An nameless reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Almost a decade in the past, Ars testing discovered that Valve’s “Steam Machines”-era model of SteamOS carried out considerably worse than Home windows when SteamOS’s Linux sport ports have been examined on the identical {hardware} as their Home windows counterparts. Right now, although, Ars testing on the Lenovo Legion Go S finds latest video games usually run at greater body charges on SteamOS 3.7 than on Home windows 11. […]
As you’ll be able to see within the included charts, SteamOS confirmed noticeable body charge enhancements in 4 of the 5 video games examined. Solely Borderlands 3 confirmed comparable efficiency throughout each working techniques, with Home windows eking out ever-so-slightly greater body charges in that sport’s benchmarks. For the opposite 4 examined video games, the inventory Lenovo Home windows drivers have been typically considerably worse than these included with SteamOS. When enjoying Returnal at “Excessive” graphics presets and 1920×1200 decision, for example, altering from Lenovo’s Home windows drivers to SteamOS meant the distinction between a hard-to-take 18 FPS common and a downright respectable 33 FPS common. Sideloading the up to date Asus drivers confirmed a noticeable enchancment in Home windows efficiency throughout all examined video games and even introduced Homeworld 3’s “Low” graphics benchmark check to sensible parity with SteamOS. In all different instances, although, even these up to date drivers resulted in benchmark body charges anyplace from 8 p.c to 36 p.c decrease than those self same benchmarks on SteamOS.
These outcomes might sound a bit counterintuitive, contemplating that video games operating on SteamOS should undergo a Proton translation layer for each native Home windows instruction in a sport’s code. However Valve has put in constant work over time to make Proton as environment friendly and cross-compatible as doable; to not point out its continued work on Linux’s Mesa graphics drivers appears to be paying dividends for SteamOS graphics efficiency. Working SteamOS additionally means eliminating loads of working system overhead that the extra generalist Home windows makes use of by default. Microsoft appears conscious of this challenge for players and has not too long ago introduced that the upcoming “Xbox Expertise for Handheld” will “reduce background exercise and defer non-essential duties” to permit for “extra [and] greater framerates” in video games.