Linux Game Benchmark (lgb)

Automated benchmark tool for Steam games on Linux. Measures FPS, stutter, frame pacing and more using MangoHud.

Features

• Automatic Steam game detection (native, Flatpak and Snap Steam)
• MangoHud integration for frametimes
• Detailed metrics (AVG FPS, 1% Low, 0.1% Low, Stutter)
• Multi-resolution support (HD, FHD, WQHD, UWQHD, UHD)
• Multi-GPU support (laptops with iGPU + dGPU)
• Proton version of every run is recorded automatically
• Beautiful HTML reports with interactive charts
• Multi-system comparison (compare different GPUs/CPUs)
• Upload to community database at linuxgamebench.com - right after the upload you see where your PC stands ("Faster than 72% of 14 other setups")
• Command line, GUI and a portable AppImage
• Automatic update notifications

What you get on linuxgamebench.com

• Game, GPU and CPU pages with FPS by GPU, top contributors and the most-tested games
• Compare GPUs - two graphics cards side by side across every game both were benchmarked on
• Performance History - did your PC get faster after a driver, kernel or Proton update?
• My Benchmarks - one card per game with trend arrows and your place in the community
• Leaderboard, achievement badges and community challenges

See the changelog for what changed and when.

Requirements

• Linux (tested on Arch, Fedora, Ubuntu, openSUSE)
• Steam installed (native, Flatpak or Snap)
• MangoHud installed
• Vulkan tools (vulkaninfo) for GPU detection
• Python 3.10+

Optional but recommended:

• mesa-utils (AMD/Intel) or nvidia-utils (NVIDIA) for driver version detection

Installation

No terminal needed: AppImage (experimental)

The GUI as a portable AppImage (~130 MB, x86_64) - no pipx or Python setup:

# Download from https://linuxgamebench.com/faq.html (or directly:)
wget https://linuxgamebench.com/downloads/LinuxGameBench-x86_64.AppImage
chmod +x LinuxGameBench-x86_64.AppImage
./LinuxGameBench-x86_64.AppImage

Requirements: glibc >= 2.28 (Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian 11+, Fedora 36+) and FUSE. MangoHud and the Vulkan tools still have to be installed on your system - the AppImage only bundles the app. To update, download the new AppImage and replace the file (the app tells you when a new version is out).

Arch Linux / CachyOS (Recommended)

# Install MangoHud, Vulkan tools and git
sudo pacman -S mangohud lib32-mangohud vulkan-tools git

# Install pipx (manages Python CLI tools)
sudo pacman -S python-pipx python-filelock

# Install the tool, then put ~/.local/bin on your PATH
pipx install git+https://github.com/taaderbe/linuxgamebench.git
pipx ensurepath

Ubuntu/Debian

sudo apt install mangohud vulkan-tools git pipx
pipx install git+https://github.com/taaderbe/linuxgamebench.git
pipx ensurepath

Fedora

# Install MangoHud, Vulkan tools and git
sudo dnf install mangohud vulkan-tools git

# Install pipx
sudo dnf install pipx

# Install the tool, then put ~/.local/bin on your PATH
pipx install git+https://github.com/taaderbe/linuxgamebench.git
pipx ensurepath

openSUSE Tumbleweed

# All packages available in main repo
sudo zypper install mangohud vulkan-tools git python313-pipx

# Install the tool, then put ~/.local/bin on your PATH
pipx install git+https://github.com/taaderbe/linuxgamebench.git
pipx ensurepath

After pipx ensurepath, close the terminal and open a new one - otherwise the shell answers lgb: command not found.

Optional: Install the GUI

Linux Game Bench also offers an optional graphical interface built with PySide6 (Qt6). If you already installed the CLI, add the GUI like this:

Arch Linux / Manjaro / CachyOS:

pipx inject linux-game-benchmark PySide6

Ubuntu / Debian / Pop!_OS:

pipx inject linux-game-benchmark PySide6

Fedora:

pipx inject linux-game-benchmark PySide6

openSUSE:

pipx inject linux-game-benchmark PySide6

Or install CLI + GUI together (fresh install):

pipx install "linux-game-benchmark[gui] @ git+https://github.com/taaderbe/linuxgamebench.git"
pipx ensurepath

Launch the GUI:

lgb-gui

The GUI provides the same features as the CLI: scan games, configure settings, run benchmarks, view results, and upload to the community database.

Update to Latest Version

pipx upgrade linux-game-benchmark

Update with GUI (re-inject PySide6 afterwards):

pipx upgrade linux-game-benchmark
pipx inject linux-game-benchmark PySide6

If an upgrade ever fails, a clean reinstall works too: pipx uninstall linux-game-benchmark, then the install command for your distribution above.

