Proton Slows Down RTX 4090, 4080 By 10% in Linux vs Windows 11 Gaming Benchmarks
recent phonics Posted an article Using Nvidia’s top graphics cards, the GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 4080, we cover the performance differences between Windows 11 and Linux Ubuntu. For gaming, we found both GPUs were 10% slower on Linux than on Windows 11 when gaming on non-native Linux gaming applications. By nature, the performance of both operating systems is very similar.
For testing, Phoronix used a test rig consisting of the all-new Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Games and benchmark applications tested include Cyberpunk 2077, hitman 3, Unigene Heaven 4and Unigene superposition. cyber punk and hitman ran on Steam’s Proton compatibility layer, while the Unigine application had a native Linux-only application.
of cyberpunk 2077, At the 1440P Ultra setting, the RTX 4090 was 13% slower on Linux than Windows 11 Pro. The RTX 4080 is similar, 15% slower on Linux Ubuntu than on Windows 11.
At the higher 1440P settings, the RTX 4090’s Linux OS is only 5% slower than Windows 11 Pro, and the gap starts to close. Oddly enough, when testing on medium graphics settings, the RTX 4090’s frame rate doesn’t come close to high settings. The reason is unknown.
The RTX 4080 at 1440P height did not show the same behavior as the RTX 4090. Like the Ultra setting, it features a 15% performance gap. See the Phoronix article for more details on the 4K results. However, in general, 4K results share similar behavior with 1440P results.
hitman 3 I got some interesting results. The 1440P results came very close between his two operating systems, but at 4K, the game showed wider performance disparities between Linux and Windows. At the 1440P Ultra setting, the RTX 4090 and 4080 had a 4% to 5% performance difference between Linux and Windows. At the 4K Ultra setting, the framerate variation is up to 14% and 15% respectively.
As a matter of course, Unigene Heaven and Superposition Both apps have native Windows and Linux applications, so the results were essentially the same across both operating systems, both on the RTX 4090 and 4080. At best, there was a 1.5% difference between both benchmark applications at 1440P and 4K.
Steam’s Proton compatibility layer is clearly the main issue preventing Nvidia’s 40-series GPUs from achieving Windows-like performance in Linux. However, this is to be expected, as Proton’s API conversion from DX to Vulkan requires additional processing overhead. In any case, the 10% performance penalty (average) is not very significant. Considering how powerful these GPUs are, 90% of the RTX 4090 or 4080 still deliver a great 4K or 1440P gaming experience.
