# How to boost gaming performance? **URL:** \ **Category:** Gaming, sound and video\ **Created:** [September 18, 2023, 10:36am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666 "2023-09-18T10:36:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sabbir4world](https://forum.endeavouros.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@sabbir4world](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/sabbir4world)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2023, 10:36am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/1 "2023-09-18T10:36:01Z")
How, I wanted to try an arch based operating system. So I landed here. My system is running smoothly. I am running LTS kernel. My both CPU & GPU is AMD. I have tried Ubuntu, and Nobara before this. I had a good gaming experience on Nobara. But on Endeavour OS, I am feeling I am getting less performance on gaming. Is there anything I should be doing to gain maximum gaming performance? I installed steam default\> EndeavourOS Linux" (64 bit) Kernel Name: Linux Kernel Version: 6.1.53-1-lts X Server Vendor: The [X.Org](http://X.Org) Foundation X Server Release: 12302000 X Window Manager: GNOME Shell Steam Runtime Version: steam-runtime\_0.20230801.56012 Driver: AMD AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (navi14, LLVM 16.0.6, DRM 3.49, 6.1.53-1-lts) Thanks in advance! ---
**Author:** ![GjMan78](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/gjman78/32/80582_2.png) [@GjMan78](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/GjMan78)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2023, 10:48am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/2 "2023-09-18T10:48:34Z")
I’m not a gamer, so take what I say with the right amount of skepticism. Maybe you should have chosen Garuda instead of Endeavor because she has many out-of-the-box performance tweaks. But if you want you can apply the same tweaks by carefully reading this page, I have gained valuable advice from it. > ---
**Author:** ![pycrk](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/pycrk/32/71109_2.png) [@pycrk](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/pycrk)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2023, 4:40pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/3 "2023-09-18T16:40:58Z")
I would switch from LTS to the Zen kernel, which is better for gaming. Of course you can install multiple kernels and select the kernel when booting up. which is also important, since you want to use steam, you should set up vulkan. > **[Vulkan - ArchWiki](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Vulkan)** There is a good thread on the topic of gaming > [@Linux gaming \[Guide\]](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/linux-gaming-guide/7339): > > Linux gamingrage   Why should YOU care? face_with_raised_eyebrow   You JUST want to game? face_with_monocle   It must be very hard to ENJOY? Not hard at all to just enjoy! Buckle up and let’s spread some knowledge to make it easy for everyone! rocket Let this be our gaming hub, please share: Update of tools Best practices Quality guides New hot tech Performance tips Table of contents: [Introduction](#heading--linux-gaming-intro) 1.1 [Platforms](#heading--linux-gaming-platforms) 1.2 [Common terms](#heading--linux-gaming-common-terms) 1.3 [Engines](#heading--linux-gaming-engines)[Requirements](#heading--linux-gaming-requirements)[Steam](#heading--linux-gaming-steam) 3.1 [Setup](#heading--linux-gaming-steam-setup) 3.… ---
**Author:** ![ricklinux](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/ricklinux/32/110798_2.png) [@ricklinux](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/ricklinux)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2023, 2:47am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/4 "2023-09-19T02:47:57Z")
If you are doing some gaming then i would install vulkan-radeon and you may need the 32 bit library files also and for mesa too. [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AMDGPU](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AMDGPU) There is also hardware video acceleration. A link for that is on the page. ---
**Author:** ![Kresimir](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/kresimir/32/73739_2.png) [@Kresimir](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/Kresimir)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2023, 4:07am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/5 "2023-09-19T04:07:53Z")
I didn’t read that article carefully, but one sentence stood out to me as particularly wrong: > I don’t use a swap partition as mentioned previously I would rather just buy more ram. You should use swap regardless of how much RAM you have. I prefer a swap file over a swap partition, but any will do. For 32 GB of RAM, from my experience, 6 GB of RAM is sufficient (if you’re not interested in using hibernate). Swap is not a replacement for RAM. ---
**Author:** ![sabbir4world](https://forum.endeavouros.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@sabbir4world](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/sabbir4world)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2023, 5:22am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/6 "2023-09-19T05:22:29Z")
Thank you! I have installed **vulkan-radeon** and uninstalled _amdvlk & lib32-amdvlk_ I also have these packages installed: lib32-libva-mesa-driver, lib32-mesa, lib32-mesa-utils, lib32-mesa-vdpau, lib32-vulkan-mesa-layers, libva-mesa-driver, mesa, mesa-utils, mesa-vdpau, and, vulkan-mesa-layers. But I saw performance boost after installing **vulkan-radeon** at least getting 10 FPS more. I am on wayland. I didn’t change anything else! ---
