A new gaming comparison across 14 games reveals how the Radeon RX 9070 XT and GeForce RTX 5080 perform on Windows 11 versus popular Linux distributions. The benchmarking tests were conducted at 1440p resolution using a desktop PC equipped with a Ryzen 9 7900X3D processor and DDR5 6000MT/s RAM. Hardware testers wanted to evaluate how these graphics architectures interact with different operating software options.
The results show that Windows 11 25H2 maintains the overall lead in average frame rate for both graphics cards. However, the drop in gaming performance under Linux varies depending on the GPU manufacturer. While the AMD-based card maintains high stability under Linux, the NVIDIA card experiences a more severe performance drop.
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The AMD graphics card demonstrated excellent compatibility with open-source drivers on Linux platforms. Under CachyOS, the card retained 94% of its Windows 11 performance, averaging 130.3 FPS compared to 138.6 FPS. In Bazzite 44, the average frame rate reached 127.9 FPS, while PikaOS IV recorded 117.1 FPS.
The 1% low frame rates for the AMD card also remained stable, dropping only slightly from 96.6 FPS in Windows to 90.8 FPS in CachyOS. This suggests that the open-source Mesa drivers are well-optimized for the Radeon architecture. Desktop gamers who choose AMD GPUs will therefore experience a smooth gaming experience under Linux.
On the other hand, the NVIDIA graphics card struggled under Linux due to a known performance degradation bug in DirectX 12. While the card averages 151.2 FPS in Windows 11, performance drops to 126.5 FPS (83.6%) in Bazzite 44 and 125.0 FPS (82.6%) in CachyOS. PikaOS IV recorded the lowest average at 123.2 FPS.
The 1% low frame rate for the NVIDIA card also took a heavy hit, dropping from 99.3 FPS on Windows to a range of 77.5 to 78.7 FPS across the Linux distributions. Testers attribute this drop to the proprietary NVIDIA driver and its translation of DirectX 12 instructions. Future driver updates will determine if NVIDIA can close this performance gap soon.
Source: Reddit
