# Real Time linux kernel - gaming?

## Elim

I want to have a faster gaming computer, can i run a real-time linux kernel on gentoo? will this work with the nvidia drivers? WILL IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE TO MY GAMES?

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## Elim

having looked around theres this RTAI thing which is better than normal lower latencies so i will give that a shot and do some benchmarks on the "normal" kernel and on the RTAI kernel subsytem,

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## Earthwings

<sarcasm>Once you're done, apply the next ultimate secret performance trick: mount your entire swap area as tmpfs. Afterwards recompile your whole system with ACCEPT_KEYWORDS=~x86 USE=-* FEATURES=-sandbox CFLAGS=ffast-math emerge -e world.</sarcasm>

Honestly: Forget about it. Do some reading on real time systems.

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## Elim

i have found they have lower latencies and you can get them as patches for the stock linux kernel and retain source and binary compatability with normal linux and can use the same drivers. What do you mean?

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## davey_freeman@yahoo.com

 *Elim wrote:*   

> I want to have a faster gaming computer, can i run a real-time linux kernel on gentoo? will this work with the nvidia drivers? WILL IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE TO MY GAMES?

 

The realtime kernel patches will actually make the game run slower.

Read up about real-time systems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_time

 *Quote:*   

> A real-time operation is not necessarily fast, as slow systems can allow slow real-time operations. This applies for all types of dynamically changing systems.

 

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## Tiger683

Acually, this is the right link...:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_operating_system

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## traceqnt

 *Earthwings wrote:*   

> <sarcasm>Once you're done, apply the next ultimate secret performance trick: mount your entire swap area as tmpfs. Afterwards recompile your whole system with ACCEPT_KEYWORDS=~x86 USE=-* FEATURES=-sandbox CFLAGS=ffast-math emerge -e world.</sarcasm>
> 
> Honestly: Forget about it. Do some reading on real time systems.

 

Funny but true.

Really do some reading on real time systems.

True realtime system like (Real Time Preemption Ingo Molnar`s Patch) is required for very low latency only.

For example if You making professional music or have some music studio or doing real time graphic processing.

For desktop and gaming normal kernel preemption from actual kernels is really good.

In most "normal using" cases it can SLOW-DOWN Your system instead of "magic speed increse" . I think this is the reason of the Earthwings sarcasm  :Wink:  Low Latency is not speed incresing. Professioanl audio/video people have to be interested in it.

greetings.

traceqnt

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## Tiger683

hmm, now honestly, you know your part from READING, and i have it

running on my box.... Desktop performance incease is, in my opinion, somewhere about 10-15%

regarding responsiveness. Now, read on if you wish....

PS: for those really interested, try new nitro-rt, but manually patching is the only option i guess, some

ppl reported the ebuild as broken, and i cant fix it, darckness has to...

T

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## Lepaca Kliffoth

I'm looking forward to see this thread on first page again around june  :Very Happy:   :Very Happy:   :Very Happy: 

Jokes aside, if someone could post links to the kernel patches it would be interesting to test it, e.g. I'll study a bit real time systems here at the university and it could be worthwhile to give it a shot, apply/test the theory, you got the idea (I hope).

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## Tiger683

for realtime patch against vanilla go to http://people.redhat.com/mingo/realtime-preempt/,

for a patchset visit nitro 2.6.11-nitro0 on this forum and get the experimental aka nitro0-rt,

it includes the newest patch from above url + tons of useful stuff. ( yeah, i DO advertise my work  :Wink:  )

cheers,

T

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## Lepaca Kliffoth

Thanks!

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