Linux Scores A Surprising Gaming Victory Against Windows 11
Linux Scores A Surprising Gaming Victory Against Windows 11
The conversation around gaming on Linux sure has changed in the last few years. And these benchmark results prove it.
I recently spent some time with the Framework 13 laptop, evaluating it with the new Intel Core Ultra 7 processor and the AMD Ryzen 7 7480U. It felt like the perfect opportunity to test how a handful of games ran on Windows 11 and Fedora 40. I was genuinely surprised by the results!
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The Framework 13 is perfectly capable of gaming even with its integrated graphics, provided you’re willing to compromise by lowering the resolution and quality presets for more demanding games. (It’s also a testament to how far AMD’s APUs have come in the past decade.)
Summary of results:
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Linux wins
- Total War: Warhammer III: Windows wins
- Cyberpunk 2077: Linux wins
- Forza Horizon 5: Windows wins
These results are an interesting slice of the Linux vs Windows gaming picture, but certainly not representative of the entire landscape. A few shorts years ago, however, I never would have dreamed I’d be writing an article where even two games on Linux are outperforming their Windows counterparts.
When I started using linux 15 years ago, my friend recommended to keep a windows partition for gaming. At least for me, I have deleted windows a few years ago and I'm not looking back.
My gaming PC was the last one I had running Windows. I couldn't take it anymore and this year I switched that one too.
Now if only I could run (my perfectly legal copy of) SOLIDWORKS decently, it'd be great.
It's just easier to get old windows games running on Linux.
For some reason I just can't get warcraft 3 and StarCraft 1 running through wine
Try Bottles! Available as flatpak so as long as you don'y have hate for flatpak, Bottles is there. All the normal flatpak benefit + a pretty great UI.
Not sure to WC3 suppose to run, but SC1 I owned on Bnet and I can tell, it works well with just a standard b.net install button in Bottles. SC2, HotS, D2R, D3 and so on I own run just fine, and fast too
Suprised that forbes is reporting about linux
It's their community blog. This specific person has been writing there about Linux gaming for a long time now.
ah alright, thank you
I think it says a lot more about how much recent versions of Windows have bogged down the whole gaming experience.
Microsoft seems to have forgotten that people want an operating system that works, not something bloated with bullshit like telemetry, advertisements, tracking cookies and artificial intelligence. The only reason they even have a market lead in the desktop space is due to marketing and monopolistic practices.
I wonder how Windows would perform against Linux with all bloatware removed and telemetry disabled.
Oh, they know what people want in an OS, the thing is that they don't care. People who know better can complain all they want, normies and most corpos will get windows anyway
Im so glad I fully switched to Linux. I was amazed how good the gaming performance have come nowadays. I tried out Ubuntu back in 2007 and have tried some other distros too during the years, but always went back to Windows because of games. Not anymore.
What I'm still missing unfortunately is how seemingly all modern online games require stupid kernel level anti-cheats that don't work on Linux.
Yea, but honestly that's not a Linux problem imo. Invasive anti-cheat has been a deal breaker for me since its inception. It started as "I don't want to deal with your shitty software always running in the background eating up my CPU cycles, need maximum performance baby" and then quickly became "I'm not giving your shitty software kernal access to my entire machine, I don't trust you".
It's made so much worse when you realize it doesnt even actually stop cheaters...
You’re right it’s not a Linux problem but it is a problem more to the point it’s our problem and anyone who would want to switch
Cold hard fact is that people just do not care what causes the problem and people do not care if something is %1 worse or %1000 worse they will always pick the one slightly better that’s why monopoly’s are an inherent part of nature eventually competition is unviable.
The only hope is that either Linux crosses the critical threshold of being slightly better than Windows or windows gets so invasive and counterintuitive that even normies can’t use it for productivity
I use Linux all the time I have three physical servers running probably 20 or 30 VM’s and containers but even I am hesitant to switch my gaming Pc because even though I can play everything I want now what if tomorrow something comes out I really want to play but it’s locked down to windows?
If Microsoft makes good on their threats to cut off all kernel-level access to third party applications, that might help with that
Only a few of them. Many just work.
