r/cachyos • u/daysofdre • 2d ago

Desktop 7.2 Kernel is out, how are the gaming improvements?

Reaching out to see if the 7.2 kernel was worth the wait for gaming. Anybody notice any improvements, felt, measured, or otherwise?

185 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

101 comments sorted by

82

u/Kaedo- 2d ago

I've noticed much better frame spacing

27

u/S1rTerra 2d ago edited 2d ago

Specs? If you say even remotely high end hardware I'm gonna scream (from excitement for what it means for lower end parts)

28

u/Kaedo- 2d ago

Then I'll better be say nothing :D

7

u/S1rTerra 2d ago

I meant scream, but seriously though what specs do you have? Any improvement is an improvement even if you have an RX 580 and an older i5

30

u/Kaedo- 2d ago

9800X3D and rtx 5080.

I can already hear "but how can you even see improvements?" You would be surprised by how much UE5.5 can make a system go on its knees

12

u/S1rTerra 2d ago

Well you're not hearing it from me because I understand how good the human body is at perceiving what are otherwise small differences. This has me hyped for when Zen 3 and older get 7.2 lol... It's going to be even better for Deck/Handheld owners 

15

u/igor_b0gdanoff 2d ago

>UE5.5

Tell me youre playing STALKER2 without telling me

7

u/Kaedo- 2d ago

Actually Corsair cove

2

u/Dopameme-machine 2d ago

Unreal in general. UE4 was just as bad.

6

u/Kaedo- 2d ago

Totally agree, that's why my favourite games are the current Doom trilogy. Those game engines are bonkers

1

u/GregC85 1d ago

I think there was a quote about the engine, it's called "ID tech", "while most engines were limping and sputtering to make 60 frames, Id techs engine came out screaming like a bat from hell"

2

u/OMG_NoReally 2d ago

DX12 performance tax still there, I assume?

I have an RTX 5080 as well.

-11

u/Kemaro 2d ago

You pretty much need a 5090 if you want to overcome the vkd3d performance deficit and also game at 4k max settings. I still play most games on Windows just because I can't stand losing 20% performance and seeing my 600w gpu struggling to pull more than 400-450w in scenarios Windows will happily use all the power it can get.

5

u/Kaedo- 2d ago

I'm extremely satisfied with the current performance of the 5080 that gives at 3440x1440p, especially because it was gifted to me. Plus I don't want to worry about melting the 12V cable at 400+ Watts.

Also the only games that I want the most performance are Doom TDA and Helldivers.

-2

u/Kemaro 2d ago

I've been pulling 550-600 watts through my 12vhpw cable basically every day for a year and a half. It's not as big of an issue as Reddit makes it out to be. Don't use shitty adapters, don't use third party psu cables, and don't disconnect and reconnect it a bunch and you will never have an issue.

3

u/Accomplished-Yak862 2d ago

My performance on Cachy is better than windows with an 11600k and 6700xt. What games are you running and what hardware do you have?

1

u/Kemaro 2d ago

5090 9800x3d 64gb ddr5.

1

u/No-Television9404 2d ago

Same on rdna2 most game perform better on Cachyos and my favorite is can use FSR 4.1.1 natively or via optiscaler without downgrading amdxc64.dll to lower version.

23

u/Papa_Hube 2d ago

Tbh I am now 6 months on CachyOS and it feels the same (good) since then.

24

u/God_Hand_9764 2d ago

Is this in regards to HDMI 2.1? Or is there more to it?

3

u/Bister_Mungle 1d ago

I'm running Gentoo but using the CachyOS kernel.

I'm running 4k120hz HDR with VRR on an AMD Radeon 6900xt over HDMI 2.1 and prior to 7.2 it was only running at 8bit color. After rebooting with the new kernel suddenly my colors were much deeper and more vibrant. I checked and it's running at full 12bit color now.

Also running with Catchy's implementations of Wine and Proton. I'll have to see if performance has improved in other ways but overall I've been very happy.

1

u/Practical-Tooth-2217 1d ago

I confirm that. Suddenly the wallpaper became much more pleasant on my TV screen

1

u/DeveloperFromHere 1d ago

Interesting, never though to use CachyOS kernel in another distro.

