RDNA4 GPUs show reduced performance by 20-30% on Linux compared to Windows.
RDNA4 GPUs show reduced performance by 20-30% on Linux compared to Windows.
Hello. Usually, I try solving my own problems, but I've been fighting with this issue for over a month. I've hit a wall and have absolutely zero ideas how to progress here. So I've come here to ask. What's my configuration? I doubt most of it is relevant at all, but here it is: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X B650 Motherboard 32GB DDR5 RAM 6000 MHz CL30 PowerColor Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB Reaper 512GB SSD with DRAM FSP/Fortron VITA GM 850W PSU 360mm AiO Cooler What's the exact issue? - Both video games and other general compute software experiences consistent 20-30% performance discrepancy between Linux and Windows. What do the numbers look like? Crysis 3 Remastered : Display : 1440p | 144 Hz Map : Welcome to the Jungle Ray-Tracing : Disabled Upscaling : Unavailable V-Sync : Enabled (checked with disabled, behavior is V-Sync independent ) Results : Windows : 167 FPS Linux : 117 FPS Blender Classroom : Version : 5.0.1 Render Engine :Cycles Render Device : GPU Compute Cycles Rendering API : HIP Results : Windows : 22.1 seconds (avg.) Linux : 28.5 seconds (avg.) Could it be hardware issues? Configuration issues? Temperatures? No : EXPO RAM profile enabled and confirmed working PBO enabled and confirmed working ReBAR enabled and confirmed working PCI-E is confirmed working at 4.0 x16 BIOS is confirmed fully up-to-date Power profile is set to performance CPU temperatures are always below 90*C at max load (below 75*C in games) GPU temperatures are all fine (chip: <= 56*C; hot-spot: <= 75*C; VRAM: <= 80*C) Motherboard has a 12-phase power section, so power is fine Display plugged in via known, working, modern DisplayPort cable (doesn't matter as display-unrelated stuff also has issues) Is the GPU itself behaving properly? Yes : Max power under load: 300W+ Max clock in-game: 3194 MHz VRAM usage: below 6GB What OS, driver versions, APIs, software, etc. did I check? For Linux : Distros : Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 25.10, Fedora Workstation 43, Nobara, CachyOS, Bazzite Kernels : 6.14, 6.17, 6.18 Mesa versions : 24, 25 AMD driver versions : unsure (but newest) tested both the ones marked ROCm 6.x and 7.x tested both the ones built into the kernel as well as the ones from AMD's official install script (amdgpu-install) APIs : Vulkan, OpenGL Proton versions : 8, 9, 10, Experimental ( from Steam ), GE ( from Proton GE ) For Windows : Version : 11, 25H2 AMD drivers : Adrenalin 25.12.1 When it comes to both : All fresh, clean installs. No live USBs. Full re-install on every driver/software stack version change. Also played with some random kernel parameters, don't remember which anymore. The problem is consistent and universal ACROSS ALL SOFTWARE AND CONFIGURATION COMBINATIONS. It's all completely software- and hardware-independent. Nothing worked. Not a single thing caused any significant changes at all. I even checked another GPU - an RX 9070 from a friend. Similar discrepancies between Linux and Windows. I really and honestly don't get people who claim that anything works in Linux, and that there's 0-10% difference between in and Windows at most. It's not 0-10%. It's 20-30%... I'm honestly exhausted. Any ideas what else to do?
I made an error with the title name by swapping the operating systems. The performance is actually 20-30% lower on Linux compared to Windows. The title has been updated accordingly. Please review the figures.
You're experiencing the same issue on your current GPU (PowerColor Hellhound 9070XT), consistently around 20-30% performance regardless of changes. Your older AMD GPU (7700s laptop) ran nearly equally well on both Linux and Windows. This situation is quite frustrating.