Windows vs Linux gaming performance shows why AMD is better than Nvidia... mostly

Recently, we conducted our performance overview of an in-place upgrade from Windows 11 23H2 to 24H2 with some scenarios showing interesting outcomes.

However, upgrading to Windows 11 may not be an option for everyone as some Windows 10 PCs may not meet the system requirements. As the Windows 10 end-of-support date approaches, an option for users who can't upgrade will be switching to Linux, as ESET itself recommended recently to stay in support.

If you use your PC mainly for gaming and are wondering what kind of performance you may see from a jump to the other side, there is some goodish news for you in case you have an AMD Radeon GPU. That is because the AMD cards tended to perform fairly similarly on both Windows 10 and Linux. This was not the case with Nvidia as there was a significant performance loss.

The testing was conducted by a YouTube channel Tech YES City and Bazzite was the choice of Linux distro for this comparison. This was a re-test since in the previous round, certain errors were made like not enabling the Steam compatibility layer which led to sub-optimal performance.

Bazzite is based on Fedora Atomic and the distro tries to make it easy for Linux newcomers. On its official website, Bazzite writes:

Bazzite is designed for Linux newcomers and enthusiasts alike with Steam pre-installed, HDR & VRR support, improved CPU schedulers for responsive gameplay, and numerous community-develod tools and tweaks to streamline your gaming and streaming experience.

Coming back to the point of performance, first, we have Cyberpunk 2077, which shows lowered output on Bazzite on the RTX 4090. It happens on both 1440p and 2160p (4K).

Next up, we have Rift Breaker which was the exception:

Black Myth Wukong also exhibits performance loss on the Nvidia side on Bazzite (Linux):

Hence, it looks like Nvidia GPU users will have to settle for lower performance compared to their corresponding AMD counterparts if they were to switch from Windows to Linux as the Radeon card showcased a more consistent performance profile across the two OSs.

Speaking of GPUs, Bazzite requires GPUs to support Vulkan version 1.3 or newer, and on the CPU side, a 64-bit processor (AMD64/x86_64). An easy way to know whether your GPU is Vulkan 1.3 compatible is to download and install GPU-Z, heading to the Advanced tab and clicking on the drop-down menu to check the Vulkan version. For example, on my RX 6800 XT, it is Version 1.3.280.

Source and images: Tech YES City (YouTube)

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