Linux Distros for Gaming: CachyOS Takes Over, According to ProtonDB
boilingsteam.com
boilingsteam.com
I just recently made to switch to base Arch from Cachy so I can run Omarchy without any issues and it did take several hours of extra setup just to have a working system but it is nice knowing how to do it now.
In terms of benchmarks, gamers tend to care more about consistent responsiveness (and worstcase performance) than raw throughput. Phoronix benchmarks are probably not the best way to compare CachyOS against other distros. E.g., look at the game benchmarks you linked: all tested games were already running above 500 frames per second in the worst performing game.
Steam doesn’t need weekly rolling updates, and I got sick of diagnosing random regressions in basic functionality.
Also, since basic stuff doesn’t require multiple app stores and a byzantine systemd stack, it’s much easier to understand and debug.
I certainly wouldn’t give that up for a 6% improvement in mean frame rates.
Its a curated version of Arch, releases drop in with a ~2w delay. It's brutally stable. As I said, I'm running the first installation for almost 2y now, doing my updates (everything comes with GUI support) daily to weekly and I faced one single hick up so far. I resolved it on the most user friendly way, picked the last snapshot during the boot (it automatically created before the update) and it acted like nothing ever happened. BTRFS with Timeshift works like magic for these rare edge cases.
I wonder how it compares to CachyOS, will definitely test it in a few weeks on my laptop
> CachyOS is designed to deliver lightning-fast speeds
Ok, can we see the benchmarks on some popular video games, compared to vanilla Arch? Then let's compare it to Ubuntu for good measure. If they are making the claim that it's lightning fast, surely that has been measured?
from https://www.phoronix.com/review/cachyos-linux-perf
And that's without really digging deep into significance testing.
You could be change you want to see and download and run benchmarks and publish and hold them to it.
Sorry they only cooked the steak and didn’t raise the cow too. If only everyone had RD team budget, you know.
Faster is too simple a benchmark and just headline wank anyway. Performance per how much more on my power bill is more interesting to me.
If their “improvements” just shift burden to me it’s not an improvement.
Still I don't think that speed in itself is very important when making a desktop OS choice. The differences are usually too small matter in my opinion.
Ars ran an article last month comparing SteamOS to Windows 11, with SteamOS coming out ahead: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/06/games-run-faster-on-s...
I don't think there's been any macOS comparisons done as there's no equivalent to proton to run windows games, outside of vanilla wine, as whisky is now no longer maintained
> Across dozens of benchmarks run on Windows 11 and Ubuntu Linux 25.04 from these two Lenovo ThinkPad laptops, the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V within the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura was around 23% faster on Ubuntu 25.04 than the stock Windows 11 Pro installation. The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 laptop with the Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 was 8% faster on Ubuntu 25.04 than Linux. The Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 "Strix Point" though with 8-cores plus SMT, AVX-512, and other features was much faster overall on both operating systems than the Intel Lunar Lake SoC.
https://www.phoronix.com/review/nvidia2022-windows11-linux
Has cyberpunk at 4K, high, 75 fps for windows, 67 for Ubuntu. In Steam Play, so that’s including some overhead. (There’s a bigger difference on silly benchmarks, like Portal in the .5 kfps range).
Cachy looks to be a little faster than Ubuntu in most benchmarks so it may be a wash compared to Windows 11 (which ought to be pretty shocking given that Linux is working with some comparability layer).
A person who can not install Arch Linux should not be managing their own Arch installation. Inevitably something will not work right and confusion and disappointment will set in as that person is completely unprepared to help themselves.
Arch derivatives themselves are usually just worse versions of Arch with more problems. Manjaro being the worst offender there. Pushing those onto people, is not a good thing and if someone does not have the basic tech literacy to install Arch, they should not be using any Arch derivative.
No, this isn't gate keeping. It is protecting people from inevitable disappointment and frustration, which can only harm Linux Desktop and Linux gaming.
These distros also target completely new people, with very little or even zero, Linux experience. Someone like that is not done any favors by putting him in front of a pre configured Arch. They will run into problems they can not solve without substantial time commitments and that will lead to frustration and disappointment.
At the very least these distros should be honest about what they are. From the top of the CachyOS Website: "Whether you're a seasoned Linux user or just starting out, CachyOS is the ideal choice for those looking for a powerful, customizable and blazingly fast operating system."
This is doing a complete disservice to their potential users. This is ot the "ideal" distro for someone who never touched Linux.
SteamOS also clearly has a place as an immutable Arch, hard to argue that it's been a disappointment or a cause of frustration for users, given the narrative has been an overwhelming want from the gaming community for a desktop version. I guess the frustration comes from, if anything, it's narrow scope.
Speaking of Ubuntu, it has atrophed. It used to be that it was popular enough that you could google your problem and someone would have solved it. Try doing that now, you get ancient posts from a decade ago that are no longer relevant. It's not like it's terrible, but I don't see anyone recommend it anymore. Though Mint has it's fans.
The Arch project itself disagrees with that, they will not provide any support or make any assurances about what works on other Arch based distros. The edges being filed of is a substantial difference, which sometimes will matter. The distros (by design) include a lot of defaults, which are assumptions Arch does not make and which it assumes users know about.
>SteamOS also clearly has a place as an immutable Arch, hard to argue that it's been a disappointment or a cause of frustration for users, given the narrative has been an overwhelming want from the gaming community for a desktop version. I guess the frustration comes from, if anything, it's narrow scope.
