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Games Run Faster On SteamOS Than Windows 11, Ars Testing Finds (arstechnica.com) 81

Posted by BeauHD from the compare-and-contrast dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: 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. [...]

As you can see in the included charts, SteamOS showed noticeable frame rate improvements in four of the five games tested. Only Borderlands 3 showed comparable performance across both operating systems, with Windows eking out ever-so-slightly higher frame rates in that game's benchmarks. For the other four tested games, the stock Lenovo Windows drivers were sometimes significantly worse than those included with SteamOS. When playing Returnal at "High" graphics presets and 1920x1200 resolution, for instance, changing from Lenovo's Windows drivers to SteamOS meant the difference between a hard-to-take 18 FPS average and a downright decent 33 FPS average. Sideloading the updated Asus drivers showed a noticeable improvement in Windows performance across all tested games and even brought Homeworld 3's "Low" graphics benchmark test to practical parity with SteamOS. In all other cases, though, even these updated drivers resulted in benchmark frame rates anywhere from 8 percent to 36 percent lower than those same benchmarks on SteamOS.

These results might seem a bit counterintuitive, considering that games running on SteamOS must go through a Proton translation layer for every native Windows instruction in a game's code. But Valve has put in consistent work over the years to make Proton as efficient and cross-compatible as possible; not to mention its continued work on Linux's Mesa graphics drivers seems to be paying dividends for SteamOS graphics performance. Running SteamOS also means eliminating a lot of operating system overhead that the more generalist Windows uses by default. Microsoft seems aware of this issue for gamers and has recently announced that the upcoming "Xbox Experience for Handheld" will "minimize background activity and defer non-essential tasks" to allow for "more [and] higher framerates" in games.

Games Run Faster On SteamOS Than Windows 11, Ars Testing Finds More | Reply

Games Run Faster On SteamOS Than Windows 11, Ars Testing Finds

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  • So very soon Linux will replace Windows as my default OS.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      Decade of linux on desktop is almost upon us!

      Sad part is, this nonsense is the result of linux being so utterly uncompetitive on desktop. Microsoft didn't even feel the need to make some kind of a "game mode" that would shut down spyware and other background nonsense when it detects that a game is running, much less actually optimize the OS for performance properly.

      • I jettisoned Windows out of my home about 6 months before Win7 went EOL and went full time Linux. Steam has come a long way over the past 5 years and I'm always surprised what runs natively now. Proton is pretty good for the most part, though of course some games just don't want to play nice. A lot of the games that don't work well are super old and likely wouldn't be working on Windows any better.

        I recently got a new laptop with Windows 11, a Dell with 16gb ram. My jaw dropped when I saw half the ram was u

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by caseih ( 160668 )

          When you say "used up" what do you mean? In modern operating systems, including Linux and Windows, the amount of "free RAM" doesn't mean anything useful. It's not like the old DOS days. When programs are not running, the OS should be using as much RAM as it can, for caching files and other disk-based resources. As fast as SSD is, RAM is still faster. So it makes sense for Windows to copy as much stuff into RAM as possible, and page it out later when needed. Shaving RAM usage down, as you put it, is us

          • I'm no Windows or Dell preload expert, but Xubuntu is doing everything I want it to do and only eating up 1.1gb ram. Windows some how gobbled up 7.2x the resources to offer the same amount of needed services. So I can only guess on what the fuck it was doing in the background. I did shutdown quite a few services that were optional.

            I don't see the point in having a ton of things running in the background "just in case" I may need them. I like to have my fastest memory resources be available for programs and

      • Re:Soon (Score:5, Informative)

        by newcastlejon ( 1483695 ) on Wednesday June 25, 2025 @10:10PM (#65476802)

        Microsoft didn't even feel the need to make some kind of a "game mode" that would shut down spyware and other background nonsense when it detects that a game is running, much less actually optimize the OS for performance properly.

        They did literally that. [xbox.com]

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          They literally did that years into win11 release, after years of reports that same games ran much worse in 11 than on 10. And that literally still doesn't work properly, because that "separate mode" doesn't shut down most of the background processes, it just sorta kinda suspends them and they will still randomly unsuspend at times.

          Which is why linux+proton runs windows games better than native 11. But you can in fact get a stripped down version of 11 where all those background processes are actually removed

      • Linux has been competitive on the desktop for more than a decade. Currently, Linux is much better than Windows on the desktop. The qualify of the Linux users is not the reason why Linux failed to break the 5% desktop barrier yet. The real story is more about knuckle dragging users with no concept of security or dignity. Look in the mirror, do you see of those?

