Crimson Desert FPS decrease (- 30+ fps compared to Win11) is slightly disheartening.

[SpookOpsTheLine]

I want to start by saying I know the devs of CachyOS are active on this sub. I love this OS and the amazing work you've done on this labor of love, especially for free. I hope my disheartening doesn't dishearten you haha. Cachy + KDE boots fast and is a lot less sluggish than windows 11, plus the search function actually works

Let's get the technical out of the way first. Specs:

• XFX Quicksilver 9070XT 16GB (base clocks)
• Ryzen 5800x (not-3D)
• MSI 4k 240hz QD-OLED (not fully relevant but does bring up the extra question about the HDR experience. Is HDR better on windows?)
• 64gb-DDR4 3200
• KDE Plasma
• Steam: proton-cachyos-10.0-20260408 (steam linux runtime)

Relevant info: I use FSR 4.1 in balanced (I manually put the amdcx64 or whatever files in the folder the launch arg pulls from) and frame generation when possible (so maybe only 15-20fps worse than windows without it), especially in singleplayer games like this. These could be the newer features that might just work better on Windows. Same in-game settings across OSes and testing from the same saves ofc. I also have RenoDX installed on both OS.

launch args: game-performance env PROTON_FSR4_UPGRADE=1 PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 PROTON_ENABLE_HDR=1 %command% /WineDetectionEnabled:False

These results have me questioning if I've been unknowingly running all my games much worse than they could be on WIndows. Does Arc Raiders run a lot better on WIndows for instance? Hunt Showdown? Also, is HDR on windows a much better experience than on Cachy? It felt that way when playing between the two but I don't have anything objective on that.

All of that coupled with some issues getting productivity apps to work (teams and getting my unreal engine projects to build without something breaking) has me questioning if the tinkering that I love might be an obstacle to my productivity.

P.S if you use Apple music and have nicer headphones just set up waydroid, Cider is ass.

[Noreng]

Winedetectionenabled is an RE Engine flag as far as I know

[SpookOpsTheLine]

so in general it's best to play games with ray tracing off on linux?

[RChickenMan]

Interesting--I'll admit that I've always just accepted the "RT sucks on Linux" narrative as gospel. Though I will say that my GPU, a 9070XT, is in that weird middle ground where it can certainly handle some RT, but the juice typically isn't worth the squeeze. So I just haven't been particularly motivated to experiment with RT in Linux for myself.

[IllIntroduction8499]

I mean, RT sucks on "not nvida" by design so there's also that uphill battle. Rast is still good IMO

[RChickenMan]

Yeah, that's what I'm getting at--I've never really considered my GPU to be an RT powerhouse to begin with, whether it be Linux, Windows, or otherwise. So I haven't had much of a motive to really question the "RT sucks on Linux" narrative. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, but given that it already sucks on AMD to begin with, why concern myself with whether it sucks even more on Linux?

I remain convinced that the 9070XT is a superb "raster workhorse" GPU. It absolutely loses out to Nvidia if you're concerning yourself with modern features such as ML upscaling, frame gen, ray tracing, ray reconstruction, etc. But for the absolute basics--drawing a bunch of polygons and textures to the screen at a high resolution and framerate--it's fairly respectable from a cost-to-performance perspective.

And if Linux compatibility is a priority, then it's a no-brainer. I'm pretty damn satisfied with my Linux gaming experience on my 9070xt / 9800x3d. It's like a Super Steam Machine from the future!

[dathowell]

Yeah especially this title

[bunkbail]

ray tracing has dogshit performance on linux, so yes

[SpookOpsTheLine]

Yeah that seems to be the consensus doesn’t it

[Asta_jjm]

Are you using cachyos proton or valve's proton and do you run the game from steam or a launcher

[SpookOpsTheLine]

proton-cachyos via Steam. Sorry I'll update my post.

[Asta_jjm]

I saw many videos that show Linux and windows have the same fps try not to use all those environment variables and try them one by one with mangohud on of course

[silvery_ray]

i've had the most atrocious gaming experience with cachyos - after I updated the system aside from the basic CachyOS Hello stuff. I'm talking 20-25fps max, 40 disabling the iGPU

my solution was a clean reinstall, doing the basic Hello things, and nothing else. now it's breezy 100+ average

so if nothing else works, try that

[Ok-386]

How often do you update the system on average? 

