X.Org vs. (X)Wayland Gaming Performance For NVIDIA GeForce & AMD Radeon On Ubuntu 22.04

[middy]

Why Gnome shell? It's probably the worst compositor for gaming these days (on Wayland at least). I've heard multiple horror stories about performance, stuttering and etc.

What would be interesting is to compare multiple compositors for that.

gnome user since 40 here with a 6900 xt and a 5800x. performance has been great for me. my only complaint is lack of freesync because gnome wants to wait for KMS changes in the kernel for a proper fix apparently all freesync implementations in use on wayland face.

the only other one i know of, but haven't ran into is 1000hz mice. but i just keep my mouse at 125hz because i honestly can't tell the difference and not worth bombing my system 1,000 times a second saying "hello, this is mouse." i've never been a cs:go "pro." but, i saw gnome 42 is bringing more fixes for that issue.

[Myownfriend]

I've seen some posts about weird latency / sync issues, stuttering and so on. You can call it however you want, but dismissive attitude is not helping your argument that it's not an issue.

Where was I being dismissive? It can still have bugs and still be one of the most mature Wayland-supporting DEs. Phoronix's own testing two months ago showed Gnome's Wayland sessions to be beat or be competitive with KDE's and non-Wayland DEs.

I've seen some posts about weird latency / sync issues, stuttering and so on. You can call it however you want, but dismissive attitude is not helping your argument that it's not an issue.

That issue is over a year old, is talking about Mutter version 3.38.1 and an older version of XWayland, and reading through it shows that the issue was fixed 5 months ago.

[shmerl]

gnome user since 40 here with a 6900 xt and a 5800x. performance has been great for me. my only complaint is lack of freesync because gnome wants to wait for KMS changes in the kernel for a proper fix apparently all freesync implementations in use on wayland face.

the only other one i know of, but haven't ran into is 1000hz mice. but i just keep my mouse at 125hz because i honestly can't tell the difference and not worth bombing my system 1,000 times a second saying "hello, this is mouse." i've never been a cs:go "pro." but, i saw gnome 42 is bringing more fixes for that issue.

Good, may be some of those were fixed, but still lack of adaptive sync is a big blocker if you want a gaming ready compositor. So arguing that it's most mature for gaming like some did above is simply disingenuous.

In addition to adaptive sync there is also the issue of framerate above monitor refresh rate. But I think no compositor supports that yet (Kwin has some plans for it and Wayland proposal, no idea about Mutter plans).

[Myownfriend]

Good, may be some of those were fixed, but still lack of adaptive sync is a big blocker if you want a gaming ready compositor. So arguing that it's most mature for gaming like some did above is simply disingenuous.

I said it was the most mature for Wayland and cited that Phoronix's recent benchmarks showed that it's Wayland session often outperformed or matched KDE Wayland and Xorg sessions and XFCE in gaming. That was in response to you specifically stating that it's the worst for gaming in Wayland based on what you've heard.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...ayland21&num=1

[shmerl]

I said it was the most mature for Wayland

And we are talking about gaming on Wayland obviously. Clearly when other compositors already support adaptive sync and Mutter does not, it can't claim to be most mature for gaming on Wayland.

And your linked versions are too old for benchmarking. Lack of features in current versions however is a pretty clear picture.

[Myownfriend]

And we are talking about gaming on Wayland obviously. Clearly when other compositors already support adaptive sync and Mutter does not, it can't claim to be most mature for gaming on Wayland.

But that alone doesn't bump down Gnome to be the worst compositor for gaming. In scenarios where a game is hitting or exceeding the frame rate of the monitor, adaptive sync doesn't even really come into play. Hell, it won't come into play at all if someone doesn't have a display that supports adaptive sync.

And your linked versions are too old for benchmarking. Lack of features in current versions however is a pretty clear picture.

You posted a link to a single Mutter issue from a year ago and you found that to be up-to-date information even though the same link said it was resolved 5 months ago. I linked you to benchmarks from less than a month and half ago that show Gnome outperforming other DEs in multiple games at multiple resolutions and you consider that "too old". One of those benchmarks, while being an anomaly, showed KDE getting a frame rate that was 71% lower than Gnome was able to achieve in HItman 2 at 1080p and 20% less at UHD. That first result literally shows Gnome being able to comfortably exceed 120 fps (129 min, 131 max) while Plasma was providing an erratic 37 fps(28 min, 126max).

I love adaptive sync, too, but I'm not gonna claim it's the only metric that matters. And maybe that issue was already fixed in KDE, but again, that wouldn't put Gnome at the bottom of the ranks.

[shmerl]

I linked you to benchmarks from less than a month and half ago

Which uses Plasma 5.22.5 which was outdated already back then, since 5.23.x was already out. So that's not an indicator of performance.

[Myownfriend]

Which uses Plasma 5.22.5 which was outdated already back then, since 5.23.x was already out. So that's not an indicator of performance.

I'm noticing that you didn't also point out that it used Gnome 40.5 instead of Gnome 41.

That's still the most recent gaming benchmark to go by. Do you have anything to backup that KDE has significantly improved in that time and that Gnome's performance has tanked? Are you willing to name what you think is the best Wayland compositor for gaming or are you gonna say what you think is the worst based on some things you heard?

[shmerl]

I'm noticing that you didn't also point out that it used Gnome 40.5 instead of Gnome 41.

Which neither is saying anything. Release cycles aren't supposed to be synced. Point is, if you aren't comparing latest available, bringing that as an indicator of performance is pointless.

Are you willing to name what you think is the best Wayland compositor for gaming

Sway or Kwin these days. They do focus on gaming enough to be advancing and acceptable pace. I'm not sure what Mutter focuses on, but clearly not enough on gaming to my taste.

[Myownfriend]

Which neither is saying anything. Release cycles aren't supposed to be synced. Point is, if you aren't comparing latest available, bringing that as an indicator of performance is pointless.

The point was that Gnome 41 was out already, too. Gnome 41 came out a month after Plasma 5.22.5 and a month before 5.23. I'm suggesting that you're only concerned about how that test reflects KDE and not fairness..

Sway or Kwin these days. They do focus on gaming enough to be advancing and acceptable pace. I'm not sure what Mutter focuses on, but clearly not enough on gaming to my taste.

What does "focus on gaming" mean here? And again, do you have any newer, more relevant benchmarks that back up your stance or are you just working on hunches and taste?