Oh, the article is written by Jason Evanghelo. Of course, he’s a giant Linux shill working at Forbes :D
Still great to see such press
I recognized that name... he's working at Thunderbird!
Aw, I can't get cyberpunk to run on my mint install - it gets the logos and stops responding.
Some people read about performance, sometimes I'm just motivated knowing someone on the internet did get a game running in the first instance! :)
I will say though, Baldurs Gate 3 works perfectly, as does anything else I throw at it! :)
Cyberpunk worked out of the box for me, but senua 2 absolutely refuses to start no matter what kind of voodoo I try ("fatal error"). I seem to always be on the opposite spectrum of protondb mint users I swear.
It wouldn't run for me until I got the Steam version (in Tumbleweed). Works great now.
It would have been better if it had worked with just one copy though. At least I got it on sale.
How odd! I must admit with cyberpunk, I was reading ProtonDB and had a "that's one fine game... why doesn't mine look like that!" Simpsons moment. 😅
I managed to get it running on EndeavorOS!
Nice! Consider me doubly motivated to give it another go this weekend :)
A couple of months ago I had the same problem on Debian Unstable. Then I tried it on Fedora 40 and it worked flawlessly.
Oh no! I'm so cosy on mint, but now I'm eyeing Fedora and it looks snazzy, and maybe cyberpunk is a fun prospect too! :)
Sometimes i feel weird and impressed with Microsoft that allow third party to create windows emulation system that beat original windows in many ways
It is mostly a translation layer -- WINE is Not an Emulator (WINE). The reason Microsoft 'allows' this is because they have no choice. WINE hasn't broken any laws or violated any copyright or trademarks. Same goes for Proton with DXVK of course.
Although i never fully understand how wine works, how WINE doesn't break any lawsuit ? It's clearly mimicking windows itself with windows library (like VC Library, DotNet, DirectX, etc) as add-ons
Now i hope linux community can do the same with Nintendo Emulator or Sony PS emulator without triggering lawsuit
Fun fact: With those 4 games it looks like a tie, but weighed by Steam scores, Linux wins. (Warhammer has like 3/5).
(Disclaimer: I have never played any of those 4 games and don't plan to in a forseeable future. I also realize full well how ridiculously insignificant a sample of 4 is.)
Btw, anyone got the newest reshade to work? Even with the reshade-linux script, they just don't load, no matter which game. I had 4.something working for the longest time but since 5, nothing.
If only we had a fix for the crazy performance discrepancy that pops up when running DX12 + RTX titles!
I just wish many of the multiplayer games I play worked on Linux (invasive anti-cheat).
Slightly off-topic, but when I stopped playing multiplayer games with anti-cheats (competitive FPS mostly), I've got more time to explore more productive hobbies, and my mental health improved. Might be worth trying 🙂
Yeah, could be worth a shot!
Ok cool now make a distro that handles my peripherals. Oh that's not happening? Ok, fuck linux.
"I'm going to keep throwing exorbitant amount of many to companies that refuse to stop supporting Microsoft's monopoly, and then blame the OSS community for not doing their job for them. Look, I'm smart!"
Last I tried a keyboard and a mouse work just on every Linux distro out there. It's OK to bend over for companies over some stuff you're personally attached to (we all do it to some degree) but you can go fuck yourself with your offensive comments about distro maintainers, who have nothing to do with your problem.
Driver support is down to the manufacturer. Distros can’t give you things that don’t exist.
Do you honestly think linux will be desktop ready if people can't just install it and go?
It doesn't matter who's fault it is, it only matters if a solution is forthcoming.
If the manufacturers don't make it, then one of you has to. But you are all too busy working on your fuckdamn vanity distros to actually unify and do something to forward the OS.
Surprising?
But you still can't play Roblox on it.
Or a ton of indie games on Steam.
Which indie games don’t work with wine or proton?
Roblox not working is annoying. I play a bunch of stupid Roblox games with my kids and switching back to Windows just for that is a pain.
Sober works very well, and if their devices are low-end sober has been proven to improve FPS by a few
Roblox works, look up Sober.