How GlouOS runs games smoother

What smoothness actually means¶

The number on an FPS counter is the least useful measure of how a game feels. What you actually notice is frame pacing (frames arriving evenly), 1% lows (how bad the worst moments get), input latency (how quickly the game responds) and the absence of stutter. A rock-steady 90 frames per second feels far better than a spiky 120.

Almost everything GlouOS does is aimed at consistency, not peak numbers. The pages in this section explain how, layer by layer.

The full stack¶

GlouOS tunes the whole system, from the compiler that builds its packages up to the tools that manage a running game:

• The game scheduler: a latency-aware CPU scheduler, the single biggest lever for smooth 1% lows.
• Kernel and latency: a gaming kernel tuned for fine frame pacing and responsive threads.
• Graphics drivers: the right driver stack for any GPU, set up automatically.
• Memory and storage: tuning that removes a whole class of stutters and crashes.
• Proton and shaders: smooth Windows-game translation with the shader stutter designed out.
• Game Mode: the compositor, power and process priorities that kick in when you play.

Compiler-optimised packages¶

GlouOS builds its packages for the x86-64-v3 baseline, the instruction set found on essentially every CPU since around 2015 (AVX2, BMI and FMA). Recent Zen 4/5 and Intel chips can opt into a v4 (AVX-512) set, while older machines fall back to v2 so nothing is left behind.

The heavy hitters, like Mesa, the kernel, Wine and glibc, are built with link-time and profile-guided optimisation. These squeeze extra performance, and more importantly fewer hitches, out of the code paths games lean on hardest.

Kept current, and all for games¶

None of these choices are incidental. Every one exists for a single reason, to make games run smoother, and GlouOS keeps them current on a rolling base so you never have to manage any of it yourself:

• Current GPU drivers: the rolling base keeps Mesa and NVIDIA at their latest, and the matching stack (RADV with ACO for AMD, nvidia-open plus VAAPI for NVIDIA, ANV for Intel, with 32-bit libraries and a software fallback) is installed per GPU at install. Newer drivers are where most game-specific fixes and speed-ups land. See Graphics drivers.
• The right Proton, everywhere: Steam with one-click Proton-GE builds, plus umu-launcher so non-Steam games and standalone .exe files use the same Proton runtime. A consistent, current Proton is what lets Windows games run right. See Proton and shaders.
• Gamescope for clean frame pacing: shipped for tear-free, low-latency presentation, with a controller-first GlouOS Big Picture session (adaptive sync and a gamepad UI) you can boot straight into. See Game Mode.
• Power that follows the game: Game Mode switches the CPU to its performance governor while you play and back to a balanced one at idle, with amd_pstate EPP and power-profiles-daemon keeping the whole stack in step. See Game Mode.
• A kernel built for latency: linux-zen at 1000 Hz with full preemption, fsync/futex2 and NTsync, sched-ext running scx_lavd, and latency flags such as threaded IRQs and split-lock detection off enabled by default. Security mitigations stay on unless you knowingly opt out. See Kernel and latency.
• Shader caches that stick: the DXVK/VKD3D and Mesa caches (a generous cap) persist across reboots and updates, RADV's graphics pipeline library is enabled, and nothing in the update path ever clears them, so first-run stutter is only ever paid once. See Proton and shaders.