Dankpods used 12 computers with different hardware to test the performance of 5 games in 1080p and 4K, comparing the average fps results of the games’ built in benchmarks to determine which OS ran the game better across the same hardware: Windows or Bazzite.

Some notes on methodolgy under this spoiler

Each game uses the same in game graphics settings in Windows and in Linux. The Linux distro used was Bazzite, using the version specific for the graphics card hardware fpr each individual machine. To be clear, this means that he installed the Bazzite version for (legacy) nVidia as appropriate.

Each bazzite install was fresh, no copying installs or swapping around a drive with it pre-installed. After install, it was updated using system update and rebooted, repeated until no updates remained.

Screenshots of some of Dankpods’s comments to this effect:

There are many comments under the youtube video pointing out that in many of the Linux runs, it was not actually using the correct driver, comments about the experience using other distros, and comments about various potential fixes and workarounds.

This misses the point. Dankpods intentionally tested this way, and used Bazzite, to try and show what this would be like for the average gamer schmuck without a ton of technical skill interested in switching to Linux. Out of box experience matters in this situation, even though it’s not quite fair to compare that between free opens source distros and an OS created by a megacorp. To the average end user, it won’t matter. They just want it to work.

Prepare to be upset. With this particular testing methodology, Linux doesn’t really win overall.

I’m interested to hear the community’s thoughts on this.

  • stuner@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    It looks like most of the Nvidia systems were not running the proprietary Nvidia drivers (580/590) but instead falling back to NVK or even LLVMpipe (CPU rendering). All of the tested Nvidia GPUs are supposed to run using the proprietary driver on Bazzite. So, assuming that he downloaded the correct images, Bazzite really screwed up here.

    But, unfortunately for the video, this doesn’t really show the typical gaming experience on Linux, it just highlights a Bazzite bug (?).

    • dustyData@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      It’s not a bug. If you install an NVIDIA dedicated bazzite image, this doesn’t happen. I suspect he just booted a hard drive with a fresh install of the wrong bazzite image without the NVIDIA drivers. User error a million percent, since bazzite doesn’t even let you download the installer until you tell the website exactly where are you installing it.

      • stuner@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        4 months ago

        He certainly claims to have used the correct Bazzite images:

        A few folks have asked but yes every machine got it’s own specific install, each machine has it’s own Bazzite ISO download for their specific hardware. No cloning, no short cuts, each was treated like a brand new machine with a fresh install 🕊️. After updates installed I rebooted and checked updates again, I’ll never take PC benchmarks for granted again 😅

        He also mentions that he used the “Nvidia (GTX 9xx-10xx Series)” image for the 1080 Ti system.

        Of course, it could be that he messed up, but it could also be that Bazzite didn’t work as intended. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that Nvidia drivers broke on a Linux distro.

        And in case this was indeed user error, perhaps it would be a good idea to have a mechanism to let users know that they chose the “wrong” image.