**Author:** ![keybreak](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/keybreak/32/9257_2.png) [@keybreak](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/keybreak)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2023, 5:44am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/7 "2023-09-19T05:44:50Z")
While it may be wrong as a statement, it’s not wrong in reality of outcome. I know all the arguments for using swap very well, they’re technical in nature, however it takes exceptionally sh\*t software to use or extreme overflow bugs (which will lead to problems regardless of swap anyway) to actually encountering such problems. In reality 32 Gb is far more than enough for anyone to completely disable swap and never encounter any problems, while not encountering performance issues either. * * * So unless you use hibernation - it’s non-sense, personally i’d only use swap while having less than 4 Gb of RAM. ---
**Author:** ![Kresimir](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/kresimir/32/73739_2.png) [@Kresimir](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/Kresimir)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2023, 6:14am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/8 "2023-09-19T06:14:00Z")
> [@keybreak](#): > > In reality 32 Gb is far more than enough for anyone to completely disable swap and never encounter any problems, while not encountering performance issues either. Not true. Well, maybe, if you keep very short uptimes (reboot every couple of hours or so). If you keep your computer on for the entire day or even longer, and you use a memory hogging program (like Chromium or Firefox), you will benefit from a small swap file (and still not encounter any performance issues). > [@keybreak](#): > > it takes exceptionally sh\*t software Yeah, like any modern web browser. I agree, it’s exceptionally :poop: software. ---
**Author:** ![keybreak](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/keybreak/32/9257_2.png) [@keybreak](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/keybreak)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2023, 6:17am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/9 "2023-09-19T06:17:08Z")
> [@Kresimir](#): > > Not true. Well, maybe, if you keep very short uptimes (reboot every couple of hours or so). If you keep your computer on for the entire day or even longer, and you use a memory hogging program (like Chromium or Firefox), you will benefit from a small swap file (and still not encounter any performance issues). Not true. I do exactly that for WEEKS of uptime 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![BluishHumility](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/bluishhumility/32/70412_2.png) [@BluishHumility](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/BluishHumility)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2023, 12:34pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/10 "2023-09-19T12:34:11Z")
> [@keybreak](#): > > In reality 32 Gb is far more than enough for anyone to completely disable swap and never encounter any problems If you have more than enough RAM, consider enabling [zram](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Zram). It’s easy to set up, and gives your system access to a swap device if needed without having to make a swap file or partition on the disk. It’s faster than using swap on a disk actually, and spares your SSD unnecessary writes. @Kresimir is right, if the OP wants to boost their system’s performance then they should have a swap device set up. Swap is not just for when you run out of RAM, or have applications that don’t map memory properly. Swap can actually make your RAM more efficient. [https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/190521](https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/190521) ---
**Author:** ![keybreak](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/keybreak/32/9257_2.png) [@keybreak](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/keybreak)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2023, 1:30pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/11 "2023-09-19T13:30:57Z")
I remember that post and zram is **MUCH** better option than disk swap, especially for servers and production machines…But “boosting” performance with it - is a bit of a stretch 😆 ---
**Author:** ![BluishHumility](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/bluishhumility/32/70412_2.png) [@BluishHumility](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/BluishHumility)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2023, 1:37pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/12 "2023-09-19T13:37:55Z")
> [@keybreak](#): > > zram is **MUCH** better option than swap Using zram as a swap device is not a better option than swap, it _is_ swap. > [@keybreak](#): > > But “boosting” performance with it - is a bit of a stretch I think if running a different kernel is going to be considered a valid suggestion for the sake of this thread, then enabling swap should be considered valid as well. You could just as easily say no one will ever notice the performance benefit of using such-and-such kernel instead of so-and-so kernel. The main point I was trying to convey is: not enabling swap at all because you have an abundance of RAM is not the best choice, and does not serve the OPs goal of boosting performance. Enabling zram provides the benefits of swap without the drawbacks of needing a swap file or swap partition. ---
