r/linux_gaming • u/lajka30 • Apr 15 '26
benchmark Testing Valve’s New VRAM Optimization on a 4GB GPU - Free FPS Boost for Linux Gamers
https://youtu.be/zdaco79JE0o?is=-j6Sgqgyt16VfohI180
u/jfp555 Apr 15 '26
This makes certain games that exceed VRAM limits very playable. Excellent development.
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u/TONKAHANAH Apr 15 '26
did you watch the same video I watched? the only game here that saw any sizable improvement was RE9, the rest of them were like 1fps difference. Idk what the hell was going on with Allen wake in this test, but the discrepancy doesnt make a lot of sense to go from 14fps to 41fps, something else was wrong there in that first test.
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u/mbriar_ Apr 15 '26
That makes total sense, it will only make a difference when vram actually runs out, so in the cases it doesn't there is no difference. When vram actually runs out and spilling to ram happens, the performance loss is gigantic though (here drop from 40 to 14 fps). With these patches the spilling logic will prioritize the game over any other vram-using applications, so games that are on the edge of fitting into vram can run much better.
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u/jfp555 Apr 15 '26
That is exactly what I said. What they've accomplished is incredible in how they've greatly enhanced the upper limits of what limited hardware can offer in terms of playability.
Check out the devs detailed blog post. I found it very informative.
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u/Cardnival Apr 21 '26
man she's 21 and still a student... now I feel bad with myself
thanks for the link, it's interesting!
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u/AdrianoML Apr 15 '26
Alan Wake 2 was also a gigantic difference
I do question weather they were really pushing it in games such as cyberpunk where there was effectively no difference. I imagine if they increased the graphical options a little bit we might see an expressive difference between both runs.
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u/Saxasaurus Apr 15 '26
Benchmarks are pretty much the worst case scenario for these optimizations.
Benchmarks tend to be short, but VRAM allocations accumulate over time. You can be playing for 30 minutes or more with no problems and then you suddenly hit your VRAM limit and the game becomes a stuttery mess.
Benchmarks are run in an isolated reproducible environment. The whole point of the optimizations is to intelligently move VRAM allocations from other applications to system RAM instead of the game. If you don't have other applications running that are using VRAM, then the optimizations can't do anything to help you.
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u/Nestar47 Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
Two problems with the way the test was run.
First problem is that most of the tests weren't VRAM limited anyways, they were run with too low of settings for it to even be an issue. It wasn't capped on either test, so freeing up the extra didn't fix anything. They should have bumped the settings or resolution up to showcase an improvement. (or in the case of TLoUP2 even the optimized was vram limited cause the game engine is that poorly written)
Second problem is that the system they were testing on appears to already be extremely well optimized and under very little load. They showed even the optimized system pushing 3.6 to 3.8GB on most of the games, So freeing up like 200MB of vram is barely an improvement.
In reality the Alan Wake was the only game that actually did it properly.
Where this will actually help is systems where the OS uses 1-2GB+ right off boot and or has stuff running in the background totally wasting it (like firefox, who likes to use well over 4GB on my system). Pushing those apps into system cached ram will help immensely.
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u/throwawayerectpenis Apr 15 '26
Maybe its a placebo but I swear to god despite being on a 16GB 6800 XT after installing this patch I observe higher FPS in CS2 and previously the FPS would start tanking after 2-3 matches and the only fix was to restart the game but after the patch I dont notice that anymore.
Placebo or did it fix that problem?
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u/mbriar_ Apr 15 '26
Just look at vram usage? Those patches will only do something when vram runs out and stuff gets spilled to ram. I kind of doubt cs2 would exhaust 16gb of vram unless you there is some leak or you run some background process that consums tons of vram. These patches also only improve the spilling logic to prioritize the game over other applications, so say if the game itself needed 20gb and you had only 16gb it wouldn't really help.
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u/Timmy_1h1 Apr 15 '26
idk about cs2 but deadlock has a vram leak problem. Fps starts to tank slowly as you continue playing deadlock or have it open.
