I'm looking for Linux distributions that are faster than CachyOS, not just in gaming but in overall system performance as well. I have a decent setup with a 9950X processor and a 7900XTX GPU. While I found CachyOS to be snappy in games, I experienced some graphical flickering when launching games on it. I also tried Mint, which performs okay but can be sluggish at times, especially during general tasks, even though it shuts down really quickly. Have any of you found other distros that have that extra snappiness I'm looking for, especially with good performance across the board? I know CachyOS uses a custom scheduler, but I'd like to hear about alternatives that might be even better.
4 Answers
To really answer this, you'd need to define what "snappiness" means for your setup and benchmark each distro accordingly. It's definitely a mix of subjective and objective metrics. For instance, if you’re overly concerned with app launch times or general responsiveness, you’d want to test those across different distros rather than just going by feel.
Have you considered MX Linux or EndeavourOS? They might not outperform CachyOS, but they have their fans for solid performance. And with CachyOS, tweaking things like zram or sched-ext can really improve things beyond just what it offers out of the box.
Honestly, if you're switching distros and still getting sluggishness, it might not just be the distro. I’d say figure out if there's something wrong with your system. Proper settings and using fast storage for your OS can dramatically affect performance more than switching distros. You shouldn’t just have major issues with a distro unless something is fundamentally broken.
If the main thing you want is to improve performance, changing distros might not be the answer. The Arch Wiki has tons of tips on optimizations that could help your current setup without having to jump ship. Just remember, if you're already feeling sluggish, you might want to troubleshoot your hardware or system settings first before swapping distros.
Exactly! I get that everyone has their own take on what feels 'snappy,' but factors like shutdown times and how quickly applications load are really important. For me, Mint felt slower than CachyOS overall, although it does boot up and shut down in record time.