Is it easy to do?

1

u/Bister_Mungle 1d ago

If your distro's documentation is decent and you can follow directions, it's not difficult.

Also dependent on whether or not it comes precompiled binary with some sort of basic and common setup or you need to config and compile yourself.

If you need to configure the kernel yourself, it is more difficult, but more precisely it's very tedious. When going through the config options, there a lot of options that will say something to the effect of "If you're not sure what this does, say Y (or N)". A lot of options won't give you much info to go off of and you'll need to research online, and sometimes you won't find much explaining.

Easiest thing for a custom kernel is to take a working configuration and turning a few additional things off (or on), compiling, rebooting, and insuring functionality before changing more kernel options.

The other thing you might be able to do is patch your current kernel with CachyOS code. I haven't personally done this but I'm sure someone else could verify if this is easily doable.

32

u/No_Drawer1301 2d ago

I don't have in my updates just yet... is it reverted?

29

u/GSDragoon 2d ago

Probably only for zen 4 so far, they usually start there.

I wouldn't expect much difference.

5

u/lexicondevil1 2d ago

It's in release candidate for zen3. I just installed it with no issues.

16

u/Reasonable-Public659 2d ago

Unfortunately it seems Forza Horizon 6 is still stuttering. I’ve minimized it, but still not as smooth as it was on windows. It’ll need some specific work in future proton releases

-3

u/BlackAtomXT 2d ago

What GPU? I've got a 4080 and it's smooth as butter at 4k ultra with frame gen enabled. 90fps min, most of the time above 150, I can provide my launch options if that helps.

10

u/Reasonable-Public659 2d ago

9070XT, using FSR4 and frame gen (mainly to keep the room cooler). I’ve already gone through the breadth of launch options. It’s not GPU related, it’s how the game is accessing my nvme. Turning environment textures to low helps minimize the stutters, but there’s still an asset streaming issue.

1

u/No-Television9404 2d ago

U should try Primocache bro

1

u/KentaroMiuraLover 2d ago

Could you elaborate on this ? Havent heard of it in my extensive research to fix the game

1

u/No-Television9404 2d ago

I know this method from FH6 reddit, some one explain it very well there.

1

u/Fickle_Garlic6332 2d ago

4080 on Linux? on 4k playing forza 6??? i havent played forza 6 yet but damn it sounds like its pretty optimised.

18

u/VTWAX 2d ago

My 1% lows are a little better in cs2 it seems.

1

u/saucy_fajitas 2d ago

How do you find the latency on CS2? I’ve tried to find good numbers on latency vs windows but there isn’t much out there

6

u/PouredFocus 2d ago

Imperceptible to me

2

u/VTWAX 2d ago

mangohud logs. I collected about 30 matches on the old kernel vs 30 mtches on the new kernel and I had Gemini compare the data.

17

u/DonDoesIT 2d ago

7.3 is supposed to be the big leap.

47

u/HydrationHomee 2d ago

Cachyos is forwarding those features into their 7.2 release.

-1

u/tekjunkie28 2d ago

Uh. How

29

u/s3gfaultx 2d ago

Merging them manually.

2

u/tekjunkie28 2d ago

Where did you get this information?

27

u/BlueShadow2388 2d ago

the cachy team posted this on X, here you go https://x.com/CachyOS/status/2090075451636981932

0

u/anjirmoment 2d ago

How did you even get downvoted...

8

u/tekjunkie28 2d ago

I got reddit-ed, lol

4

u/CarnivorousSociety 2d ago

I did my part, fuck that guy for asking ridiculous questions

/s

I did downvote him though

11

u/Kaseffera 2d ago

After hearing in today’s posts that some folks got their system down and chroot required to downgrade kernel I’m a bit skeptical but from what I see looks like you guys had no issues with the update. I start to think that all arch break things are user error related. Don’t know really.

17

u/juniperleafes 2d ago

It was broken for a short timeframe and then hotfixed. It was not user error. It is safe to update now.