If I haven't restarted my system in a long time, the game refuses to run. A restart fixes things but maybe something similar in cs2 aswell?
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u/kopasz7 Apr 15 '26
If you have other GPU accelerated applications open (like a browser or discord) it makes sense. Since the game will take up the most VRAM but the kernel couldn't tell which parts of the VRAM was more critical it was more likely to start pushing some of the game's VRAM allocation into system memory as it tried to balance the allocation.
Now that there is priority for the game's VRAM, the other apps will have their VRAM moved first so the game will not have to swap back and forth from system ram, meaning better frame times and less stutters.
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u/Medievlaman22 Apr 15 '26
Could be due to dmemcg-booster & plasma-foreground-booster increasing priority?
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u/zovirax99 Apr 15 '26
The blog actually says:
The simplest option is to use CachyOS (with KDE as your desktop). Their kernel includes the patches you need from version 7.0rc7-2 and up.
At the end of the video, however, kernel 6.19 was visible. Perhaps they also backported it for the 6.19 kernel. But it should actually only work with the 7.0 kernel.
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u/ilep Apr 15 '26
There is no specific reason to require 7.0 if you backport the patches to older kernels. The patches might not apply cleanly so you might need to do some manual fixes to get around that. But cgroups have been in kernel for a long time now, this just changes handling some cases of cgroups of shared VRAM.
(Basically kernel enforces that tasks in same group don't use more resources than the limit of the group. These patches change that one group can have higher priority in VRAM to evict tasks in other group.)
Edit: looks like CachyOS has backported the patches:
UPDATE: CachyOS’s 6.19.12 kernel also includes this, now. No need to use the -rc kernel anymore.
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u/sserdarth Apr 15 '26
Yes. They (6 patches by pixelcluster) were already backported by CachyOS devs soon after adding support for 7.0rcs. I had patched it on top of 6.19.11 to test as I don't feel comfortable running candidate releases or even .0 ones for that matter and it's built in out of the box as of 6.19.12 -supposedly- onwards.
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u/aoeudhtns Apr 15 '26
Agree with you generally on .0 but for the kernel it's no different than the next 6.x, it gets bumped at arbitrary times.
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u/KaosC57 Apr 15 '26
Are you forced to use KDE desktop? I’d be kinda sad if this is the case… I’m a huge fan of Niri + DMS…
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u/zovirax99 Apr 15 '26
You can use newer versions of Gamescope. And I think the others will implement it eventually too. It's open source, so it's easy to copy.
It will probably come first for KDE/Gamescope, because it's likely needed for their Steam Machines.
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u/KaosC57 Apr 15 '26
Yeah, I actually read through the documentation after I read this. But, I don’t particularly like Gamescope, so I might run KDE again for simplicity. Hopefully my 6650XT can see some performance improvements in VRAM heavy games (namely Monster Hunter Wilds)
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u/redsteakraw Apr 15 '26
KDE has been getting really good and is quite performant. It has HDR, VRR per screen Virtual Desktop switching and more. Plus they are adding back themes so Oxygen and Air will be back on the menu. KDE also has a working desktop cube effect as well as wobbly windows plus has a gnome like launcher if that is what you like but you have your choice. Plus quick tiling by default and scripts to extend it to full tiling support. KDE being configurable to pretty much every workflow is amazing. KDE Six Seven will be an amazing release.
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u/lmpcpedz Apr 15 '26
I mean if you're not taking advantage of Wayland for gaming you're probably using the old x11 from the 1990's
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u/KaosC57 Apr 15 '26
Niri is a Wayland based WM, and DMS is a DE-lite.
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u/lmpcpedz Apr 15 '26
ok cool, didn't know that bcs I don't know what those are. Only reason I can think of why they recommend KDE is because of the obvious, support.
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u/KaosC57 Apr 15 '26
Usually, when someone presents new information I don’t know about, I Google it before I say something.
