I have a gaming laptop with a Ryzen 7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and an RTX 2050. Everything I play runs well in Windows, but I'm considering switching to Linux, possibly CachyOS or Pop!_OS. How much gaming performance should I expect to lose, and are there any situations where Linux might perform better?
2 Answers
You shouldn’t assume Linux will automatically make every game slower, but performance is less predictable than on Windows. Many games are nearly identical, while certain DirectX 12 titles or games using anti-cheat systems can have substantial issues or may not run at all. Make sure the proprietary NVIDIA driver is installed and check compatibility for the games you play before switching completely.
Most games should run about the same or slightly slower, but the results depend heavily on the game and its graphics API. Some DirectX 12 games currently perform worse with NVIDIA’s Linux drivers, and ray tracing tends to take a larger hit. Vulkan and well-supported games may be much closer to Windows, but an RTX 2050 has limited performance headroom, so even a modest drop could be noticeable.
I don’t use ray tracing, so that part isn’t a concern. Is the performance loss usually just a few frames, or can it be much more noticeable?