        • The qualify of the Linux desktop is not the reason why Linux failed to break the 5% desktop barrier yet. The real story is more about knuckle dragging users with no concept of security or dignity. Look in the mirror, do you see of those?

        • Oh please, that is real linux fanboy talk. Linux isn't more secure as windows 11 is. Linux is still not as user friendly as Windows is. The gazillion choices in Linux distro's and desktops are just absolutely ridiculous, especially since they are not all compatible. Yes, Linux has become much better over the years.
          • My only Windows computer is my work laptop, and I can work faster than it. It is ridiculously slow. I wonder how much productivity would be gained if they gave out a faster OS.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

              Catastrophic loss due to the fact that most consumer end software doesn't run on linux. What runs often runs in a way users aren't used to.

              And let's not get into "troubleshooting? Just read this manual, then that manual, then these manuals, then use the command line and what you learned from the manuals".

          • Loool dude you're like the most contrarian person in the whole site. ;)

        • Until there is truly professional level CAD and CAM software that runs on Linux, it's a nonstarter for me.

      • Microsoft 10 year strategy (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Compaq Disk Rereader ( 10425332 ) on Thursday June 26, 2025 @10:33AM (#65477696) Journal

        I would love to know what microsoft's 10 year roadmap is.
        They're barely even trying with windows.
        Wine gets better all the time.
        They're pushing cloud office tools.

        In the past you'd want outlook, word, and excel, People were used to windows, so you'd get a domain controller and office suite and hell since we're already here guess we'll license a bunch of other shit too.
        But what happens when you're already on o365 and you got a tight budget and you gotta refresh 200 desktops to run the latest version of windows?

        Maybe we'll just run linux? From there out the whole ecosystem lock in starts to fall apart. I would have considered this linux fanboy fantasy 10 years ago.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          It's worth remembering that "windows 10 is last windows you need to buy" was their long term roadmap when win10 comes out.

          Those don't last.

    • Kind of amazing that we're finally getting gaming on Linux. I didn't expect this to happen (Wine often works but is hacky)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by batkiwi ( 137781 )

        Proton (basically a gaming based wine fork) has been amazing for 2+ years. Don't try and use default wine.

        Most of these games don't have a native linux version, but are built to play nice with proton.

        • Proton changes get fed back into Wine. The reverse is also true, but Proton can be expected to lead a bit for games.

        • If you get a Game, say you have the original DVD, see if it runs on default Wine.
          The experience I find is often superior. Because it fires up in an instant.
          With Steam, it fires up many things before, Shop, Game Collection, then you having to Log-in.
          Which may take a minute or two - or feels that way.

          On Steam I have those old Missing Objects games (PopCap) which I gave up playing because can't be bothered waiting for the whole Steam Portal firing up thing. Feels like an eternity for such a light game. T
        • for many games the latest version of Wine works well too by the way.

      • Why should it be a surprise? LInux dominates the rest of the world, this is just the second last remaining island of Microsoft Horror.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Touvan ( 868256 )

      I went ahead with this! I use Bazzite or Nobara as my main OS - and I love it. (Bazzite has been generally more stable for me, and I like the immutable platform its on. Nobara is definitely easier though.)

      But... there are issues.

      - General game compatibility isn't one of them - games often run on SteamOS that wouldn't even run on modern versions of Windows. Other don't. It's a mixed bag, but it's not worse than Windows.
      - HDR support - this is a sore spot, but it's getting better. In particular, there's no wa

    • So very soon Linux will replace Windows as my default OS.

      2059 will be a watershed year for Linux.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by maird ( 699535 )
      Well said, the sole thing I used to feel I was missing from the Windows arena was MSFS until I tried FlightGear on my linux systems earlier this year. I ordered a USB joystick and throttle lever the same day and have never looked back. The Airbus A320 simulation in FlightGear seems a thing of beauty to me. Believe it or not the only thing Windows has that my sole use platforms of linux, Android and iPod don't have is the Android/Wear Watch Face Studio program for making watch faces for Wear based smart watc
  • The one thing that I have heard consistently from all the gaming news sites and YouTube channels is that even this far into its life cycle you still take a pretty severe performance hit not to mention it guzzles ram even faster than 10.

