Crimson Desert Gets a Performance Boost on CachyOS, Outrunning Windows 11 by 7% at 1080p Ultra

Crimson Desert has delivered a surprising result in a recent Windows 11 versus Linux gaming benchmark, with the game recording higher average and 1% low frame rates on CachyOS. The Arch-based Linux distribution reached 63 FPS on average, compared with 59 FPS on Windows 11, while also posting a 1% low of 50 FPS versus 48 FPS. 

The comparison was conducted at 1080p with Ultra settings and without upscaling, making the result particularly interesting for PC players looking to maximize Crimson Desert performance.

CRIMSON DESERT GIVES CACHYOS A SMALL PERFORMANCE LEAD

The benchmark used identical hardware for both operating systems, including an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and Radeon RX 6700 XT, with 16GB of DDR4 memory and a 2TB NVMe SSD. Windows 11 used AMD Adrenalin 26.3.1 drivers, while CachyOS ran with Mesa 26.0.3. 

In Crimson Desert, the Linux setup’s four-frame advantage represents roughly a 7% increase in average FPS. The improvement was smaller in the 1% low results, but CachyOS still maintained a two-frame advantage, suggesting slightly better frame-time performance in this particular test.

CachyOS is specifically designed around gaming performance, using an optimized kernel and packages targeting modern x86-64 processors. The benchmark results therefore do not necessarily mean every Linux distribution will outperform Windows 11 in Crimson Desert.

Crimson Desert was part of a broader comparison involving several demanding PC games. CachyOS also performed strongly in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, reaching 81 FPS compared with Windows 11’s 68 FPS, while Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2 also favored the Linux setup. 

However, Windows 11 remained faster in some titles, demonstrating that the results are game-dependent. Crimson Desert’s official Steam listing currently specifies Windows as its PC operating system requirement, meaning these Linux results are particularly notable because the game is running through compatibility technology rather than a native Linux release.