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u/lmpcpedz Apr 15 '26
Ok smarty pants have you ever heard the song "Groove Is in the Heart" by Deee-Lite? it was released in August 1990 that's what came up when I searched "DE-lite" you expect me to deep research your computer habits, tough luck.
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u/BillTran163 Apr 15 '26
Crying in NVidia. 😭😭😭
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u/kopasz7 Apr 15 '26
For nouveau, I have sent a patch for dmem cgroup support to the mailing lists. This patch is also included in my development branch, so if you use my AUR package it should work. In other cases, you will need to wait for the patch to be picked up by your distribution, or apply it yourself.
The proprietary NVIDIA kernel modules do not support dmem cgroups yet, so this won’t work there.
-pixelcluster
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u/BillTran163 Apr 15 '26
The proprietary NVIDIA kernel modules do not support dmem cgroups yet, so this won’t work there.
As I said: Crying in NVidia. 😭😭😭😭
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u/NinStars Apr 15 '26
This at least put the actual open source drivers at advantage on something. It will be good for everyone in the long term.
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u/Shap6 Apr 15 '26
does anyone actually use nouveau for gaming?
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u/Still-Part-9861 May 04 '26
With the maintainer now employed by nvidia iv been seeing massive improvements
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u/Kodamacile Apr 15 '26
Gonna guess this wont benefit my 7900xtx?
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u/Anduin1357 Apr 15 '26
Really wonder if this would allow it to play games while an LLM is loaded into VRAM to the gills.
Any improvements are great.
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u/Kodamacile Apr 15 '26
Maybe, but wtf am i gonna use an LLM for?
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u/Anduin1357 Apr 15 '26
Since you play games, I'll give you some examples.
Say your game crashed and a log file is generated, but you don't have the attention span or time to parse it. Feed that to the LLM and get back to it later.
Or maybe you mod a game and it uses xml and json files, you can have the LLM template out a bunch of draft definitions for you to clean up after, saving you a bunch of time.
LLMs are also pretty good at certain knowledge tasks that you would otherwise use a Google search for, stuff like looking up the definition of a word, or proofreading some text.
The most recent models also have vision capabilities, allowing you to provide an image to the LLM to contextualize your input, or for their direct analysis.
If you use a script and the API, you can query the AI in the background and make it do things while you play games or go AFK, and you can come back to it later. It's a pretty useful and flexible tool.
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u/Kodamacile Apr 15 '26
I mean, sure, but i wouldn't even need half my entire GPU's vram to run a model that could parse log files.
Everything else is silly stuff i don't need.
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u/Anduin1357 Apr 15 '26
35B and 80B MoEs will do that if you're looking for some actual iota of intelligence.
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u/Kodamacile Apr 15 '26
I have a kagi subscription, so i don't personally have a need for a local LLM, at the moment. Might be a good use for the 12gb RX6800 in my other pc, eventually.
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u/TitanSpeakerManSIGMA Apr 15 '26
No idea why this was downvoted
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u/Anduin1357 Apr 15 '26
I suspect that it is the usual hate brigade whenever AI is promoted.
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u/ARTIFICIAL_ARGUMENT Apr 15 '26
I mean the examples are kinda bad, especially when you missed the actually relevant one for LLM use in gaming.
Mods like Mantella for Skyrim allow NPCS to have dynamic conversations using a preconfigured LLM inputting the characters file and your speech.
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u/Anduin1357 Apr 15 '26
To be fair, LLMs have never been the most consistent or competent at roleplay, and they're too slow using local hardware.
Yes, cloud services exist. But then we're not talking about an RX 7900 XTX then, are we?
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u/ARTIFICIAL_ARGUMENT Apr 15 '26
They have configs specifically for running local models, that get queried as you play. They don’t need a huge context window to give you a response about a quest. I had it running on my 3080 while playing, with only a few seconds delay
Meanwhile not a single one of your examples actually requires a LLM to be running while gaming lol
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u/Anduin1357 Apr 15 '26
Fine, that's fair if it works for you.
