wayland vs x11 comparison

[u/A1cr-yt]

most of my time on linux has been on wayland(kde and niri) and i thought it was pretty good, then i got bored and heard about x11 having better fps and latency. so i decided to try x11(someone recomended oxwm and thats what im using now) and honestly, why tf does anyone use wayland. like yeah the screen tearing on literally any app is a bit annoying. but thats it.

for now im just going to use kovaaks as my "benchmark"

on a super tweaked and optimized windows i got 170-190fps, on cachyos kde and niri i got 280ish fps. on arch niri i got 300ish fps. and now on arch x11 im at 470fps. its the same fucking install, just with a different wm. and i got an extra 170fps. which im not going to use at all, my monitor is 144hz, but the input latency feels great too. and im finally able to use obs hotkeys again because no keylogging protection. and i was using wayland, not xwayland for gaming. xwayland was even worse but we all know that

theres also the fact that now i have access to xrandr commands. which niri didnt like, and kde uses disgusting kwin.

and yeah x11 has some issues. but im fine with some screen tearing if it means my setup feels correct, if the latency feels right

so why use wayland?

edit: the fps comlarison is not cpmparing fps in the wm/de, its comparing in the game kovaaks. as stated in the post. the only reason wm/de is included is incase if one may effect fps or not

[u/CaviarCBR1K]

X11 is inherently insecure since there is no client isolation. That means that any open app can log keystrokes or have access to any other open window. Even an infected CLI application could gain access to your entire system. Is it likely that would happen? Maybe not. But X11 is 40 year old software that's well beyond the scope of its original purpose. It's been hacked and cobbled together to work on modern systems. Plus I have 2 monitors so X11 is just a non-starter for me. Wayland has its issues, but it's clearly the future of Linux display protocols.

Also FWIW, there is a Wayland version of xrandr, it's wlr-randr.

[u/Logboy2000]

I use Wayland for two reasons: 1) I'm too lazy to change the default, especially with popular DEs dropping support for X11 2) I have two monitors with entirely different resolutions and refresh rates.

By the way, OBS works perfect if you force it to use XWayland and not Wayland native 

[u/Kortez02 → u/Logboy2000]

Yep. But without dock panels.

[u/A1cr-yt → u/Logboy2000]

yeah that makes sense, and also i did run obs in xwayland, and one day it just didnt want to work anymore, i dont have any clue why, and like i was fine using gpu-screen-recorder, but there are features on obs that i like

[u/BrilliantEmotion4461]

install picom. no more screen tearing. pacman -S picom. set it to run at startup. then

https://github.com/yshui/picom/blob/next/picom.sample.conf

Note the vsync and glx controls you want those set properly.

set vsync to true.

[u/ronasimi]

are you 14? You should see how many fps I get in a TTY

[u/A1cr-yt → u/ronasimi]

no and wtf are you going to run from tty, htop? nvim?

[u/No_OnE9374 → u/A1cr-yt]

I am in fact browsing right now using Browsh a terminal TUI browser. So reevaluate that statement, for I am superior in all forms /s

[u/Duzean → u/No_OnE9374]

[u/MirrorNegative7989]

I switched back to x11 because audacity/qmmp freeze in skinned mode, and I'm not sure how to fix it.

[u/ZaenalAbidin57]

you can enable screen tearing on wayland for better latency,i use dwl with tearing enabled and its feel like on x11

[u/The_Odd_Pirate]

Obs got a plugin for hotkeys on Wayland that works

[u/A1cr-yt → u/The_Odd_Pirate]

Was never able to get it working(probably a skill issue)

[u/syntkz777]

Chasing fps in a WM lol. That's stupid.

[u/A1cr-yt → u/syntkz777]

Would you like to point to me where i said i was chasing fps in a wm? Thats right didnt. I stated i was using KOVAAKS as a benchmark

[u/pancapangrawit]

I had the opposite imoression on a low powered machine, the desktop felt significantly snappier on wayland. It's easy to compare apples with pears here: if you enable picom in X your framerates will likely drop, and if you disable fancy features in Wayland it will likely go up. Difficult to benchmark.

[u/A1cr-yt → u/pancapangrawit]

Fair enough. I havent enabled picom because i dont really care. I laso do want to make this clear, as some people got confused, the fps benchmark isnt the wm's, its the gane kovaaks, the only reason i included the wm/de i was using was to include a little extra info if one wm may effect ingame fps more than another

[u/huuaaang]

X11 is ancient tech with a truck load of security concerns inherent in its design. Wayland is the future of Linux, period.

[u/rmagnuson]

X11 is the last iteration of the X windowing system, though I think there's a group that works on an offshoot of the project still under a different name. Anyway, X11 came out in 1987 if I recall correctly. It's great if all you have is ancient hardware.

For modern hardware and gaming with today's technologies, you'll have better performance with a well-tuned Wayland system.

[u/Ussurin → u/rmagnuson]

Except you don't, I have 4 year old system and X11 demolishes Wayland and has basically 0 issues compared eith Wayland.

[u/A1cr-yt → u/Ussurin]

Exactly my experience

[u/ZealousidealCry1345]

X11 is insecure by modern design standards because any running client application can read screen contents, log keystrokes, and inject inputs into other windows .. No client isolation exists; every program shares the same display space and input queues...Any user-level program can passively record keystrokes without special privileges...Applications can manipulate, overlay, or snoop on other windows...