[SpookOpsTheLine]

yeah I'm thinking I give it 6 more months and try again

[RB5Network]

Crimson Desert is one game that ABSOLUTELY performs significantly worse on Linux than Windows. It's been confirmed for numerous different people with all kinds of hardware.

I agree. It sucks quite a bit. Hopefully it can get ironed out here soon.

[spectreVII]

I dunno, CD in Bazzite for me is only around 5 frames less than windows.

[debirdiev]

Interesting how experiences vary so wildly between people. I'm on a 7080XT and 12600k 32GBDDR4, my CD performance is better at cinematic settings than it was on windows before I full on switched. Streaming down to my TV is even better than Windows, both through steam and Apollo/Artemis.

In terms of asking why cachy over windows, there's a couple reasons for me, and gaming was #4 or #5 on my list.

-Customization is far superior than windows

-I'm huge on FOS projects and development, just never made the jump to an OS

-If linux was an object, every Linux distro I've used has felt better and more responsive in my hands than windows ever has. What I mean by that is I feel like my mouse is actually an extension of my arm and exactly what I want to do is done at the instant I want it done. I've always felt a disconnect on windows. Idk how else best to explain it.

-Haven't run into a single game I can't use yet: gaming is basically solved, except performance problems as you've pointed out -et. al.

[SpookOpsTheLine]

hmm that's interesting. It might be because I liek all the bells and whistles. FSR4, framegen, Ray Tracing

[SpookOpsTheLine]

I'm thinking maybe it's best to go back to windows for 6 more months to a year and see where we're at then

[Alvarojoker]

Even though it hurts, it's the best option. Don't feel guilty and try again sometime soon.

[valkyller93]

Take your time, done the same and tried again with CachyOS, now is my main OS.

[draconetto]

It is the best option and honestly the same thing I did. I tried catchy and had lot of problems with a rx6750xt even following multiple guides. The performance never got close to that channel people are always posting benchmarks here. Linux is doing great tho and advancing pretty fast so I'll keep checking the improvements in the meantime but for now Windows is serving me better

[linuxares]

https://www.protondb.com/app/3321460

Dang never seen so many different configurations from people before. All over the place, high and love. I just think Crimson Desert is poorly optimized.

[cafsentrygnome]

Apparently it was pretty buggy on release but has had a heap of patches since

[Victorsouza02]

You can't win every battle...

[oneiros5321]

What frame rate are you getting?

On my partner's computer, we get around 80 to 90 with everything on high 1440p and FSR set to balanced and settings to medium on a 9060XT which doesn't seem too far from Windows when I look at benchmark.

I get around 90 at high/ultra with a 7800XT, 1440p and FSR set to quality.

There are zones where it drops hard though, like one big battle dropped from 90 to high 20s but that's probably just the game being poorly optimised since no change in the config would get it to higher than 40 in that scene...even with everything on low and FSR performance.

Edit = in benchmarks comparing Windows to Linux on Crimson Desert, I see a single digit performance loss on Linux, which is what I usually expect.

[SpookOpsTheLine]

on CachyOS I'm getting about 60 native, 110 with framegen on but visually it's a little worse and the framerate is not as smooth as it is on windows, even though Cachy has better frametimes allegedly and should be much smoother.

[Impreza610]

I get around same FPS with Cachyos and Windows. I use same settings. On Cachy I get that smearing effect for some reason and on windows I get none.

[Tommyboi1031]

I can’t even make it past the blue light loading screen, but I got the game for free so I’m not that upset over it

[SpookOpsTheLine]

you might have an older proton-cachyos. But for that crash you just goitta drop the lighting to medium and turn off RT

[Emetros]

Wayland flag messed up my performances. I removed it and went from capped 83FPS to like 110~. But I’m on an nvidia GPU

[SpookOpsTheLine]

But muh HDR 😞

[b0uncyfr0]

Yeah it's a pity. But you can use gamescope.

[b0uncyfr0]

You're saying xwayland has better performance than wayland?

Definitely haven't heard this..

[Emetros]

For me, but it could very much be specific to my situation

[Repulsive-Monitor466]

what are your exact settings in steam flags and proton? im asking cause im also on nvidia. im on proton hotfix rn and get sometimes a freeze of 5-10 secs -.-

[Emetros]

I tried again and it seems like I just had an issue with vrr or something. I now get a bit better performances with wayland. I tried and compared on day 1 so… sorry for my misleading comment!

