Hacker News Reader

Comment by INTPenis | Hacker News Reader

I've used Linux since the 90s and I'm a huge advocate for it, but I just can't take these tests seriously.

Phoronix has also posted a lot of these tests where Linux seemingly performs better than Windows.

I don't have the technical wherewithal to challenge their methodology but it just doesn't seem right that you would add overhead and still outperform Windows on a system barely used by 1% of gamers. It seems like Linux fanatics fantasizing.

I love what Valve have done, thanks to them I am never bored on Linux and never wish I had a windows PC anymore. But something is rotten in the state of denmark.

View on HN

It's a common misconception that Proton adds any overhead. It's just an alternative implementation. In some aspects it will be faster (and in some other probably slower) because the Linux kernel does things differently from the NT kernel.

I have not run any benchmark but I exclusive use Linux as my gaming platform. I don't play any multiplayer though and I think that's one aspect where Linux is behind. But for single-player stuff it's perfectly fine.

One thing though is that I have to filter out which games I buy by checking on ProtonDB their level of compatibility. But I can play major AAA games just fine.

What added overhead?

There's no emulation, just alternative implementation (kernel, drivers, userspace, including Windows APIs with Wine). I don't play and I haven't looked at the results but it does not surprise me that an alternative implementation can perform better.

Don't those alternative implementation add a few extra layers of abstraction that must affect performance?

IIUC no, they don't add layers, they replace them. For instance, the Windows APIs are implemented in Windows in DLLs that Wine reimplements.

Caveat for dxvk, as mentioned by iforgotpassword, there's indeed a translation layer there.

Not an expert on the topic.

Dxvk/vkd3d, although as seen with arc newer cards might actually implement older dx Standards in such a crappy way that software translation to Vulkan is still faster.

Didn't Intel switch to using d9vk on their Arc GPUs because it was faster and less work than fixing DX9 directly?

Yes, and dxvk was actually available for windows before that and people figuring out that even on AMD and Nvidia you can get notable performance boosts in certain games. Intel just did the sane thing of giving up completely since their implementation was never there in the first place, and from what I heard even the hardware not designed with how those older APIs work, which might give them an advantage over the other two.

Cyberpunk gets an extra 20 frames on Linux for me versus windows with an nvidia card.

Denmark?

It’s a Hamlet reference.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com