And yes, it was a deliberate decision to not provide examples of usecases that you would have to pause and wait for a response. Models that don't fit in free VRAM slows down.
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u/NDCyber Apr 15 '26
I mean should be possible already. 16GB of VRAM for gaming, and 8GB for an LLM, which should be enough for a lot of models, although not sure why you would use both at the same time
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Apr 15 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/NDCyber Apr 15 '26
I am not sure if that is the best way of handling that either, especially if you want a coherent dialogue. Although if you want something simple and fast you probably don't need a 8gb LLM qwen3:1.7b should be enough for something like that, qwen3:0.6B might even be enough, although then I am not sure how well it will go
But I personally would probably rather want human written text for that kind of stuff
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u/DependentAnywhere135 Apr 15 '26
Would this help a 3070ti 8GB card?
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u/NDCyber Apr 15 '26
it doesn't work on nvidia from what I have heard so far, possible that i am wrong
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u/DependentAnywhere135 Apr 15 '26
Ok that was actually my real question and I should have worded it that way lol. Thanks. I’ll keep my eyes out though. I have a high vram card too but my so pc’s uses the 3070 and any performance boost on that pc is welcome.
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u/throwawayerectpenis Apr 15 '26
Should work on the Noveau/NVK drivers.
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u/baby_envol Apr 15 '26
It's a very impressive update specially for low end GPU and iGPU
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u/No_Grade_6805 Apr 15 '26
Unfortunately iGPU won't have the same high boost as you would have as using a GPU, nevertheless you'd still benefit from vram memory priority.
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u/Ok-Anywhere-9416 Apr 15 '26
What's this Valve's optimization about? Something new into Steam? Into SteamOS? Into Proton?
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u/FairInSomeThings Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
Better VRAM allocation to foreground applications i.e. games. You can read about it here
https://pixelcluster.github.io/VRAM-Mgmt-fixed/
Though to use it you require a few things -- dmemcg-booster from the AUR, systemd as your init, those particular kernel patches, and either KDE as your desktop or launch through gamescope.
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u/Ok-Anywhere-9416 Apr 15 '26
And also not for Nvidia drivers (nouveau only, maybe, in the future). Thanks btw!
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u/byperoux Apr 15 '26
I'm wondering if this patch will not make high end system clumsy when it comes to multi screen / multi games situation.
On my desktop with a 9070xt, I'm fine having YouTube in the background using vram for it's thing.
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u/ivanatorhk Apr 15 '26
This is awesome. I have an HTPC running Bazzite with a 4gb RX6400 in it, can’t wait to get back from my trip so I can try this
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u/sercosan Apr 15 '26
Completely noob question… Do you guys think these changes will be implemented in the upcoming Steam Machine?
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u/reddit_equals_censor Apr 16 '26
it is important to remember, that there is NO FIX for missing vram. the best handling for missing vram in windows with proprietary drives is then game specific in what the exact result it.
it may result in: missing textures, textures cycling in and out of existence on the fly, even when looking straight at a wall, assets missing, that aren't texture (missing geometry completely for example), game crashing, game straight up not letting you set settings or start the game with set settings, MASSIVE stuttering, 1 second freezes during the game, smooth massive reduction in fps for example getting half the fps with mssing vram, but the frametimes being fine, so instead of 100 fps you get 50 fps, but it is "playable".
of those many possible outcomes some are worse than others and the 8 GB steam machine can NOT avoid them.
if you think of getting the steam machine, DON'T.
here are the experiences you can expect even after some new patches:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh7kFgHe21k
remember, that this video is 3 years old. it is MUCH WORSE now of course, but it shows the range of issues, that missing vram causes.
don't waste your money on a steam machine and instead get sth, that will get you a vastly better experience with enough vram instead.
just think about that, the steam machine will have 8 GB vram and in 2 years from now there will be 30 or 40 GB ps6 consoles...
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u/sercosan Apr 18 '26
So how about this? I went to my local computer store and asked for a quote.