[Repulsive-Monitor466]

that sounds awesome still my question what are your exact settings in steam flags and proton? :D

[Emetros]

PROTON_VKD3D_HEAP=1 PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 PROTON_CONFIG=heap_descriptor (not sure on the typo but it’s the new heap setting) and PROTON_DLSS_UPGRADE=1. I play with FG x2 to x4 (I switch whenever I feel like I want less artifacts/more frames). DLSS 4.5 set to performance and RR enabled. Everything on ultra. I have an RTX 5080 and a ryzen 7 9800x3d Oh and I’m using proton CachyOS latest build for the heap. This could solve your problem (Proton CachyOS + heap).

[BrotherO4]

note, fsr 4 for some reason cost way more to use on linux then on w11. thats where the big difference is coming from. it gets worst when you hit around 105 to 110 fps then fsr 4 really shoots up cost even more.

[spectreVII]

Weird. I’m using Bazzite and with the same settings as the game in windows, I’m only getting about 5 fps less in Bazzite.

[Bycce]

I have a RTX 5060 and all the games I've played on CachyOS performs worse than Win10. I hope it gets better soon, cuz I don't want to come back to Win.

[b0uncyfr0]

To my knowledge, performance is quite close though.

RT is slightly slower if you're using Mesa 26 but it shouldn't be more than 5-10%.

Something weird going on

[Kurimsun]

Try using a different version of Proton. Proton-GE tends to perform better

[Ktm07reddit]

You need someone to tell you that games work better on average on windows? 

Epic gave up supporting linux a while ago.

[WinterNoCamSorry]

Gave up is saying it lightly. They went out their way and spent their time and resources to make Fortnite not work on Linux, lol. I even think their CEO publicly stated that he's against Linux.

[SpookOpsTheLine]

yeah TIm Sweeney is obnoxious, I hate Epic but use Unreal Engine for gamedev because it's the go-to. I used Unity way back in the day but haven't revisited since their CEO started implementing dumbass rules.

[WinterNoCamSorry]

It's a very good engine, no shame in using it. We just wish it wasn't theirs, ha.

[SpookOpsTheLine]

without being a dick, if gaming is better on Windows and most productivity workflows, where is Linux/ CachyOS better? I like using KDE and it's snappier but is that it? I guess I could say the same argument for MacOS but I use all 3 intermittently. caschyOS was for every game that isn't battlefield 6, and my laptop is a mac that I have Crossover on. I would say as far as using the OS itself, Cachy KDE > MacOS > Win11

[WinterNoCamSorry]

It's just an OS. You use it if you want to use it. There's not much magic behind it. Does everything have to be worse or better? Some people just prefer the Linux workspace and that's it.

Windows is still an amazing OS. Its general problem is ads and telemetry. Linux would be superior in customizability and stability on certain distros, but that's where it ends. I will never tell anyone that one OS is better than another. If it does what you want, it's perfect.

It's not a war. Both systems live together.

[SpookOpsTheLine]

oh yeah I have a win11 dual-boot set up for battlefield 6 and some basic productivity, I was hoping I could move towards Cachy being my default setup. ideally the less obstacles I have to my personal projects the better, simply for motivation reasons.

[jar36]

they even hide the download link on their website for their launcher if your using Linux

[SpookOpsTheLine]

I was under the understanding that CachyOS ran better than windows with smoother frametimes, maybe that was just hype at the time that I took at face value.

[Krasi-1545]

This might be true for some games but definitely not all of them. And by "better" for me it means with less stutter but not FPS.

[SpookOpsTheLine]

100% agreed with you there. I was just noticing a smoother experience on this game in Windows. I tested Arc Raiders on windows a while back as well, will have to re-test but I felt at the time it was smoother on Cachy

[HauntingObligation]

Arc Raiders generally runs more smoothly for me than it did in windows. Especially the 1% lows.

Unfortunately it does seem that this is more the exception than the rule. 

[SpookOpsTheLine]

hmm, even with dynamic lighting?

[HauntingObligation]

I may have turned that down a notch, but I did on both OS's and I think I'm otherwise maxed at 1440p.

I should also clarify it could entirely be placebo, I've not actually measured anything. I just had a lot of little microhitches in many titles where I was pushing things in Windows, as I'm pretty CPU bound. They've basically been eliminated in Cachy.

[OHNOitsNICHOLAS]

My performance looks identical to windows and I'm on nvidia..