More evidence emerges showing SteamOS beats Windows in terms of gaming performance

A decade ago, if you wanted to play games on your PC, you went with Windows. Linux didn't cut it, and Mac wasn't quite there yet, so Windows it was. However, the Linux camp has been slowly gaining on Windows, and while it may not be there just yet, it's still taking wins against Microsoft's operating system.

The last time we checked up on it, a YouTuber found that Windows was actively causing handhelds to run poorly versus using SteamOS instead. Now, a bunch more research has been done, and things aren't looking good for Microsoft's PC gaming scene.

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SteamOS takes some big wins against Microsoft's Windows

As spotted by PC Gamer, these tests were performed by Ars Technica. They grabbed a Lenovo Legion Go S, which supports both Windows and SteamOS, and tried some tests with it:

To test the performance impact of this operating system choice, we started with the SteamOS version of the Legion Go S (provided by Lenovo) and tested five high-end 3D games released in the last five years using built-in benchmarking tools and two different graphics/resolution tiers. We then installed Windows 11 on the handheld, downloaded updated drivers from Lenovo's support site, and re-ran the benchmarks on the same games downloaded through Steam for Windows.

So, how did the console fare? Well, Ars Technica's five games were Returnal, Borderlands 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Homeworld 3, and Doom: the Dark Ages. In the tests when using 1920x1200 resolution and high graphics presets, SteamOS eked out a close win in three of the games, utterly trounced Windows in one game, and lost by a hair in one game.

The three close victories were Doom: The Dark Ages (16.4 FPS on SteamOS versus 13.9 FPS on Windows 11 using Asus drivers), Cyberpunk 2077 (17.9 FPS versus 16.6 FPS), and Homeworld 3 (17.1 FPS versus 16.4 FPS). SteamOS scored a huge victory when rendering Returnal (33 FPS versus 24 FPS) and lost in Borderlands 3 (18.3 FPS versus 19.6 FPS).

Things get even more interesting when using 1280x800 resolution and low graphics presets. SteamOS gets an 8 FPS boost on both Cyberpunk 2077 and Doom: The Dark Ages, and its big lead in Returnal is boosted even higher with a 17 FPS difference.

With Microsoft releasing its own handheld, it really cannot afford to lose out to SteamOS like this. Either that, or it has to get comfortable with people overwriting Windows with SteamOS. Either way, Microsoft has to step up its game before SteamOS becomes the desktop OS of choice for gamers, too.