card is going to be dropped by big N. I don't play too many new games so I have accepted that, and I am going to upgrade in 26 or 27.

CPU is 7700k. Both CPU and GPU usage is under 85% so likely not related to hardware. Also pre-compiled the shader. The stutter happens through the game, from opening cutscene to tutorials. I also restarted PC and made sure that no background apps running before launching the game but it didn't improve.

A new action game + a demo in reasonable size is the reason why I chose Stellar Blade for testing. I have no rush in playing it so maybe I will try again after upgrading my rig to see any change.

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

Did another test, this time with mangohud and uncapped frames; the game is incredibly smooth, especially for an Unreal game; 1440p, Very High, native rendering, I get 1% lows above 80 FPS, often in the 100.
Average FPS is not much higher, at 110, 120, which speaks to really, really good, consistent, frame pacing. That's a well-oiled machine.
It seems the devs actually know how to use Unreal. No wonder they had the confidence to offer a demo!

That's on Linux; I may try on Windows to see the perf delta.

CPU is 7700k.

Hey, I had the same on my 2017 machine (with a 1070). That's 4 cores. That the bare minimum for UE5.

Both CPU and GPU usage is under 85% so likely not related to hardware

Actually those are not great numbers, depending on what "under" means in both cases.
Unless you're pegged at ingame frame cap / monitor refresh rate, you want your GPU at near 100%.
Otherwise, it means it's being starved, because there's a bottleneck somewhere.

Conversely, CPU usage should be low, especially for an action game. 85% global usage means you may have up to 3/4 cores pegged at 100% at any given time. That means the CPU probably struggles to keep the GPU fed in a timely manner. I'd expect pacing problems with those numbers.

Do you get the same usage profile in Windows?

 

[Gamall Wednesday Ida]

I booted Windows shudder, nausea noises for the first time since december 2024 according to the boot log and repeated the same test. After telling the Win 11 "update" to go fuck itself twice. God I love Microsoft.

I get identical AVG FPS to Linux. It felt perhaps marginally less smooth at times, so the 1% lows may be lower than on Linux, but
1° I don't have a mangohud equivalent installed on Win to put a number on the vague feeling
2° I haven't updated the drivers or anything since the last time I booted, so they're 7 months old.
I'd need to install a bunch of stuff to do a proper test, but whatever difference there is would likely be minor.

So basically I get results that are identical enough I'd need tools and stats to tell them apart.

 

[Cacher]

Did another test, this time with mangohud and uncapped frames; the game is incredibly smooth, especially for an Unreal game; 1440p, Very High, native rendering, I get 1% lows above 80 FPS, often in the 100.
Average FPS is not much higher, at 110, 120, which speaks to really, really good, consistent, frame pacing. That's a well-oiled machine.
It seems the devs actually know how to use Unreal. No wonder they had the confidence to offer a demo!

That's on Linux; I may try on Windows to see the perf delta.


Hey, I had the same on my 2017 machine (with a 1070). That's 4 cores. That the bare minimum for UE5.

Actually those are not great numbers, depending on what "under" means in both cases.
Unless you're pegged at ingame frame cap / monitor refresh rate, you want your GPU at near 100%.
Otherwise, it means it's being starved, because there's a bottleneck somewhere.

Conversely, CPU usage should be low, especially for an action game. 85% global usage means you may have up to 3/4 cores pegged at 100% at any given time. That means the CPU probably struggles to keep the GPU fed in a timely manner. I'd expect pacing problems with those numbers.

Do you get the same usage profile in Windows?

I capped the FPS to 60. I never pushed for 100% GPU usage because I wanted my GPU to last longer. (Actually I just re-applied thermal paste during the weekends. The old thermal paste inside has solidified. ) Actually CPU was only around 60% (I was lazy so wrote both under 85%, sorry). Framerate can stay 60 but with stutters.

Same options used in Win but I didn't use any software to monitor back then. I had poor experience from MSI Afterburner because it introduced stutter. Thanks for doing all the tests. Not sure what is causing it but I am not care enough about the game to find out why.

Btw, this experience didn't sour my experience with Linux in any bit. Actually I was fiddling with Lossless Scaling and pleasantly discovered that the input latency is noticeably better on Linux than on Win (not measured in any sense, but I can feel it and the difference is big enough that it is definitely not placebo). Now look forward to adaptive frame generation and Anime4K upscale...