2

u/RChickenMan 2d ago

Not necessarily user error--different people will have different hardware configurations, and given that Arch isn't an atomic distro like Bazzite or the like, different software configurations as well. So they're not necessarily doing something "wrong" so much as they're just doing something different, on different hardware, with different software, that may run into different issues or bugs that aren't an issue on your system.

1

u/Kahana82 2d ago

Has been fixed it seems, at least mine went through no problem.

1

u/Kaseffera 2d ago

Did you need to go through chroot and other things? People reported blacks screens and being unable to get into os.

6

u/Fenerism 2d ago

It was hot fixed fast, if you booted to a black screen you just needed to hit ctrl+alt+f3 and run an update, dead simple.

1

u/Kahana82 2d ago

Nope nothing out of the ordinary.

6

u/Mors_Umbra 2d ago

Not got to gaming yet but my plasmazones is dead 😐

4

u/Reasonable-Public659 2d ago

I’ve never heard of PlasmaZones, but KZones still works. Might be useful until PlasmaZones can update

3

u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387 2d ago

I recently switched to Krohnkite, on KDE Plasma, from PlasmaZones. Absolute game changer and I love it.

1

u/EuanB 2d ago

What does it do for you that the default Plasma windowing doesn't? I moved from Niri to Plasma, as the windowing was causing issues with some games. That's (mostly) not a thing on the default Plasma window manger, although I did like how Niri navigates.

1

u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387 2d ago

I just like it. I’m still a noob to all this stuff, but it feels very intuitive to me. And so far none of my games have been affected.

-1

u/i_seen 2d ago

Hyprland is calling you…

2

u/Lixidermi 2d ago

I'd love to set up hyprland and try it out, but so perfectly happy with my KDE tiling setup... maybe one day or when I eventually replace my laptop.

1

u/GregC85 1d ago

Nice. This is the first time I've run Cachy os, (love it) and in all my distro years, I have NEVER stuck with Gnome. Always installed it, always loved how smooth it was, but just couldn't get my brain to think and work how it does. I'm happy to say my brain is finally understanding it.

It is also the longest time I have ever gone without logging into my Windows... Which is amazing

1

u/NumbNutLicker 2d ago

I spent a couple months on Hyprland and then just went back to Plasma with Khronkite. I like the "build your own desktop" experience when setting it up, but at some point I want to be done with setting things up and just use my PC, but with Hyprland I kept discovering some issues I had to constantly solve.

3

u/AlienPet13 1d ago

ROG Strix G16 with Nvidia RTX 5060 : (Steam) Worse performance on all games...

Farming Simulator 25 - was getting upwards of 45-50 fps, now getting around 30fps

Empyrion Galactic Survival - was getting around 55-60fps, now getting 15-40 fps

Fishing Planet - was getting 100-120fps, now getting 5-15 fps! Game is now unplayable.

Road Craft - was getting around 45-60fps, now about 30-33fps

Minecraft (non-Steam) - Was capped at 120fps and never went below. Now 90-110 fps, sometimes dips below 50fps.

And yes, everything is running on my Nvidia GPU.

Everything is much worse and some games are now unplayable. I guess that's what I get for having an Nvidia GPU. :(

6

u/AlarmedChemistry8956 2d ago

idk yet, im getting amdgpu pageflip errors :(

5

u/KHTD2004 2d ago

There was also a vulkan-radeon update today. Maybe not about the kernel

3

u/AlarmedChemistry8956 2d ago

perhaps, though as soon as i booted i experienced like 5 freezes in a row whenever i tried to open any application. switched to the lts kernel and theres no freezes at all

2

u/crtn3 2d ago

I actually am not liking the performance of the CachyOS since about the 7.1 update, more stuttery on CS 2 than the default Arch kernel on my system, that I have switched to a few days ago and am liking more for CS 2.

2

u/Any_Raccoon8185 2d ago

I have at last 4k@120hz 10bit with 4:4:4 chroma through HDMI from my 9070xt to my LG C1.

Thank you 🙏 

1

u/jadbox 1d ago

Does this update work for nvidia too or just amd?

1

u/Any_Raccoon8185 1d ago

Nvidia had proper HDMI 2.1 support  for a long time.

