Can a gaming PC in 2026 be used without Windows at all? That is the question the team behind the YouTube channel Meta PCs set out to answer. To find out, they installed Windows 11 and Fedora KDE Linux on the same system and compared the two operating systems under conditions that were as identical as possible
The test system featured an AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D processor, a Radeon RX 9700 XT graphics card and two identical Kingston NV3 SSDs. Windows 11 was installed on one drive, while Fedora KDE was installed on the other. Memory configuration, BIOS settings, resolution and graphics options remained unchanged throughout the testing process. Every benchmark was run three times, with the final results based on the average of those runs
Linux is faster in some workloads
In CPU-focused and productivity benchmarks, Linux benefits from its leaner architecture. In Geekbench, the operating system scored 3,595 points in the single-core test and 19,995 points in the multi-core benchmark. Windows 11, by comparison, reached 3,500 and 19,144 points, giving Linux an advantage of roughly three to four percent depending on the workload. Fedora also came out ahead in all three Blender benchmark scenes. According to the reviewer, the most likely explanation is the operating system’s lower overhead. Without having to rely on Proton or translate DirectX commands, Linux can make more efficient use of the available hardware resources. Gaming, however, tells a different story.
Windows wins every gaming benchmark
Windows 11 came out on top in every game tested. In Cyberpunk 2077, it achieved 149 FPS at 1440p compared with 140 FPS on Linux. In Arc Raiders, Windows reached 145 FPS versus 133 FPS, with an even larger gap in the 1% lows: 131 FPS compared with 94 FPS. Marvel Rivals also performed well on Linux at 110 FPS, although Windows still edged ahead with 116 FPS. Fortnite, meanwhile, would not launch at all because Easy Anti-Cheat does not support Linux. Valorant, Xbox Game Pass titles and several other games that rely on incompatible anti-cheat systems also remain unavailable on Linux.
The community believes the comparison is one-sided
The reaction in the YouTube comments is noticeably more favorable toward Linux than the video itself. Many viewers report having used Linux for gaming for months or even years without major issues. Some say they only keep Windows installed for a handful of multiplayer games and therefore rely on a dual-boot setup
Much of the criticism focuses on the choice of Fedora. Many commenters argue that gaming-focused Linux distributions such as CachyOS, Nobara or Bazzite would have been more appropriate for the comparison. These distributions ship with optimized kernels, customized schedulers and a variety of gaming-specific tweaks out of the box. CachyOS, in particular, is frequently mentioned as a strong candidate for a follow-up benchmark
Some viewers also point out that Linux drivers for the Radeon RX 9700 XT are still relatively new, which may have put Fedora at a disadvantage. According to several commenters, the performance gap between Linux and Windows is noticeably smaller when using older RDNA 2 or RDNA 3 graphics cards
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Marius Müller, 2026-07-15 (Update: 2026-07-15)
