Recently, I was doing some testing on various distributions, mostly on the newer releases including Ubuntu 26.04 and Fedora 44. I’m a Ubuntu user since 2-3 years now thanks to my job company that allow me to use an Ubuntu workstation. My current hardware for the tests is a Thinkpad P14s Gen 5 using an Intel Ultra 5 125H CPU with 32GB RAM, an NVMe disk and a 90Hz screen.
Something catches my attention, I have this odd feeling of framerate drop with GNOME animations on the others distributions compared to Ubuntu, especially when accessing the overview screen and switching between virtual desktops. It always feel smoother on Ubuntu compared to Fedora, Arch, Solus or even Debian. Most of those uses a “vanilla” GNOME implementation, that’s why I was wondering:
Does Ubuntu desktop team applies some tweaks to the GNOME implementation for better desktop responsiveness ? Or Is there anything else that can lead to this (kernel tweaks for latency, custom patches, PPD vs Tuned profiles) ?
Most of the settings have been replicated on other tested distributions such as kernel preemption, Xe vs i915 driver, PSR off, and ZRAM.
I’m aware this is purely a feeling, so this prove anything (as I don’t have metrics to share), but I’m sure Ubuntu does something a little better in this matter.
Ubuntu has traditionally implemented tweaks to make Ubuntu a “superior” implementation of Linux. So, you might not have imagined what you have perceived.
However, as Alexander has said, some of those unique enhancements get shared with the upstream development teams. So, while some of that has been pushed upstream, that upstream code may not have reached the downstream of other Distros … or … it might be the hardware drivers implemented by each that may be “behind the times” or “out of sync”. For those, you would need to check the specific components of each distro to make sure there are no “remaining” divergences.
I have the exact experience you described with Ubuntu’s GNOME. Plus i really love all the desktop modifications they do. GNOME 50 has brought better performance with Nvidia gpus (especially laptops) and fixed a major pain point for me when using external monitors (refresh rate gets halved and i get terrible frame pacing)
Yes the Ubuntu patch may explain it. That’s what it’s there for.
You might also sometimes experience accidental speedups with extensions if they stress the GPU into redrawing more (idling less) than without extensions.