**Author:** ![keybreak](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/keybreak/32/9257_2.png) [@keybreak](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/keybreak)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2023, 1:38pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/13 "2023-09-19T13:38:59Z")
> [@BluishHumility](#): > > Using zram as a swap device is not a better option than swap, it _is_ swap. I know, i mean it’s much better way of doing it, than thrashing SSD and being slower than RAM. ---
**Author:** ![Kresimir](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/kresimir/32/73739_2.png) [@Kresimir](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/Kresimir)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2023, 8:28am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/14 "2023-09-20T08:28:35Z")
> [@keybreak](#): > > I know, i mean it’s much better way of doing it, than thrashing SSD and being slower than RAM. Utter FUD. If you have 32 GB of RAM, you’re not “thrashing” your SSD with swap. Your soystemd logging probably causes more writes to the drive than swap. And you are not losing any performance with swap on SSD, because it is done when the computer is mostly idle. Again, swap is not there to give you more RAM in an OOM situation, it’s awful at that, but it is there to allow the kernel to efficiently use your existing RAM. ---
**Author:** ![keybreak](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/keybreak/32/9257_2.png) [@keybreak](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/keybreak)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2023, 8:34am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/15 "2023-09-20T08:34:26Z")
In my experience and testing of disk activity - both statements are wrong. It definitely thrashes heavily (obviously under conditions of using swap), you can check yourself, but i don’t recommended thrashing SSD 😆 And RAM (well any DDR3+ RAM) is much faster than any SSD. ---
**Author:** ![Kresimir](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/kresimir/32/73739_2.png) [@Kresimir](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/Kresimir)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2023, 8:36am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/16 "2023-09-20T08:36:45Z")
I’m using a swap file on an SSD normally, what you’re saying is completely wrong. > [@keybreak](#): > > And RAM (well any DDR3+ RAM) is much faster than any SSD. Of course it is, but that doesn’t matter here. If you need to be using swap under heavy load, you just don’t have enough RAM for what you’re doing. Swap won’t help you with that very much. ---
**Author:** ![keybreak](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/keybreak/32/9257_2.png) [@keybreak](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/keybreak)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2023, 8:39am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/17 "2023-09-20T08:39:14Z")
> [@Kresimir](#): > > I’m using a swap file on an SSD normally, what you’re saying is completely wrong. WRONG!!! 🤡 1. Generate swap conditions by writing some sh\*tty program 2. Monitor disk writes. It will be much higher than highest usual offenders (unconfigured Firefox, baloo etc) ---
**Author:** ![Kresimir](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/kresimir/32/73739_2.png) [@Kresimir](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/Kresimir)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2023, 8:40am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/18 "2023-09-20T08:40:20Z")
Why would I do that? That would be incredibly stupid. Why would I cause an OOM situation artificially and then monitor swap use? What useful information would that give me? That kernel decided to use swap when it didn’t have another choice? Well, yes, Cpt. Obvious. 🤦 Instead, I just normally use my computer and let the kernel decide when it needs to swap. Which is typically very far from an OOM situation. On my desktop, swap usage tends to be very low, maybe a hundred or so megabytes after days of uptime. It never spikes during high load, because I have plenty of RAM. ---
**Author:** ![keybreak](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/keybreak/32/9257_2.png) [@keybreak](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/keybreak)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2023, 8:43am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/19 "2023-09-20T08:43:49Z")
![honka_animated-128px-38](https://forum.endeavouros.com/uploads/default/original/3X/7/3/737e3570aec33f18c5cbadf26dd8c36289e4311c.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Kresimir](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/kresimir/32/73739_2.png) [@Kresimir](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/Kresimir)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2023, 8:45am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666/20 "2023-09-20T08:45:46Z")
You’re so wrong on this, but I don’t have the will to argue with you. An intelligent bystander can look up how the kernel can move hardly ever used memory pages into swap to make more cachable space during idle time, and make up his/her own mind. [Next page](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/how-to-boost-gaming-performance/45666.md?page=2)