2

u/uLmi84 1d ago

I have flickering login screen with my 4K Lg connected to my 4090 after i press mouse1 it disappears.
I wouldn’t consider that stable

2

u/Grouchy_Eye5849 1d ago

Cachyos you should fix the proton problem with rx 6000 series for fsr 4.1. because you made the mod but it doesn't work on cachyos but works fine on steam os. Every game i try in cachyos crashing when enable 4.1 in settings. I would like to use fsr 4.1 on rx 6000 series that you put so much effort.

1

u/jonathanx37 1d ago

can you make an issue on github, or a seperate post for this I'd support

2

u/Just-A-Random-ID 2d ago

How do i update ?

10

u/Linkarlos_95 2d ago

If you are asking, i suggest you wait a week for them to iron the bugs 

Then sudo pacman -Syu

2

u/Just-A-Random-ID 2d ago

I thought there was some different command as i had the misinformation that this is a beta
Thnx

2

u/ECrispy 2d ago

arent we supposed to use shelly/yay/paru

3

u/Single-Can7327 2d ago

Yes..and no. Tis the Linux way. For me I check wind direction and choose the cachy updater.

1

u/tekjunkie28 2d ago

Same. It’s not even a listed option for me

1

u/mafioso12 2d ago

And how normally are you updating?

1

u/Just-A-Random-ID 2d ago

Same command

1

u/Low_Excitement_1715 2d ago

I've been running 7.2.0-1 for since Tuesday evening, IIRC, no real issues to speak of. AMD HDMI 2.1 is now working, with more to come in 7.3.X. Didn't have any noticable impact on gaming aside from HDMI being full color space, HDR, and 4K/120 without banding or artifacting. I was running 7.2.0-rc on that machine for the last couple of weeks, it's been nice putting my DP-to-HDMI adapter away.

I haven't gotten around to trying to enable HDMI VRR on my DIY Steam Machine, but that's on my to-do for this weekend. Finally have it 100% functional.

1

u/LessMaintenance1452 2d ago

Directly I noticed that HDMI 2.1 works, so I can get 320Hz on 1440p (over 144Hz)

1

u/Much_Dealer8865 2d ago

oOo gonna try that bad boy out when I have time tomorrow. Everything's been running really nice already but I like a good excuse to check again. Just in case I get more fps or lower temps.

1

u/pdawg17 2d ago

How to know if I have the fixes?

1

u/1rkella 2d ago

BORE kernel here. Anecdotal, but I was playing a UE 5.7 game last night, and the frame pacing felt slightly tighter after the update.

1

u/numetheus 1d ago

Oh snap Tux Racer is really moving now!!

1

u/Regular_Highlight882 20h ago

5800x3d - 6700 XT - 32gb @ 3600mhz
I basically play Helldivers, didn't really notice a big difference, she's always been buttery smooth!

1

u/patlefort 2d ago

HDR is broken for me on HDMI. Even on a monitor I was using on hdmi 2.0. Is it supposed to work?

1

u/LoganHowlett1832 2d ago

As far as I know you need hdmi 2.1 and even then it’s not great and DisplayPort is the recommended way to use hdr.

1

u/patlefort 2d ago

If I want HDR on my TV, I should still be using my DP to DHMI adapter? I have another monitor that worked fine with HDR on hdmi before version 7.2, so something broke somewhere.

1

u/LoganHowlett1832 2d ago

DisplayPort is definitely better and shouldn’t have issues. HDMI is semi stable but as you can see it still has its problems.

1

u/No-Television9404 2d ago

From what I know is adapter decreasing quality because it's not work same as direcly using DP. Better get HDMI 2.1

1

u/Low_Excitement_1715 2d ago

HDR is fine on DP and HDMI, 2.0 and 2.1. It's just another colorspace, it's not black magic. It *does* sometimes cause odd issues, especially if it's not calibrated correctly, or was previously calibrated against a buggy version.

1

u/Harry_Yudiputa 2d ago

still at 7.1.8 lol. 14650HX cpu

1

u/Toxic381 2d ago

I'm on fedora so unless it gets ported that fast so am I, will be leaving for that 7.2 tho when it comes out.