Ranking Linux Kernels for Gaming mid 2024! (liquorix, zen, xanmod, clear linux, tkg, cachy, generic)

[@hamartia_theorist]

It would be really nice to see actual latency benchmarks. Hope it happens some day

[@Mattscreative]

Great job on the video i just linked it in my discord!

[@A1RM4X]

Awesome thank you!

[@Uchiha_Madara1224]

17:56 this is sick , imagine switching to a gaming oriented scheduler while gaming and switching back to general purpose for normal day to day task

[@CaduPedroni]

With one click? What's wrong with that?

[@cyberturkey77]

@@CaduPedroni he meant "sick" as in good. Its a british thing

[@wickedcritter8183]

@@cyberturkey77 I'm American and I grew up using sick just like this. The only exception is when we were actually sick.

[@eddyclow]

CachyOS Kernel on CachyOS for the win 🏆

[@dillacorn_linux]

I've recently seen a post about TKG performance being praised over stock for gaming. You've convienced me.. I'm on going to install TKG Kernal on Debian sid and configure it per your tutorials. Thanks for all your hard work!

[@A1RM4X]

Have fun!

[@theinhumaneme]

@@dillacorn_linux what's your impressions on after the installation? Do you mind sharing?

[@dillacorn_linux]

Highly recommend linux-tkg. Stability and performance gains for gaming 100℅.

[@dillacorn_linux]

@@theinhumaneme 100℅ recommended for gaming and even general usage.. On Debian Sid with the latest Kernals I was occasionally getting game freezing but with linux-tkg those issues go away.. + there are optimizations specifically for my CPU platform. Highly recommend others to give it a go and keep it in your rotation.

[@xscallcos4835]

I’m astonished at how strong his accent is even though his grammar is so good

[@Skelterbane69]

Idk about gaming, but for me, the zen kernel is best. I have a lot of applications open all over 3 monitors and I open and close stuff all the time and the zen kernel is notably more responsive. Gaming wise, all of the ones I've used have worked, i.e. zen, stable, lts.

[@TheLonelyMoon]

if youre on arch, just add cachy repository, no need to install cachyos

[@lop1652]

Yea precisely what I did. Added the cachy v3 repo (since I am using Zen 3 CPU), reinstall packages and good to go.

[@toxicgerman1228]

I prefer CashyOS tbh. Its way more streamlined. I dont even use the AUR.

[@_DashingAdi_]

Is it really better than generic kernel?

[@Tomatexyz]

CachyOS for the win!

[@cyberturkey77]

Im not sure why but I've had performance issues with Proton games on Cachy that I don't on endeavour OS which is probably just my hardware idk

[@Tomatexyz]

@@cyberturkey77 I've had no issues so far. I'd even say that EndeavorOS had worse performance for me. Running on a Ryzen 5 5600x & 3060ti.

[@CompuB1t]

One thing to mention is that there is the main Linux kernel and then the base distros apply customization to the lernel like arch, debian, fedora, nixos, gentoo, void have their own kernel. And many based distros use custom kernel are on top of the base distro. Gentoo I think is one of the few that you can customized many parameters of the kernel before compiling and installing. And CachyOS preompile packages with version 3 of CPU and other modern things, but are very small differences from main ArchLinux packages.

[@olnnn]

True though a lot of the distro kernep patches are backporting fixes/updates (or in some cases tweaks to fix some issues on non.x86 platforms like with gentoo and debian) so it doesn't matter too much since you wil get that if you use an up to date kernel. The distros do sometimes have some performance/use case tweaks as well though yeah like ubuntu has several kernel packages for different use cases.

[@xbeast7585]

Thank You So Much For The Video 💖

[@nordiquefb]

thank you for this video, one of the most informative on youtube on this subject

[@A1RM4X]

Wow, thanks!

[@NewRodin]

Now here's an interesting thing to add: Xanmod was the only kernel who seemed stable enough on my overclock, even letting me undervolt my cpu below a threshold that'd cause a crash with other kernels. It was the only kernel that kept going with my 3770 at 4.55GHz, at 1.050v! On other kernels, I'd need to bump the voltage up to 1.185v to get it to not crash.

[@xSqr_]

do you use v2 or v3 xanmod for the i7-3770?

[@djole0501]

no one makes linux content like this legend here 💪

[@iceance5948]

amazing video like always, keep up the Great work ;)

[@Corporatizm]

If you're on a Debian-based distro Liquorix is a no-brainer for starting, even on a laptop. It's a single-line install, and you'll see the difference. I've been playing Morrowind at 60fps on a laptop for a few months now, and I installed Liquorix last week. I'm positive I saw the difference. I immediately thought "it's smoother", because I expected better fps, but now that I've seen your video, in retrospective, I think it simply had way less input lag and that's what I felt. Maybe better 1%-low too, idk. Even upgrading from 6.9 kernel. If you're lazy like me, you'll have 80% of the work done with 20% of the effort with Liquorix, I call this a huge win.