I specifically talked about managing Arch yourself. On the Steamdeck you never have to touch a console to make things work. Valve will provide updates for you, no manual intervention needed. It is also well defined and extensively tested hardware, which does not apply to anything else. No user should use SteamOS outside of the Steamdeck, Valve is clear about that.
Besides my main point still stands. If you can not install Arch, you lack basic Linux literacy. The moment your Arch based distro based, you can not fix it without these basic skills. You will be disappointed and frustrated and unless you are willing to spend a lot of time learning (after which you could just install Arch anyways) you will never touch Linux again.
But I bounced off vanilla Arch's install process and painstaking setup. Tried Manjaro, got hit by successive boot breaking bugs, then found EndeavourOS and discovered they hey, Arch doesn't need to be a pain in the ass or a broken piece of shit.
Arch can be and can continue to be Arch, anything based on it can be something else but also sort of Arch and that's fine and maybe even really good.
You, presumably, are not new to Linux. You know how to fix your system. The users CachyOS is targeting do not. They will run into walls, get frustrated and leave.
I really couldn't care less that someone like you uses some Arch derivative, because they don't want to spend the 3 hours doing the setup themselves.
Just FYI,the Arch setup is as easy as setting up e.g. Debian, unless you are terminally afraid of using terminal UIs.
The people who run into that wall and bounce off of it wouldn't be better served by Ubuntu, but an immutable OS. Fedora Silverblue, Bazzite et al.
Like the Steam Deck, too; though you're wrong about the OS's scope for hardware compatibility. SteamOS supports the Legion Go S officially, but also contains specific patches to support the ROG Ally which they have no affiliation with. Their intent for SteamOS isn't for it to stay on Valve hardware forever.
Obviously false. Rolling release distros like Arch require far more intervention. Why do you make up nonsense like that?
None of this requires some trial by fire bullshit on part of end users.
I ran a single Arch Linux install concurrently for 7 years before 2020 (i.e. before the rot took hold) and needed to use the terminal to fix things less than I ever did Ubuntu around the same time period.
I would suggest to look a bit more at other distros outside the arch bubble before claiming such an opinion.
I think this is largely because most of Ubuntu support is through StackExchange and they tend to moderate the usefulness out of it. Every new issue is closed as being a duplicate, even when the linked "duplicate" is years old and not even resolved.
With EndeavourOS, I'm asked a few basic questions about my keyboard, language, timezone, DE and where I want it put. With Windows, I'm clicking through endless pages asking it not to do a whole load of hostile crap, before having to spend the next hour or so carefully removing bloat and checking settings.
Same playing with my nephew yesterday. He's 8 and has just got his first laptop (also Win 11). He complained about how confusing it is, and I'm not surprised because his screen is full of junk. The poor kid had a stock ticker on his bar!
EndeavourOS just works out of the box and gives a simple, clean starting point to build on. I was amazed by how much more usable a supposedly beardy distribution is than the normie offering.
Booting from an USB Drive understanding a few menu options is in fact what I would call "basic tech literacy".
EDIT: this is fascinating. On web, their comment shows as 1 hour ago. But on my mobile app, their comment shows as 3 days ago. Looks like the HN mods second-chanced this article, and it edited all the old comment timestamps as a result?
Other distros bring their own problems of course but that’s another topic.
That's in contrast with what I perceive with a lot of gamers (seeing as Valve is being mentioned a lot) where they see a PC as a deluxe console with steam as the UI, and seem to be desiring a high level of polish. That's in combination with signalling that they're using the latest and greatest, tweaking to get the most out of their rigs, showing off their pretty color coordinated builds, and somehow are expected to dive into linux (and the freedom it brings) when there's hostility to running more than one client/store/downloader/gaming package manager. Some aspects of PC gaming seem weird to me.
Are there better options? I wouldn't be shocked. But it wasn't worth my time to do a big comparison. (Note that I would not necessarily install Manjaro today, but I do think wanting a more out of the box Arch is totally reasonable.)
I think there is a big jump from the tech literacy to install Arch and the tech literacy to maintain an Arch system over time. These derivatives feel like they are there to help solve the latter.
But yeah: Debian truly “just works”, with the caveat of initial setup for Nvidia cards. And I would say that certain Gnome extensions are kind of mandatory as well, but the IX of installing those is ridiculously good for what they are.
That said, I learned a lot by constantly screwing up Arch installs I had no real reason to be doing. Eventually I learned to appreciate projects like Debian or Enterprise Linux a lot more.
I think that people choosing to do this stuff are doing it because they want to learn. I'm not convinced a few kids being precocious and getting in way over their heads "harms Linux Desktop". I think it's more likely that this is the next generation of Linux Desktop enthusiasts who could help make the dream a reality.
Which percentage of people do you think would have done the same? Especially if those people just wanted a way to escape from Windows?
>this is the next generation of Linux Desktop enthusiasts who could help make the dream a reality.
I am all for it. But these distros should set realistic expectations and should be clear and upfront that willingness to engage with technical topics is mandatory.
I'm using Fedora at home, community is friendly and open then documentation is decent and the OS is just cutting edge without being bleeding edge. its all i need.
EndeavourOS isn't bad, but I struggle to think of anything it does better.
It was fun until it stopped booting one day.
Switched to Tumbleweed, but I'm ready for the same thing to happen.
I don't recommend it if you want to contribute your bug reports to Linux gaming community back properly.