I have heard rumors that Linux can play WoW better than Windows. If this is true WoW gamers need to know about it. There needs to be a healthy discussion (Hopefully not a flame throwing debate) about the merits of this rumor. To be strait up, I like Linux, I hope it is true, but if it is not it’s OK.
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It’s not impossible for WoW to perform better under Linux, but given that it has to run through translation layers for both Windows → Linux and DirectX → Vulkan/OpenGL, it seems unlikely. The overhead for those layers has dropped dramatically in the past few years, so using hardware that’s well supported on Linux, WoW will probably perform roughly as well as it does with Windows.
I know it used to be common for online games to get better latency under Linux due to it having a better network stack, but that was back in the XP/7 days so things may have changed since then.
If nothing else, WoW is one of the most WINE/Proton friendly titles, so those who play little aside from WoW could probably comfortably switch operating systems.
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Have you tried playing WoW on a linux Machine? If you haven’t that’s fine, I haven’t either. I still wonder how easy it would be to set it up. I think one person told me you just download and set up WINE and Lutris and it is supposed to fire right up. I haven’t tried it so IDK.
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No much to debate here. Search benchmarks on YouTube and you will see that the game generally runs better on Linux. There is one on the Flightless Mango yt channel that I like because it is very detailed. Numbers don’t lie.
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I think one user Aribeth uses Linux and reports good performance. But I haven’t personally.
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I don’t doubt you much but If WoW is better played on Linux, do WoW gamers know about it and are the switching? If not, why not? I suppose if there is no debate I should open up a new thread titled “Why don’t you switch to Linux?”
If I do open up a thread like that, Where should I put it so it gets the most attention and is relevant to the topic?
Most users aren’t going to use Linux for anything, let alone WoW.
Remember most people here were losing their minds about having to get an SSD. I’d say loading up Linux is way out in left field.
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I guess then the thing keeping people from using Linux is stereotypes. I suppose then that they think it is the Hippie thing to do and don’t want to look out of sorts. Am I getting this right?
I think this discussion on why people don’t use Linux is a good one. It seems Linux may have an image issue as opposed to a performance issue. I think I will open up a thread titled “Why don’t most WoW gamers use Linux?” to get more discussion on the issue. I think I will put it in general, since there seems to be more activity there.
That was me. Lutris isn’t mandatory to install or run WOW. You use their site to know what dependencies you need, (ie Wine, Vulcan, etc.)
Wow does run better on Linux due to the fact that you don’t have as many background processes running like on Windows.
If you have never ran Linux I suggest you stick to one of the easier distros like Linux Mint until you get familiar with Linux commands and such.
Linux runs about 20% faster on Linux than Windows on average. Testing was done on a Turning card.
The Linux CPU scheduler is also vastly better than Windows. This is especially evident in heavy high core CPU situations where Linux is upwards of 30% better performance vs Windows server still to this day.
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Yeah, a lot of people don’t even really conceptualize operating systems as distinct from the computers they run on. OSes are just seen as part of the computer like the firmware on a kitchen appliance or something. Even for those who do know that Windows isn’t an inseparable part of their PC, switching to Linux seems like a task on par with swapping out a car transmission: daunting for the layman and something you pay somebody else to deal with if you decide to do it at all.
From what I read you either have to run linux as your primary and run windows 10 in a VM, or try dual boot option which has problems.
Educate me on this one please.
Most people would not trade small performance gains for having to deal with this headache.
I wouldn’t.
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You can run Linux in a VM under Windows to get an idea of how it works, but it’s going to take a graphical performance hit unless you happen to have a second GPU to pass through for dedicated usage by the VM (which 99.99999% of computer users don’t). VMs are great for things like software development but gaming is not going to be great.
So yeah, generally speaking if performance is the goal you’re best off dual boot, which isn’t difficult if you have a dedicated drive for each, but you’re absolutely right that it’s way more than most people are willing to deal with.
Realistically people aren’t going to switch to Linux unless a big box manufacturer starts shipping it as their primary OS, which is unlikely at best.
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What about a partition? Does that work properly or should it be physically different drives.
And what about storage drives? Can both OSes read/use the same storage drives without formatting issues, or would each need their own storage drives as well in specific formats?
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Partitions work fine, but require a bit more technical know-how (Linux likes to have 1-2 extra small partitions alongside the main data partition) and are generally more scary because people can very easily accidentally wipe their Windows partition with the partition tool. With a separate drive, you can be like “oh yeah I bought that Samsung 850 for the express purpose of running Linux, I can safely chuck the whole thing at the installer and let it do its thing”.
The two OSes do use different types of filesystems — Windows uses NTFS while Linux is typically running on ext4 or maybe BTRFS or ZFS.
For non-bootable storage, Linux can read and write NTFS alright but I think maybe ExFAT is more popular since both OSes can read and write it well.
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Yeah, sounds like the extra partitions would make it too confusing.
It might be kind of fun though to get a simple ssd specifically for linux.
How is nvidia driver support for linux?
On Linux there’s two Nvidia drivers: the open source one that’s bundled in most distros and the closed source ones by Nvidia that you typically have to install separately.
The open source one is good enough for day to day tasks but brings a steep performance cut thanks to Nvidia keeping specs on their cards locked up tight. The closed source drivers perform well but can get hairy with even slightly non-standard setups.
For an easy out-of-the-box experience you can install a Linux distro that bundles the closed source Nvidia drivers like Pop!_OS, which should allow most Nvidia cards to run well without any further tinkering after install.
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Are there any gaming benefits for Linux?
I was looking at some articles and videos and it seems windows generally performs better in games, with only a few being outliers.
You may have just hit the Linux weak spot. In the past Linux has not been good at proprietary gaming, only open source gaming. Open source games, although they tend to be free, seem to make up a fraction of the overall games. If you want to play games that you pay for, Windows may just be the OS for you. When I heard from people that WoW worked better on Linux than Windows I was skeptical. It is one of the reasons I made this thread, so I could find out if it was true. It seems my desire to believe in the potential of linux may have gotten the better of me. However, don’t underestimate Linux when it comes to gaming. Linux still has a lot of potential for running proprietary software in the future and you may be surprised at what kind of games you can play on linux and how well they can play at the moment, if you know what you are doing. Unfortunately though, proprietary games can be complex to set up and run on a Linux machine. So for now Windows may be the place to go for big name games. A lot of Linux enthusiast gamers get a duel boot to get the best of both worlds.
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I ran Ubuntu, which is built on linux, on a old laptop. Does that count? The laptop was basically used similar to a chromebook. My issue with linux gaming is what happens when there is game breaking issue either with the game, the drivers, add-ons, etc? You know blizzard, nvidia, intel, amd, etc., will getting a patch done asap. I doubt linux would even register on their radar so it may be up to the community to patch up any issues and that may take some time.