Install from Source (Development)

git clone https://github.com/taaderbe/linuxgamebench
cd linuxgamebench
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

Quick Start

1. Check System

lgb check

This will:

• Verify MangoHud, Steam and other tools are installed
• Automatically enable MangoHud globally (asks for confirmation)
• After enabling, log out and back in for changes to take effect

2. List Steam Games

# Scan and show all installed Steam games
lgb list-games

# Refresh game list (after installing new games)
lgb scan

# Steam in a custom folder? Point lgb at it once (it remembers the path)
lgb scan --steam-path /path/to/Steam

# Filter: only Proton/Windows games
lgb list-games --proton

# Filter: only native Linux games
lgb list-games --native

Example output:

┏━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ App ID   ┃ Name                        ┃ Type    ┃
┡━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━┩
│ 1245620  │ Elden Ring                  │ Proton  │
│ 1174180  │ Red Dead Redemption 2       │ Proton  │
│ 427520   │ Factorio                    │ Native  │
└──────────┴─────────────────────────────┴─────────┘

3. Start a Game Benchmark

# By game name
lgb benchmark "Elden Ring"

# By Steam App ID
lgb benchmark 1245620

# With auto-stop after 60 seconds
lgb benchmark "Factorio" --duration 60

How it works:

1. lgb launches the game via Steam
2. Press Shift+F2 in-game to start recording
3. Press Shift+F2 again to stop (or wait for --duration)
4. Select resolution and optionally upload to community database
5. Repeat for more recordings or exit

---

⚡ Game Settings - Better Comparisons!

The more settings you specify, the better you can compare your results with others!

When running a benchmark, you can specify your in-game graphics settings. This allows the community to compare apples-to-apples: same game, same resolution, same settings.

Quick Examples

# Basic benchmark with preset
lgb benchmark "Cyberpunk 2077" --preset ultra --raytracing high

# Full settings for best comparison
lgb benchmark "Cyberpunk 2077" \
  --preset ultra \
  --raytracing pathtracing \
  --upscaling dlss3.5 \
  --upscaling-quality quality \
  --framegen dlss3-fg \
  --hdr on

# AMD setup
lgb benchmark "Baldurs Gate 3" \
  --preset ultra \
  --upscaling fsr3 \
  --upscaling-quality balanced \
  --framegen afmf2

All Available Settings

Option	Values
--preset	Low / Medium / High / Ultra / Custom
--raytracing	None / Low / Medium / High / Ultra / Pathtracing
--upscaling	None / FSR1 / FSR2 / FSR3 / FSR4 / DLSS / DLSS2 / DLSS3 / DLSS3.5 / DLSS4 / DLSS4.5 / XeSS / XeSS1 / XeSS2 / TSR
--upscaling-quality	Performance / Balanced / Quality / Ultra-Quality
--framegen	None / FSR3-FG / DLSS3-FG / DLSS4-FG / DLSS4-MFG / XeSS-FG / AFMF / AFMF2 / AFMF3 / Smooth-Motion
--aa	None / FXAA / SMAA / TAA / DLAA / MSAA
--hdr	On / Off
--vsync	On / Off
--framelimit	None / 30 / 60 / 120 / 144 / 165 / 240 / 360
--cpu-oc	Yes / No (+ --cpu-oc-info "5.0GHz")
--gpu-oc	Yes / No (+ --gpu-oc-info "+150MHz")

Configure Defaults

Don't want to type settings every time? Set your defaults:

lgb settings

This opens an interactive menu where you can set your default preset, raytracing, upscaling, etc. These defaults are used automatically when you don't specify them on the command line.

Tip: Run lgb or lgb --help to see all available settings at a glance!

---

4. View Report

xdg-open ~/benchmark_results/index.html

Commands

Command	Description
lgb check	Check system requirements
lgb list-games	Show installed Steam games
lgb scan	Scan Steam library
lgb info	Show system information
lgb gpu	Show detected GPUs and configure default
lgb benchmark [game]	Launch game and benchmark
lgb analyze [log]	Analyze MangoHud log
lgb report	Regenerate HTML reports
lgb settings	Configure defaults (resolution, upload, etc.)
lgb config	Show the server configuration
lgb --version	Show the installed version
lgb login	Login to your account
lgb logout	Logout from your account
lgb status	Show login status and account info
lgb-gui	Launch graphical interface (requires PySide6)

Metrics

Metric	Description
AVG FPS	Average frames per second
1% Low	Lowest 1% of frametimes (shows micro stutters)
0.1% Low	Lowest 0.1% of frametimes (extreme stutters)
Stutter	How often do stutters occur? (excellent/good/moderate/poor)
Consistency	How consistent is the framerate?