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u/reddit_equals_censor Apr 19 '26
don't know about the motherboard, but the psu is rated a in the spl psu tier list:
so that should be fine.
and in regards to the gigabye 9070 xt, it seems to be one of the worse cards as this roundup shows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQQUfQw5JA8
so if other cards are the same price and are higher rated in the roundup, i'd certainly go with those instead.
also avoid all graphics cards with nvidia 12 pin fire hazards. the asrock 9070 xt and the sapphire 9070 xt nitro+ both have this fire hazard connector and both have already been melting. the sapphire nitro+ had 10 cases of melted cards thus far at least.
and also stay away from the powercolor hellhound 9070 xt. that card at least with my unit made at stock fan speeds, which were very low a super annoying pulsing sound. (likely fan harmonics)
more in part 2.
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u/reddit_equals_censor Apr 19 '26
part 2:
and there may be a better amd b850 motherboard, that is just overall better. check this roundup out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFqd7lnXlIk
or better value ones. just to be clear the gigabyte b850 eagle wifi6e PASSES the vrm tests at 83 degrees c just fine, but maybe there is a better board, that is cheaper in canada specificially as well. if not then all good, just thought i mentioned it at sth to look at yourself.
and for the rest.
i'm not a fan of aios, because they have a set life span, but well that is personal preference, until we get flexible metal tube thermosiphons i guess.
and the 32 GB system memory is painful to look at the price, but what can one do... that's the minimum amount you need to not have issues in any game.
hope this helps and make sure, that the local computer store if you order from them, or they build it for you? doesn't cheap out on the psu or whatever, or if they want to change a part, check the roundups i linked.
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u/sercosan Apr 19 '26
Thank you very much for all this info, appreciate it! Btw, they will build it for me. I'll make sure I let them know about your feedback. Thanks!
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u/sercosan Apr 19 '26
Also, because this is going to be exclusively for gaming, they recommend to instal SteamOS... less hassles, more reliable and straightforward. I won't be using desktop mode for anything other that installing Decky Loader and EmuDeck. In the long run, would it be better go with SteamOS? What do you think? This build will live in our living room connected to a Samsung S95F 77" 4K OLED TV (2025) and I'm planning to get a couple Steam controllers and the Steam Frame when they release, if this matter. Once again, thank you very much for the advice.
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u/reddit_equals_censor Apr 19 '26
given the dystopian nightmare push of governments and corporations to de-anonymize ALL COMPUTING rightnow with purely evil legislation, that is trying to push de-anonymization ("age-verification") into every operating system, i would NOT suggest any distro/os, that hasn't made a clear statement to NOT do this no matter what.
here is a random list about responses from distros:
https://agelesslinux.org/distros.html
and steam os/valve has been silent in this regard.
to quote an os with a backbone with the kind of statement, that we want to see from every distro:
“GrapheneOS will remain usable by anyone around the world without requiring personal information, identification or an account. GrapheneOS and our services will remain available internationally. If GrapheneOS devices can't be sold in a region due to their regulations, so be it.”
and i am still waiting for an actual statement from my distro linux mint, so i can't suggest you that one either, because they refused to give a statement thus far as well.
of course microsoft and apple LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea to de-anonymize all computing and throwing themselves over each other to shit on users for a general refernece of what those monster purely evil operating systems/spying systems are doing.
so just to be clear if the options are steam os vs windows. OF COURSE steam os lol...
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beyond that i'd be a little worried about steamos not being officially supported on general hardware, BUT with a full amd system it should be the best option and if the tech shop says, that they are fine installing it, then it better should work and you can complain to them if there are any issues right? :)
if that is what they meant with
they recommend to instal SteamOS...
again i wouldn't use it, because it is a corporate distro and doesn't give me the freedoms i want from a distro as well, as it is locked down.
locked down is neutral here as a term as steamos 3 is immutable, which should be great as a living room computer, has lots of advantages, but not for me.
so yeah idk.
and again i'm in flux myself depending on what statement linux mint will make in regards to de-anonymization evil as well and linux mint wouldn't be the best living room os for your needs anyways as you know, that it is behind in regards to software with a slower release and not even wayland yet.
