Bazzite vs Windows performance - an observation

* Please be aware that this post is just an observation of my experience. This is not a critique or an exhaustive review.

I have the following (modest? low-end?) rig running Windows 10:

- Intel [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

- 16GB RAM

- Samsung EVO (1TB)

- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super

- Micro-Star MB (H310M PRO-VDH PLUS [MS-7C09])

I have a Steam Deck and I connect to the above PC using Moonlight/Sunshine to stream more demanding games or RPCS3, so it mostly runs at 800p. Sometimes I'll plug my Steam Deck into a TV and Moonlight a game at 1080p or even 1440p.

Since Windows 10 is nearing EOL, and I'm not its biggest fan, I've been looking for a Linux-based distro to replace it.

Enter Bazzite.

I tested both the Gnome and KDE versions, both with NVIDIA drivers. Installation and configuration was quick and easy (Bazzite is really well put together!). The current default is Wayland.

On its own, the PC runs games well (Cyberpunk 2077, Resident Evil 2 Remake) at 720p (1080p is pushing it a bit 🚩). RPCS3 also runs pretty well. No complaints so far.

However, as soon as I attempt to connect to Bazzite from my Steam Deck via Moonlight, things start to fall apart. RPCS3 is unplayable while streaming. The games mentioned above also dip dramatically in FPS from time to time. What I observed, while running top during a session, is that the load average gets up to 9 or 10. If I use the rule of thumb of 1.00 (load) per core, that exceeds the 8 total 'cores' the i7 has. So this issue appears to be CPU-related, rather than GPU.

I also noticed that the Sunshine process eats up 100% of a core while it's running and the steamwebhelper also claims 100% of another core. GPU acceleration is turned on in the Steam settings. Compare this to Windows where neither process uses nearly as much resources.

I've tried tweaking Sunshine, but I haven't seen any improvement, and I have no idea how to start getting the steamwebhelper to use less than 100%.

It appears to me that these two applications perform worse under Linux than Windows. Combine that with RPCS3 using about 600% (+/- 6 cores), and things quickly get saturated. Interestingly enough, under Windows all 8 cores also sit at roughly 100% each while running RPCS3/Sunshine, but Windows seems to keep it together more than Linux (which needs to catch its breath more often).

I'm not sure exactly how much the NVIDIA GPU plays in this lower performance, but, as stated, the issues I've observed seem mostly CPU-bound.

Since I don't have the Linux programming chops to fix these issues myself, I find myself unable to do anything about it myself.

I do plan to build a new PC eventually (AMD Ryzen 7, RX 7800XT), but the annoying thing right now is that I'm getting better overall performance from the same hardware running Windows than Linux. I really expected this to be the other way around, given how Linux is so often used to breathe new life into aged hardware.

So I'm back on Windows for the time being. I'll check back in a year to see if things have improved.

I'd like to point out that Bazzite is amazing and I really look forward to eventually replacing Windows completely with it. Everything "just works" and I commend the developers for making something like this possible. It's just not performing as well on my hardware as Windows.

If anyone else has had a similar experience and managed to fix it, do please let me know. Otherwise, if you have a similarly low-end rig like mine, just be aware that performance won't necessarily improve just because you're putting Linux on it.