Results Structure

~/benchmark_results/
    index.html                    # Overview of all games
    Baldurs_Gate_3/
        CachyOS_abc123/           # System 1
            FHD/
                run_001.json
            WQHD/
                run_001.json
        EndeavourOS_def456/       # System 2
            UHD/
                run_001.json
        report.html               # Game report with tabs

Important:

• Data is NEVER deleted - all benchmarks are preserved
• Each system gets its own folder
• Reports show all systems with tabs to switch between them

MangoHud Setup

MangoHud is automatically configured when you run lgb check. Just log out and back in after.

Manual setup (if needed):

mkdir -p ~/.config/environment.d
echo "MANGOHUD=1" >> ~/.config/environment.d/mangohud.conf
# Then log out and back in

Upload Results

Share your benchmarks at linuxgamebench.com and compare your hardware with the community!

Benchmarks are automatically uploaded after each lgb benchmark run. No login required!

lgb benchmark CS2  # Run benchmark - uploads automatically

After the upload you get a share link and see how your run compares to other setups with the same game and resolution.

Optional: Create an account for extra features (track your benchmarks, Performance History, achievements, edit settings):

lgb login          # Login to your account
lgb status         # Show login status and account info

Logins renew themselves in the background (a login stays valid for up to 30 days of use), and the CLI and the GUI can be open at the same time.

Multi-GPU Systems

The tool handles multiple GPUs automatically:

1. MangoHud Log GPU (Primary): The GPU that actually rendered the game is detected from the log
2. Saved Default: For systems with multiple discrete GPUs (e.g., 2x RTX 4090), you can set a default
3. Auto-Detection: Falls back to discrete GPU over integrated

# View all detected GPUs
lgb gpu

# Set default GPU for multi-GPU systems
lgb gpu --set

# Clear saved default
lgb gpu --clear

On first benchmark with multiple discrete GPUs, you'll be prompted to select one. The selection is saved for future benchmarks.

FAQ

Why is Vulkan required?

The tool uses vulkaninfo to detect the exact GPU model. This is the most reliable method across all GPU vendors (AMD, NVIDIA, Intel) and works for GPUs released in the last 10+ years.

Don't worry: If you're gaming on Linux, you already have Vulkan installed - it's required for Steam/Proton and MangoHud.

Which GPUs are supported?

Any GPU with Vulkan support:

• NVIDIA: GeForce GTX 600 series and newer (2012+)
• AMD: Radeon HD 7000 series and newer (2012+)
• Intel: Skylake (HD 520/530) and newer (2015+)

How do I check if Vulkan is installed?

vulkaninfo --summary

If this shows your GPU, you're good to go!

My GPU shows as "Unknown" - what do I do?

1. Make sure vulkan-tools is installed
2. Run lgb check to verify all requirements
3. If still not working, run lgb gpu to see what's detected

My driver version shows as "Unknown" - what do I do?

The driver version is detected using different tools depending on your GPU vendor:

AMD / Intel (Mesa driver):

# Install mesa-utils for glxinfo
sudo pacman -S mesa-utils          # Arch/CachyOS
sudo apt install mesa-utils        # Ubuntu/Debian
sudo dnf install mesa-demos        # Fedora
sudo zypper install Mesa-demo-x    # openSUSE

NVIDIA (proprietary driver):

# nvidia-smi is usually included with the driver
# If missing, install nvidia-utils
sudo pacman -S nvidia-utils        # Arch/CachyOS
sudo apt install nvidia-utils-xxx  # Ubuntu (replace xxx with version)
sudo dnf install nvidia-driver     # Fedora

The tool also uses vulkaninfo as a fallback, so make sure vulkan-tools is installed.

What does --framelimit do?

The --framelimit option (e.g., --framelimit 144) is a metadata tag - it does NOT automatically limit your FPS!

You must set the frame limit yourself in:

• The game's graphics settings, OR
• Your GPU driver (NVIDIA Control Panel / AMD Adrenalin), OR
• MangoHud config (fps_limit=144)

Use cases:

• Document that you're testing with a specific FPS cap
• Compare benchmarks at same frame limit (e.g., 60 FPS lock vs unlimited)
• Test with VSync enabled (--vsync on --framelimit 144) to see if your GPU can maintain the target

License

GPL-3.0 License

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome! Please create an issue first to discuss the change.