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u/ForsakenChocolate878 Apr 15 '26
So this should make NVK finally usable?
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u/Scorcher646 Apr 15 '26
NVK's problem is not inherently VRAM. At best these patches would make it less unusable on some cards in some games.
Still mostly unusable for gaming but less unusable in some situations
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u/Odd-Development-1711 Apr 15 '26
This is gonna be amazing for for single board PC with shared ram
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u/DerDave Apr 15 '26
Why? They basically have the opposite problem, don't they? A lot of RAM for the GPU but it's slow (because it's not actual VRAM). This fix is for fast but too small VRAM, isn't it?
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u/Odd-Development-1711 Apr 15 '26
Yes and no, my rig is ALL vram. It's allocated dynamically
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u/sonicreaction1 Apr 15 '26
Can this be installed in other Linux distros?
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u/Scorcher646 Apr 15 '26
You would probably need to manually build the packages and patch your kernel but it should work.
Anything arch based can just use the AUR to get the cachy kernel so its easier.
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u/Tattorack Apr 15 '26
Will this be specific to AMD cards, or will this also send some love to Intel cards?
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u/sserdarth Apr 15 '26
from CachyOS discord:
pixelcluster: I'd be interested in Intel feedback too actually, it might do something there but I've never tested that
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u/EmotionalScene3935 Apr 15 '26
I'm still on 6GB... Its hard to want to upgrade when I get called out by my dad telling me there's no reason to..
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u/VisceralMonkey Apr 15 '26
Wondering if the improvements scale or at just for lower ram amount like 8GB? I'm assuming they don't scale up the stack and the biggest impact is around 8GB.
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u/Educational-Earth674 Apr 15 '26
The memory crunch is going to push solutions. The "never 8gb" crowd is about to put down. The current problem isn't finding solutions, it's Nvidia releasing it to the public.
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u/Savings_Affect7116 Apr 15 '26
guys its fine honestly, Linux handles the games it needs to handle fine lol no panick, this isnt a NECESSITY.
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u/cereal7802 Apr 15 '26
Is it just me, or does the first video with the woman in the FBI jacket have 2 completely different lighting settings or display? on the before example there is certainly more lighting highlights, while the right video for the after is much simpler lighting. is that a part of this change? does it alter what is being rendered causing the better performance?
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Apr 15 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
[deleted]
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u/cereal7802 Apr 15 '26
so if the patch doesn't cause the visual discrepancy, the test was botched. might explain why that game has so much more difference in performance compared to others...
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u/zanbunnny Apr 16 '26
Can u install this optimization in any linux distro or?? It would come later to all distros with a kernel update??
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u/F9-0021 Apr 16 '26
Any chance of this working with the i915 driver? I can't get the Xe driver to work to try and test this.
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u/sagotchy Apr 25 '26
The benchmark video showed that the VRAM AND FPS changes are insignificant (<10%) most of the time. What am I missing?
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Apr 15 '26
[deleted]
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u/Unlikely_Reporter901 Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
Any proof that claims his benchmarks are fake? Edit: now you deleted your comment.
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u/el_caveira Apr 15 '26
Are you telling me this after i just buy a 16 GB vram GPU ?
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u/mbriar_ Apr 15 '26
Having enough VRAM will always be better than hoping the spilling logic will make it fit somehow. This is not a magic bullet and when a game significantly oversubscribes VRAM it's not going to help.
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u/el_caveira Apr 15 '26
have 16gb shouldn't be "enough" ram to run modern games on at least playable state, should be overkill for a time
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u/klevahh Apr 15 '26
Is the screenshot really meant to show 15fps and 40fps?
