As we move into late 2022 and into 2023, Phoronix has conducted an interesting test that looks at how the gaming performance of AMD GPUs compares on Windows 11 versus Linux. In this test, the latest version of Windows 11 Pro 22H2 build 22621 was compared against Ubuntu on Linux kernel 6.2. While Ubuntu did quite well, Windows 11 clearly provided a better gaming experience, especially on the new Radeon RX 7900 series GPUs.
Below is the complete system of tests:
- Intel Core i9-13900K
- 2x 16GB DDR5-6000 CL36
- AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
- AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
- Solidigm P44 Pro 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD
- Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 22621
- Ubuntu 22.10 (Linux kernel version 6.2-rc1)
Below is the list of games and the test used in the test. All in all, it’s a mix of new and old metrics and titles:
- Hitman 3
- 4 dead left 2
- Gate 2
- Quake II RTX
- A strange division
- X-Plane 12
- GravityMark 1.72
- Unigine Heaven 4.0
- Unigine Superposition 1.0
As mentioned above, the performance gap between Ubuntu and Windows 11 is larger on the newer AMD 7900 XTX card. In this case, the Windows 11 PC was 11.1% faster than Linux. Meanwhile, on the 6800 XT, Microsoft’s OS is about 6.27% better. This suggests that additional driver work may be needed on the Linux side for the new RDNA 3 processors.
You can view the full test results at Phoronix’s Website.