Gaming Benchmarks on Linux - Week 6 of Using Linux

 

Week 6

  If you have seen benchmark videos showcasing the performance of a certain CPU and GPU combination in a list of famous and demanding titles, you will remember that they always have this cool, live-updated, performance monitors that display the usage in percentage of the components as well as their temperatures, the memory (RAM and VRAM) being used, and obviously the frame rate (FPS) with the 1% lows. But unfortunately, the software that the video creators use aren't often native on Linux.

  The app that I use on my CachyOS Linux desktop is MangoHUD. It features a performance monitor which can be customised using the straight forward GOverlay. The GOverlay interface even includes a spinning cube simulation that can be used to test the performance monitor before applying it to a game. 

The GOverlay interaface with the vkcube simulation - the "Basic" view is selected

  As shown in the image above, the performance monitor can be customised to the user's taste and needs. The user can switch between a full list of specifications including the usage of all the CPU's cores, to even a small number with the frame rate count. A "Custom" option also available, but it requires the ".conf" file to be manually edited. The theme can also be modified if the user does not like the default colours set to green for GPU, blue for CPU, and so on.

 Installing GOverlay on Arch Linux

 GOverlay can be installed easily using the Pacman package manager on Arch. 

  1.  Open your system's console application, and type "sudo pacman -S mangohud goverlay", and enter "Y" to install the packages.
  2.  The GOverlay app should be installed, and you can open it in your application menu or by typing "goverlay" in the console.
  3.  Select what type of layout you want your performance monitor to use and then press save.
  4.  A copy-pastable text will appear to the left of the save button that you just pressed. It will say something similar to "MANGOHUD=1 %command%". Copy the text either by using Ctrl/Cmd + C or by pressing the button.
  5.  Open the Steam launcher and navigate to the game you are interested in monitoring your component performance in. Click the settings wheel and go to "Properties".
  6.  Paste in the text from GOverlay from Step 4 into the "Launch Options" text box.
  7.  Close the window and launch the selected game. There will be a performance monitor on your screen like the one you customised in the GOverlay app. 

 And there you go! Now you can play around with different options in the app and compare your performance with online benchmarks to see if there are any issues with your computer components. 

 For those who aren't using Arch Linux, check the documentation wiki of your operating system for a more specific guide. Here are some examples:

 Fedora Linux: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/gaming/monitoring/

 Debian Linux:  https://installati.one/install-goverlay-debian-12/

(remember to install the dependencies listed)

 My personal experience with GOverlay 

 GOverlay has been working perfectly for me on CachyOS, and I am constantly using it to see my frame rate count on Elden Ring to understand frame drops in different areas when the frame rate drops and rises depending on the character's surroundings. I highly recommend this software as it is an amazing tool for gamers, and it can be useful to determine if there is a bottleneck in your system (when one or more parts in a computer stops another from performing at its highest potential, for example an old CPU will bottleneck a recent GPU). This is especially important to judge if a component upgrade is worth being done. 

This is the sixth episode of my Linux Experience 2026 blog series. Every week, I upload a post talking about my experience using this unique operating system! Sign-up with your email to receive a notification when a new blog releases, it's free! 


My PC Specifications:

    AMD Ryzen 7 9800x3D

    AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB VRAM

    32 GB DDR5 6000Mhz CL30 RAM

    2 TB NVMe 5.0 SSD 

 Other Components:

    27'' 2560x1440 320Hz 1ms Monitor

    B850-Plus Motherboard (WiFi 7)

    850W Power Supply

    Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB

    5x Artic P12 Case Fans

    Phanteks XT Pro Chassis

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