Ubuntu 21.04 - X.Org vs. Wayland Linux Gaming Performance

Written by Michael Larabel in Linux Gaming on 29 April 2021 at 02:30 PM EDT. Page 3 of 3. 61 Comments.
Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04
Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04
Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04
Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04

In the case of F1 2020 running on Ubuntu 21.04 via Steam Play, the Wayland session seemed to consistently show slightly higher performance than the X.Org GNOME session.

Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04
Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04
Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04
Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04
Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04
Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04

In some HITMAN 2 configurations, the (X)Wayland session was also slightly ahead of the traditional X.Org Server powered session.

Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04
Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04
Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04
Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04
Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04
Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04
Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04
Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04
Wayland vs. X.Org Gaming Ubuntu 21.04

With the only exception of Civilization VI, overall the Ubuntu 21.04 (X)Wayland performance was on-par with the prior GNOME X.Org session default. In a few games slightly better performance with the Wayland default but nothing across the board or too jaw-dropping, perhaps most important though is just no major regressions to the Linux gaming performance we've seen now that the (X)Wayland support is quite mature.

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Michael Larabel

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.