I'm new to Linux and recently installed CachyOS on a 1TB Sandisk external SSD using USB 3.2. Surprisingly, I've been gaming and streaming with zero issues for the past couple of days! After mentioning this to a friend, he asked why I'm not using my faster internal M.2 drives. That's when I realized that the performance I'm seeing is actually better than when I was using Windows—both for everyday use and in games! I'm curious about why this is happening and if I could see even better performance when I switch to an internal drive. Right now, I'm also exploring how to enable secure boot to help with switching between Windows and Linux on separate drives.
4 Answers
One key factor is the read/write speed limitations of USB drives. While USB 3.2 is fast, an internal SSD can still offer superior speed. You might notice a performance boost in load times and when launching games once you switch to the internal drive, but overall experience is what counts.
You might not encounter the same performance boosts on every machine though. When trying CachyOS on my own setup, the installation went fine, but afterward, I couldn’t get it to boot properly. It just hung indefinitely at the loading screen.
That could be related to secure boot settings or other VM configurations. It might be worth diving into those settings to troubleshoot!
It's primarily because of how Linux optimizes resources compared to Windows. CachyOS, in particular, has enhancements tailored for specific CPU architectures which gives it an edge. The speed you're seeing is typical for Linux, especially since you're using a fast USB 3.2 SSD.
True, but keep in mind that the performance gap isn’t always huge between different distributions in casual use. Sure, benchmarks might show differences, but for gaming and daily tasks, you're likely to get similar performance across various distros.
CachyOS and similar distros are designed for performance with a custom kernel that targets specific hardware. Make sure to check the speed of your external SSD; tools like KDiskMark can give you an idea of its current performance. Internal NVMe drives will typically outshine external SSDs, but if your USB is utilizing all the bandwidth, you're still in a good spot!
Absolutely! Plus, Linux generally has less background activity compared to Windows, which can improve performance significantly.