Ubuntu – Do different desktop environments affect game performance

desktop-environmentslubuntu

I am in the midst of building my own Ubuntu gaming computer, and I was wondering:

If I used a variation of Ubuntu, such as Lubuntu, would more resources be put into the game(s), because the operating system is for lower specs? Or would the game(s), for the same reasons, be slower than it would on regular Ubuntu? Or would they be effected at all?

On the other hand, for regular Ubuntu, would the same above apply to different desktop environments?

Hope this makes sense :S

Best Answer

A few months ago, Phoronix posted some benchmark results of 3D performance with different desktop environments. You can find the article here: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_1204_desktops

Do note that these were results from Ubuntu 12.04 so results may be a bit different in 12.10 or later. As you can see from the results, Unity tends to eat away a little bit more then other DE's. So, if you are going to make a system purely for gaming, it looks like using the Xfce (Xubuntu) environment will provide the best performance.