Enable GameMode to Boost your Linux Performance on Demand

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Cyrus Kao
Last modified

According to Gamemode's Github page:

GameMode is a daemon/lib combo for Linux that allows games to request a set of optimisations be temporarily applied to the host OS and/or a game process.

In my opinion, this is the kind of things that Linux ecosystem lacks the most. And I don't mean gaming, but quality of life kind of thing. Switching CPU governors back and forth just for juicing out the last bit of performance is no fun. Nevertheless, GameMode provides much more than just CPU tweaking but:

  • CPU governor
  • I/O priority
  • Process niceness
  • Kernel scheduler (SCHED_ISO)
  • Screensaver inhibiting
  • GPU performance mode (NVIDIA and AMD), GPU overclocking (NVIDIA)
  • Custom scripts

Installation

Install GameMode with the package manager of your Linux distro:

  • Debian/Ubuntu

    sudo apt install gamemode
    Bash
  • Arch Linux/Manjaro

    yay -S gamemode
    Bash

    Don't know how to install packages on Arch based Linux? A full guide on Two Ways to Install Packages from AUR on Arch Linux/Manjaro.

  • Fedora/CentOS 8+/RHEL 8+

    sudo dnf install gamemode
    Bash
  • CentOS/RHEL

    sudo yum install gamemode
    Bash

Usage

Run programs or games with GameMode:

gamemoderun path/to/binary
Bash

Or prepend gamemoderun to your shortcuts' command:

MenuLibre
Editing shortcuts with MenuLibre

Verify GameMode is On

To see if GameMode is enabled:

gamemoded -s
Bash
gamemode is active
Output

See Also

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