While there were a few graphics benchmarks in yesterday’s Ubuntu 25.04 beta benchmarks, today’s article is looking more at the Ubuntu 25.04 Linux gaming performance for both the GNOME 48 and KDE Plasma 6.3 desktops that default to the Wayland-based session by default while also trying out the X11 session for both of these desktops.
Originally my plan was to run an X11 vs. Wayland desktop gaming comparison on Ubuntu 25.04. But at least for the current beta state of Ubuntu 25.04, it didn’t work out as planned… In particular, at least for the desktop hardware I’ve been testing so far, the GNOME X11 session is rather busted. The GNOME Wayland session has been working out great with the same hardware but when switching to the GNOME X11 session instead it’s been constant screen flashing. KDE Plasma 6.3 worked fine on the same hardware under both X11 and Wayland but with the GNOME X11 session it was a constant screen blanking/flashing experience:
The Ubuntu 25.04 GNOME on X11 experience I’ve been having on a few systems… Works great on GNOME Wayland and KDE X11/Wayland. For a new article up soon. pic.twitter.com/vumsMsmWwb
— Phoronix (@) March 28, 2025
So in the end for my Linux gaming tests I ran a number of benchmarks using the default GNOME 48 Wayland session, KDE Plasma 6.3 on Wayland, and then KDE Plasma 6.3 on X11.
The same AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D + AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX system was used for all of this testing with just switching out the desktop session in use between running a variety of Linux gaming/graphics benchmarks for looking at the KDE Plasma 6.3 vs. GNOME 48 performance and then under KDE for the X11 vs. Wayland difference as of this Ubuntu 25.04 beta state.