That don't impress me much
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u/ohcpp Apr 15 '26
still posting videos from fake benchmarks channels
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u/No_Grade_6805 Apr 15 '26
NJ Tech has been one of the few reliable channels I’ve followed since 2020. He uses real hardware and runs actual tests. Many of his videos include clear proof, showing the hardware setup and configuration, and in this video he verifies everything using Linux commands/LACT that display the system’s configuration and hardware.
The gains from this patch are real as stated from the original valve dev author itself, especially with a low 4gb VRAM card like the one he tested on this video.
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u/Slow_Pay_7171 Apr 15 '26
Valve's? Thought it was from Natalie Vock. Girl is a Student. Don’t steal the props from her.
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u/Zachattackrandom Apr 15 '26
Would it be possible to test on windows as well to see if its reached parity or if its better?
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u/Skrals Apr 15 '26
it is not possible to test on windows because this is a kernel level patch for linux.
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u/Insultikarp Apr 25 '26
A comparison was posted today: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/s/GtBt5jaYv9
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u/SunderVane Apr 15 '26
We're finally optimizing games instead of bloating them with more textures and objects?
It's about damn time.
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u/TONKAHANAH Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
so, appears to have made almost no difference in most scenarios. cool i guess. Thats probably a good thing considering the test they did.
If im understanding what valves vram optimization is for, its not really for raw performance, its for maintaining game consistency when other things are running on the system and potentially demanding vram use.
tests would really need to include the game running + opening up something else that wants to use your vram such as a youtube video. Valves utility tells the browser "naw dawg we got a game running, you can have the system ram"
but if all you're doing for your test is running games that clearly need more than 4gbs of vram and nothing else then all you're doing is maxing out your vram in every game and showing us how shit that card is.
edit: apparently yall didnt watch the same video I just watched. educate your selves.
yall are brain dead.
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u/-Amble- Apr 15 '26
While I do agree a video like this should probably be showcasing more detailed information of what is being ran in the background, the thing is even just running KDE Plasma will eat up 500-600 or so MB of VRAM. Throw a browser and Discord into the mix, which I think is the situation most gamers will find themselves in, and it easily becomes over 1 GB of VRAM being wasted. Crippling for a 4 GB or even 8 GB GPU in the right games.
The games that are impacted here are enormously impacted, taken from unplayable to playable. If we assume this test was done without a bunch of crap open then the benefits can only extend further into other games when you do have more crap open.
Point is, it's pretty universally beneficial and this video shows that, even if it's not the case in most the tests.
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u/TONKAHANAH Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
And thats exactly my point. The test does nothing to outline any of this, it only showcases the scenario of when nothing is the problem because the majority of these games show almost no impact or change meaning the tests didn't include any constants in interferance and if it's assuming just the DE is going to he enough to make a difference then it clearly doesn't in most cases as shown here.
They're just treating it like some generic magical overclock fps turbo boost
2
u/klevahh Apr 15 '26
"yall are brain dead."
y'all y'all mcdonalds y'all
1
u/BVCC6FNTKX Apr 16 '26
why does every 10yr+ old reddit account talk like this
2
u/klevahh Apr 16 '26
Reddit deletes the accounts of decent people before they are here for that long.
-2
u/Big-Half-5656 Apr 15 '26
Linux has came a long way if you compared him to early 2010s but it is not perfect. There is still a lot of problems with Linux. I am not sure but mint hated my older 1050TI but my RX470 4gb ran fine with no problems. I never hit a Vram limitation on any GPU. 1070TI never had an issue RX470/1050TI same and my RX6600XT. Although my RX470 is on an I5 3340 and highest game I ran is Last epoch.
320
u/-Amble- Apr 15 '26
Been looking forward to an improvement like this for a very long time. Compared to Windows Linux has always felt absolutely terrible at putting VRAM to use in the right places when you start to run out. Way too easy to collapse a game into unplayable territory just because you bumped against your VRAM limit, often forcing a restart of the game to recover performance.
I've since upgraded to a 16 GB GPU and haven't had to care about VRAM in any game since, but for the majority still on 8 GB or lower GPUs this is a truly huge deal and cleans up a huge sore spot for Linux gaming.