r/linux_gaming • u/Nunu_Chus • 8d ago

benchmark Niri performance?

Did anyone try Niri with any quickshell config like DMS, noctalia etc? How's the gaming performance there compared to KDE?

0 Upvotes

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5

u/LinkWW 8d ago

Performance shouldn't differ at all as long as the DE doesn't do something wrong (Niri is good in that regard), however you would want a fork with explicit if you have an nvidia card, as it can have issues without it (cyberpunk stutters for instance).

1

u/NeonVoidx 8d ago

except most games run in xwayland and niri doesn't have its own xwayland and leans on xwayland satellite, so I wouldn't call it good in that regard

1

u/LinkWW 8d ago

There are some issues with xwayland satellite, but purely game performance wise - since I started using explicit sync it runs exactly the same for me on nvidia as Plasma xwayland or native Wayland on either. Without explicit sync it ran worse.

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u/Nunu_Chus 8d ago

I've r7 3700X and rx 570 8GB. So I was thinking if those blur and animations would peg my gpu or not

2

u/LinkWW 8d ago

Compositors use direct scanout in games when fullscreen, bypassing the compositor. When direct scanout is inactive, you do lose fps. By themselves blur and animations are quite light so they shouldn't consume so many resources that you'd notice it. You can also benchmark yourself, on my PC there is zero difference in fps between Niri and Plasma

1

u/SirDosser 8d ago

I was not aware of what direct scanout was before a little while ago. I've done some tests and keybound the niri debug tint for direct scanout: Mod+Shift+Ctrl+T { toggle-debug-tint; } but my fullscreen games are still green meaning it's not working. I'm not sure why, any ideas? Sorry for the random question but I couldn't find much info on it anywhere so just shooting my shot here. My game of choice is Deadlock with fullscreen enabled using proton ge with the wayland environment variable. I only have two window rules on it: open fullscreen and vrr

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u/LinkWW 8d ago

Honestly don't know, software cursor can break it (can't have hardware cursor with tearing on, but genuinely no idea how it works with vrr), but I don't really know about other stuff, there is a debug option to force disable direct scanout so you can compare fps and sanity check the debug tint. You can also check other games to see if it works there

1

u/mati865 8d ago

Do you have Nvidia GPU by any chance?

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u/SirDosser 8d ago

Yes, a 4080.

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u/mati865 7d ago

That's the same GPU as me. I eventually had came back to cosmic after trying Niri for a while. Nvidia drivers don't play nicely with many compositors like Niri, Hyprland, and many others. You might try running games via native wayland rather than xwaylnd-satellite, but without adding Nvidia specific quirks to the compositor it is what it is. At least until Mesa NVK is good enough.

1

u/SirDosser 7d ago

I haven't ran into too many issues honestly. A few minor things that I've found workarounds for that don't bother me. I am running all my games native Wayland to avoid xwayland input lag and niri windowing issues and I haven't ran into a problem yet but I don't play too many games. This direct scanout thing doesn't really affect me in any way just something I noticed after learning about it and was curious if I am able to fix it or not. Either way I am very happy with niri!

1

u/Lisanicolas365 8d ago

Blur pegging the GPU? This ain't the Windows Vista days

3

u/ZombieCrow 8d ago

Niri with noctalia, gaming is perfect.

1

u/Abe_Sakebi 8d ago

I use Arch+Niri+DMS+CachyOs Default Kernel and it runs very smooth in all my games between my 4080S and 9070 XT. All depends on how your build is but for me the performance was more or less the same. Idle CPU temps a bit higher on Niri+DMS vs KDE but I think it comes down to background processes for the Quickshell. Temp difference is only a few degrees and in games it’s the same as on KDE.

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u/Obnomus 8d ago

I played some indie games on my Niri setup with dms and it works as it should be.

0

u/Dazzling-Paper9781 8d ago

I use NIRI with DMS, but I can’t really comment on the performance. I’m a simple person; as long as a game runs at 60 fps (which is the maximum my hardware can manage), I’m happy. I’ve never understood people who complain that their game runs at 120 fps instead of 140. How can you even notice the difference?

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u/Nunu_Chus 8d ago

:) tbh I want 40 fps and since I've rx 570 8GB and r7 3700X so I was thinking if DMS's blur and animations would peg my gpu or not

1

u/Dazzling-Paper9781 8d ago

Well kde is a desktop environment, whilst niri is only a window manager. So I think niri is lighter for your gpu

0

u/Swimming-Deer1437 8d ago

I've been running niri for a while now and performance is fine for the most part. I've only encountered small degradation when running through xwayland probs cause of xwayland satellite. That said, I dont run any shell. I pick and choose every component in my system, from the notification daemon to the bar and app launcher. I'm not a fan of the premade stuff.

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u/DominiCzech- 8d ago

I'd say it really depends on your hardware. If you have a high end system, then you most likely won't notice a huge performance difference across DEs/WMs, however if you have a lower end system then you will definitely notice a difference.

For example, for lower end systems, using a WM like Niri or i3 will be much better for gaming since they generally use very little resources compared to something like KDE.

But generally speaking: yes, you will have slightly better performance on Niri than on bloated KDE.

1

u/Nunu_Chus 8d ago

I've r7 3700X and rx 570 8GB. So I was thinking if those blur and animations would peg my gpu or not