    I'm guessing it's because the OS is siphoning all your data to train Microsoft AIs.

    unfortunately for a lot of games the anti cheat software won't work under steamos or Linux. Marvel rivals though has got actual support for steamos. Which I suspect is why Microsoft is

    • I'm guessing it's because the OS is siphoning all your data to train Microsoft AIs

      That, plus Microsoft devs are just as crap as they ever were.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        I'm guessing it's because the OS is siphoning all your data to train Microsoft AIs

        That, plus Microsoft devs are just as crap as they ever were.

        Yep. MS does its pathetic products as cheaply as possible. And the mountain of issues is getting larger and larger. At this time, Windows and Office can probably not be fixed anymore, they can just be kept alive. For a while. And then all that tech debt will kill them. May still take 10 years ot longer though. But it does not look good.

      • Microsoft devs aren't crap. They're really really smart guys usually.
        Microsoft is just a shit place to work and gets shittier every day,
        Also they have a whole ecosystem of shitty indian bodyshops that will hire anyone anywhere as long as they have a pulse and take on microsoft projects and make them shittier, My wife interviewed with a microsoft vendor once and she told them she had zero requirements and wouldn't accept the offer and they BEGGED her to take it anyhow.

        I looked up the vendor and they had

  • Only going to get better (Score:4, Interesting)

    by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Wednesday June 25, 2025 @06:10PM (#65476366)

    The more Microsoft hates it end users (and gamers) the more you are going to see Linux start to make inroads. It's ironic how Microsoft is the one making Linux a better option. Windows 11 was the best thing to ever happen for Linux. I hope Windows 12 continues this trend. The cycle of Microsoft's good version/bad version of Windows ended many years ago with bad version.

  • Stupid headline is stupid (Score:5, Insightful)

    by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Wednesday June 25, 2025 @06:15PM (#65476384)

    The correct headline is: "Lenovo Legion Go S performs better with custom SteamOS than Windows 11". This isn't a Windows vs Linux debate. The actual performance difference between the OSes is a complete crapshoot that varies greatly from device to device and specific implementation to implementation.

    Even today people who run Windows 11 on the Steamdeck (it's got bugs, the main reason to do this is for compatibility with the few games that don't run on Proton) find a mixed bag between games which perform better in one OS vs the other.

    Any article that says Windows 11 is slower than SteamOS is wrong. Any article that says Windows 11 is faster than SteamOS is wrong. There are soo many variables that are uncontrolled in these statements.

    That said there is one performance difference that does seem to be consistent. For those people who have run tests on frame time consistency it seems SteamOS has universally beaten Windows in this. Even with a slower frame rate it can be more appealing to use than a stuttering game.

  • and when you get 0 fps on games that anti cheat bl (Score:4, Informative)

    by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Wednesday June 25, 2025 @07:03PM (#65476520)

    and when you get 0 fps on games that anti cheat blocks linuix?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      and when you get 0 fps on games that anti cheat blocks linuix?

      Haha. Is that a new French distro you're referring to? Lon-wee?

  • You mean games run faster on an actual operating system than a piece of software specifically designed to be slow, buggy and cumbersome in order to regularly help sell new versions of it along with hardware with ever increasing power levels? ...
    No waaaaay!

  • games running on SteamOS must go through a Proton translation layer for every native Windows instruction in a game's code

    There is no instruction translation. It's x86-64 instructions being executed on an x86-64 processor.
    Proton re-implements the Windows API's

    • Clueless copywriter obviously meant directX operation, not "instruction", in which case the point is valid and more than interesting.

  • According to a Rediitor https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmas... [reddit.com]
    Using DXVK to translate DirectX to Vulkan multi-threads the CPU side of the graphics calls, lowering overhead for old games when you have cores to spare.
    For newer games that are already multi-threaded in this area, it doesn't provide any benefit.

  • Is it Lenovo's crappy drivers? Or all the bloatware they shove on their devices? Or the default power saving settings? Because there are a lot of things which might have nothing to do with the operating system, and a lot to other factors that happen to favour SteamOS in this case.

  • I had a dual boot Win 7 Pro, Devuan 3 system for awhile. Each OS had it's own harddisk and both were bare bone minimal installs. I had manually shutdown every background Windows processes I could to eek out the best performance I could when running Windows. I didn't even have any active antivirus running on it as I only used it for FF XIV. I'd run an offline scan of the partition every week and would reset the partition to a clean image every couple months when FF XIV got an update. The Linux boot was ju

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