[@lorenzozapaton4031]

Liquorix is the best but I want to try the others at least once in my Debian box. Tbh Liquorix works fine in my Debian systems but maybe the alternatives are better, time to make some tests.

[@Kemyo0]

Great video! I play mmorpgs and they are heavily cpu heavy, single cpu core gated because of limitations of their engine / language used (for instance i play wow and addons are only processed through one core because of the lua language) Do you think there are any changes to do on kernel level with that in mind? I don't know how they compare to fps games but i feel like what matters most is framerate not dropping to lows, being consistent, even if it means sacrificing a bit of overall fps; Input lag is also important but mouse responsiveness not as much

[@A1RM4X]

Best way is to try for yourself. Check the link in the description to install TkG Linux and see the results.

[@winterofhell]

im playing wow too and with cachyos kernel + portproton app game feels reallyyyyyy smooth with no loose in 0.1% fps

[@cybernit3]

Clear Linux looks good if you have an Intel Cpu since they made it back in 2015. Thanks for letting us know about Linux kernel 6.12 or so where you can switch kernels in real time, that will be quite good. Honestly, I feel little not so confident to install a new kernel, don't want to bork my system. But like you say CachyOS is out of the box so is easier than ClearOS and TKG.

[@offline6974]

lqx is the most responsive patchset on my amd setup (5700x) running archlinux. Gaming and multitasking is top notch.

[@ConcretorumAzoth]

Hmm my Xanmod kernel has never caused a crash I just remember everything becoming a lot faster kind of like switching from 60hz monitor to 144hz you can feel it.

[@A1RM4X]

Nice!

[@mirkodiciano4647]

lets go!!

[@CaduPedroni]

Cachy Os is really above the competition as a Distro and with its Kernel for high performance in games. I have been using it instead of Windows 11 for almost 2 months, for now I have only played Diablo 4 and to my surprise it works much better than on Windows, I gained about 30% more FPS, which made it much easier to play with more precision in The Pit where any slowdown is certain death.

[@jakeharms1386]

Would love to see a review of KaOS

[@InnerFire6213]

All of this doesn’t matter if you’re not showing the fps. When it comes to fps, it’s always generic and zen kernel coming on top, with xanmod usually coming in third. Yep. It is what it is. All the custom scheduler or whatnot actually doesn’t matter in gaming. But with that being said, the improvements you see is usually single digit fps, so at the end of the day, just use what works best with your distro.

[@A1RM4X]

I am showing the FPS in every stream I make while comparing kernels: and there is a difference, especially in the 1% lows. Custom kernels come on top in this matter. Scheduler matters in gaming, try a CFS scheduler versus a EEVDF scheduler and you will see huge differences (in fps and input lag / latency). I don't want to be that guy but your argument goes against all the data I gathered in all my tests. Data which is available in most of the live streams in which I compare the kernel delivered by the distro versus the custom I install after for comparison.

[@mairacristian54]

bruh, with all due respect did u even watch the video? I personally dont care if i get 100 or 200 fps in a game, but if the system feels unresponsive is really anoying, especially in competitive games. Ofcourse responsiveness matters, a lot

[@jasonls221]

I've found the clear linux kernel is pretty good for intel laptops as well

[@nileshbhanot2776]

Cachyos kernel just works with cachyos. On fedora, the kernel decreased the performance on my hardware and nvidia gpu😢

[@cyberturkey77]

Same for me on generic Arch

[@rainysorcerer]

That's why I compile my own kernel

[@xbeast7585]

@@cyberturkey77 same here on arch

[@Sunrise-d819i2]

I really love your videos. tho, for me looking in kernels I'm not looking for "highest" i'm looking for the most stable as i mostly play warframe. Which honestly i recommend of you testing of kernels due to its sensitively an light/heavy use of whole computer resources. Mainline the game ranges 145fps down to 80 fps based on open world, arena and ect. now this awesome sensitively of this game engine! on zen i get 150fps to 145fps, 79fps in open worlds (which is most demanding). tho this awesome thing with cachy bore kernel this game is "very sensitive" due to cpu load as well because the whole game was made to run fastest as possible. anyways while using cachy my fps stabilize with lower cpu usage i ranged a smaller gap between high and low fps an this is only on cachy on how it runs things. warframe itself is very fast pace and twitcy game in general as avg mid range gpu avg 130FPS with this game even at 1440P i was getting 120FPS even on RX580 8GB.

