Disappointed by Linux Window Manager performance

bluesurfer · 2025-08-04 19:49:52

Hello,

first of all, I would like to say that I don't write in forums very often.
Because most of the time I can help myself or by reading tutorials or existing forums posts.

It's different this time (please excuse my long post)

For history: I used to be a Linux user, back in the time of SuSE 6.0 when configuring a XServer was.. hm .. kind of fun

Now, after years of Linux(-only), Mac and Windows I felt it is time again for Linux on my Desktop machine.

And with desktop machine, I mean more like a gaming PC, here some specs:

Intel Core i7-13700K, 32GB RAM, 1 TB M2 SSD, GeForce RTX 4080 Graphics

So, imho, it's a pretty fast box.

And, it is fast. At least in Windows (and in gaming of course).

And here my problem: It's not fast in Linux. And I don't mean gaming or CPU intensive tasks. I mean just normal snappiness of Window Managers. It's stuttering here, flickering there when resizing windows, moving windows, minimizing windows, etc. Just easy things like that which should be a snap for a computer with that resources.

And, believe me, I already tried a lot:

Different Distros (Arch, Ubuntu, Fedora, CachyOS, Mint, openSUSE)
Different DE's: KDE, Gnome, XFCE, ...
Different Display Server: Wayland, X11

Every time it's nearly the same. Perceived performance is not even close to performance in Windows.

Fastest performance actually was with Arch Linux with KDE.

Findings so far with X11:

- Window minimize and restore is pretty smooth
- Window maximize to full-screen and restore is very stuttering
- Switching between windows is sometimes slow and sometimes faster
- Moving window position is very stuttering
- Fonts are pretty crisp and sharp

Not easy to show on a screencast (because it looks much better on screencast than in real world):

https://vimeo.com/1107197355?share=copy

Findings so far with Wayland:

- Window minimize and restore is smooth
- Window maximize to full-screen and restore is smooth
- Switching between windows is fast
- Moving window position is smooth
- Fonts are not as sharp as with X11
- Many graphical glitches, especially with Chromium based browsers (Chrome, Brave, Vivaldi, ...)
- Lot's of applications have problems with wayland (ZapZap, kmymoney, ...)

Here also a screencast: https://vimeo.com/1107198077?share=copy

So currently I am neither happy with X11 nor with Wayland.

Btw, I use a 5k UltraWide Monitor (5120x2160 pixel) and therefore have fractional scaling (175%) enabled. Also, of course I use latest software packages of Arch Linux and proprietary NVIDIA drivers.

So, I really want to give Linux a chance as my main operating system again (after years). But how is it possible that a computer with such vast hardware ressources does feel that slow? I am disapointed about the current state of Linux.

Can somebody help me please and give some advice how to improve things? Any help is really appreciated!

Stefan

seth · 2025-08-04 20:27:14

Every time it's nearly the same. Perceived performance is not even close to performance in Windows. … I am disapointed about the current state of Linux.

Then use windows? Has it ever occurred to you that the common, persistent and exclusive factor of your struggles is *you*?

First read https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=57855 and http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html then, instead narrating what amounts to "its alls does nots works" FUD, provide some actual data about the system.

Start with the Xorg log, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xorg#General and which window manager your're focusing on right now.
Also post your complete system journal for the boot:

sudo journalctl -b | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

But nb. that for the most part the performance will much rather hinge on the actual clients than the WM (the latter can resize a window almost infinitely fast, but xterm will resize much faster than a browser)

For chromium on wayland see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Chromi … er_Wayland (ignore the symptoms)
For

it looks much better on screencast than in real world

and assuming that's not just completely made up bullshit, there's https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=306837 (does the stutter go away when you just run glxgears?) but that's a incredibly specific and weird situation tbw.

PS: vimeo wants me to register to some club to play the video?

topcat01 · 2025-08-05 17:59:13

I have quite the opposite experience. Linux on any reasonable hardware is visibly and measurably faster/snappier than any Windows, and even macOS on my M-series laptop is disappointingly sluggish. I manage and access close to a 100 machines running Linux and Windows and a few on macOS so this is not just anecdotal.

seth · 2025-08-05 19:55:09

There're quite some pitfalls I can think of, specifically w/ the OPs setup (the proprietary nvidia driver is notoriously slow at resizing GL contexts, what could explain laggy resize performance w/ some clients incl. browsers - and some plasma applications just run several GL contexts in the same window…) but the entire wall of text there collapses to "For twenty years I've tried everything™ and nothing™ works, I feel™ that linux™ is slower than windows, even though the some videos behind a registration form will not show that but believe™ me"
The situation is at best drastically underspecified and at worst made up trolling. We'll see.

tekstryder · 2025-08-05 23:24:21

seth wrote:

the proprietary nvidia driver is notoriously slow at resizing GL contexts

Perhaps not specifically relevant to this thread, but to that point, this new lib has been a godsend:

• https://github.com/NVIDIA/egl-wayland2

I packaged it about a month ago to fix various long-established rendering issues. Never a single "glitchy" GL issue since.

RC1 was tagged today, and I'll likely lobby for packaging inclusion in some forthcoming nVidia driver release by default after 1.0.0 is tagged.

- hyprland 0.50.1 (-DNO_XWAYLAND:STRING=true)
- egl-wayland2 1.00 (git main@1229d635)
- nVidia 580.65.06

seth · 2025-08-06 09:36:39

Does it have any impact on the resize performance of HW accelerated clients (browser, though anything QML is maybe a better testcase) on X11?

tekstryder · 2025-08-06 13:07:36

seth wrote:

Does it have any impact on the resize performance

Subjectively I don't notice a difference.

What is notably addressed tho:

kbrenneman (nVidia Dev) wrote:

where the app tries to resize a window, but the new size doesn’t get applied until the next frame.

This driver bug affected GL popovers, tooltips, dialogs where they would initially present as distorted / shrunk / expanded briefly and was annoying as all get-out.

The OP would need to be more specific re: Wayland "glitches" & "problems".

Arch Linux

#1 2025-08-04 19:49:52

Disappointed by Linux Window Manager performance

#2 2025-08-04 20:27:14

Re: Disappointed by Linux Window Manager performance

#3 2025-08-05 17:59:13

Re: Disappointed by Linux Window Manager performance

#4 2025-08-05 19:55:09

Re: Disappointed by Linux Window Manager performance

#5 2025-08-05 23:24:21

Re: Disappointed by Linux Window Manager performance

#6 2025-08-06 09:36:39

Re: Disappointed by Linux Window Manager performance

#7 2025-08-06 13:07:36

Re: Disappointed by Linux Window Manager performance

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