You buy gaming computers for their performance, so it certainly sucks when a “performance boosting” feature actually harms performance. This seems to be exactly what’s happening for Linux users trying to use Alienware’s G-Mode feature.

A feature on select Alienware laptops, known as “G-Mode” or “Game Shift,” designed to enhance gaming performance with a single key press, is being removed from the Linux kernel. Developers have found that on certain models running Linux, the feature paradoxically leads to worse performance than the standard “performance” profile. The reversal of this feature was merged this week as part of the x86 platform driver fixes. The code is being reverted ahead of the Linux 6.16-rc3 release and is also slated to be back-ported to a Linux 6.15 point release. This will effectively disable the G-Mode functionality that was just introduced for the Alienware m16 R1 in the open-source driver.

Earlier this year, support for Alienware’s G-Mode was introduced into the upcoming Linux 6.15 kernel, initially for the Alienware M16 R1 gaming laptop. This feature was intended to provide Linux owners with the same quick performance boost that is advertised to those with Windows. However, recent testing and analysis have revealed that this is not the case. The implementation of G-Mode on the Alienware m16 R1 AMD model appears to have a lower power ceiling than the laptop’s default “performance” profile. This limitation directly results in decreased, rather than increased, performance when G-Mode is activated. “Contrary to (my) intuition, imitating Windows behavior actually results in LOWER performance,” a developer on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) stated last week.

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For those Linux folks with eligible Alienware laptops, it is recommended to rely on the standard “performance” platform profile for optimal results. The upcoming kernel updates will automatically ensure that the system no longer attempts to engage the less efficient G-Mode, thereby providing the best possible performance without user intervention.

G-Mode should still be fine on Windows computers, and this is a fix for an issue that only affects Linux users. Since most Alienware laptops are using Windows, this also shouldn’t mean anything for the availability of G-Mode on future computers. Someone might try to re-implement it on Linux down the road, but the regular performance profile should be sufficient for most people who want to play games, even if the performance profile might be more power-hungry than what G-Mode was.

Source: Phoronix