[@drummrboy]

J'ai le goût de te poser la question à l'envers: est-ce que le kernel de Cachy est si bon qu'il fonctionnerait dans des cas d'utilisations où on veut normalement du real-time? Genre la production audio?

[@A1RM4X]

Comme je l'ai indiqué dans le titre de la vidéo, ce comparatif focus sur les jeux vidéo. Pour la production audio, un kernel real time sera plus adapté. CachyOS propose aussi des kernel rt optimisés.

[@carlosd.gutierrez9977]

Can I install cachy or clear linux on a Ubuntu based distro?

[@andrewhuang6232]

i run gentoo using Xanmod kernel. had tried liquorix,cahyos.

[@Musa-js]

Merci beaucoup

[@patrickdevaney3361]

Would you recommend CachyOS for workloads like containerization, machine learning, servers etc?

[@A1RM4X]

I am testing their AI SDK install right now, I need more data but so far so good...

[@hamartia_theorist]

Is 0.1% FPS any different between kernels? It should be possible to test without any additional hardware

[@A1RM4X]

Point of the video is to show there is more in the story of kernel and 0.1% FPS. However, in many of my tests / live stream you will find comparison between generic and custom kernel. And when it comes to custom kernel, they have better 0.1% FPS: for example, this live experiment on Mint generic vs TkG Kernel kzbin.infoFU3AajAAHgs?si=s7e2nVrDnvCUWIUz&t=10804

[@Noswiatel]

Its not about FPS

[@shawnchalfant1595]

It's, "break the ice" just so you know.

[@rjltrevisan]

For my old and weak laptop with a Ryzen 3 3200U with 5.66GB of RAM and 60 hz monitor, which kernel or even distro would suck up the last drop of little performance it has?

[@normanmapson1459]

Thank you :-) A question, for the 'OK' kernels that support PREEMPT_DYNAMIC (none, voluntary and full), does adding the kernel boot arg: preempt=full improve latency for gaming? dmesg | grep Preempt can be used to confirm change after reboot.

[@Ud4cznik]

Team TkG Bore!

[@Corporatizm]

Pour les benchmarks d'input lag j'imagine que t'es au taquet, mais si jamais la chaine Battle(non)sense avait fait ça avec une souris modée qui allume une LED en même temps que le clic, la méthode était pas mal.

[@CompuB1t]

I use arch or endeavoOS with cachyOS I have some problesm not with gaming but with their custom kde. I think the most important thing is wine more than the kernel because mostly fps games are for windows

[@rayrai982]

Please, guys i need your suggestion. Which one should i choose between these, Garuda+kde or Cachy+kde? I know about zen kernel it's pretty good at stabilizing game(almost no stuttering) but it's input lag, i have been thinking about it from day one. I feel sluggish while moving mouse cursor. I also know about cachyos, how good they making there kernel. Give me an idea about which distro i should choose?

[@mugichi8597]

i have lags and stattering in ff14 , once human on cachi and xan) and its work nice on opensuse standart)

[@凸Bebo凸]

@@mugichi8597 maybe try the runtime version of steam with proton 8.

[@amanterobot]

Hi everyone guys from far Italy 🇮🇹 😊 One question for you. At the moment I'm having great fun and satisfaction playing on linux mint 21.3 with liquorix kernel and few other things installed following the guide, quite old btw, by Chris Titus. Almost 100 fps with my 2070 and i5 9600k in 1080p but almost there in 2k also. Do you guys think I'm gonna get an extra performance boost with cachyOS? Or at least I will get a gaming OS out of the box 📦 without needing to install anything more? Thanks in advance

[@myartikool]

To my understanding it's not gonna give you more fps, it's more like it going to smooth out low 1%, .1% and input lag. I have access to only pretty dated laptop so I don't play anything more complicated than Slay the Spire, so I can't speak from personal exp.

[@JoeyThrew]

care-nel

[@JoeyThrew]

plouying

[@Tracing0029]

My experience that besides the hardened kernel are all good

[@BruhKhokhols]

bruh, best one is fedora if you already played with some sort of lego being child. just use stable distro which won't take all your time to rallbacks/backups instead of playing games. don't give a fuck for always-testing-distros with custom kernels if you just wanna live without a problems at least from your pc

[@Tomatexyz]

Fedora is definitely not the best for gaming though. This is a Kernel comparison based on gaming.

[@arivicivokkey]

how about xanmod lts? is it crashes too?