Linux Kernel 6.14 has arrived, bringing a clutch of changes to make your computer run more efficiently and more securely than before. Interestingly, Linux
  • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
    372·
    1 day ago

    The big boost for gaming is only relevant if you do not use Proton. While there might be some boost for selected games, in general the new Kernel 6.14 shouldn’t make much of a difference for Steam gamers using Proton. Because Proton already got some alternative to NTSync mechanism, which improved some titles already.

    The benchmarks presented with huge %-boosts and improvements are compared to previous WINE version, which do not have some of the alternative optimizations from Proton. Therefore I would be a bit cautious, if you already play on Steam using Proton.

    • Wanderer@r.nfEnglish
      32·
      1 day ago

      esync = alpha version

      fsync = beta version

      ntsync = final release

      Ntsync got rid of performance degradation that can occur with some games under esync and fsync and that’s the why it’s allowed to go in the mainline kernel, it has no downside.

    • Laser@feddit.org
      25·
      1 day ago

      fsync isn’t faster than ntsync, it’s merely a workaround to match Linux to Windows synchronization primitives. From ntsync’s official description:

      It exists because implementation in user-space, using existing tools, cannot match Windows performance while offering accurate semantics.

      So without this, you either have a huge perfomance hit in case of an accurate implementation or you have good performance, but might run into edge cases where software doesn’t work well or at all because it’s not accurate (see https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/2922 for examples)

        • Laser@feddit.org
          2·
          1 hour ago

          I don’t think his statement is true though. If https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1ce7z19/gaming_on_linux_ep131_ntsync_vs_fsync_nobara_39/l1ho8od/ is not manipulated in any way, games with lots of these calls still get big improvements with ntsync over fsync (about 30% in this particular case, which is a massive boost). So while nobody can rule out that his statement may be true on average or in general, there are still cases where ntsync offers a tangible advantage – be it improved FPS or the fact that the game runs at all.

          Edit: in the video that the thread is about, fsync didn’t beat ntsync in a single one (or I missed it when jumping through it). In the best one, they were exactly tied. Sure, the difference wasn’t really big, but again there are titles not working with fsync.

          However, I want to stress that I’m not trying to talk about fsync. It’s a good solution that significantly improved performance. But ntsync is, from everything I’ve seen, almost always better; how much depends on the case, and it never seems to be worse.

    • LeFantome@programming.dev
      162·
      1 day ago

      I believe that NTsync delivers better compatibility. I do not remember the details but Fsync can cause problems sometimes. So this is more like performance without compromise.

      Now that it is in the kernel, I would expect Wine to move to it and for Proton to follow suit.

      One less hack to maintain.