ntsync
Ranked 5 of 8 graphics drivers by recommenders
Linux kernel driver that lets Wine and Proton skip user-space emulation of Windows sync calls. Critics find the speed gains mild, usually a few percent.
Linux kernel driver that lets Wine and Proton skip user-space emulation of Windows sync calls. Critics find the speed gains mild, usually a few percent.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 79%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Better than esync, a win for Wine
“That said, Wine+ntsync is still a win, just not a 8x improvement”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Wine 11 rewrites how Linux runs Windows games at kernel with massive speed gains” “It works better than esync, especially for Cyberpunk 2077.”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Latest SteamOS Beta Now Includes Ntsync Kernel Driver” “Wine+ntsync is still a win, just not a 8x improvement”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Wine 11 rewrites how Linux runs Windows games at kernel with massive speed gains” Correct, clean design matching Windows
“ntsync allows efficient and correct synchronization usage that matches logic of Windows”
Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Wine 11.0” “it's more correct and clean”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Little or no measurable speedup
“NTSYNC is basically no benefit”
Comment from 14 May 2026 in “Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features” “I have yet to see it make an improvement of any kind.”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Latest SteamOS Beta Now Includes Ntsync Kernel Driver”
Other graphics drivers people recommend
The four most recommended other graphics drivers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA proprietary Linux drivers | 40 | 49 | 45% | 10 | 20 yrs9 owners | — |
| Mesa | 30 | 9 | 77% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Nvidia drivers | 25 | 53 | 32% | 9 | 14 yrs4 owners | — |
| amdgpu driver | 15 | 11 | 58% | 6 | — | — |
| ntsyncThis page | 11 | 3 | 79% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
16 of the 17 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“seems quite cumbersome to use for your own linux software”
“NTSYNC is basically no benefit”
“NTSYNC should indeed be a lot faster as well”
“it's more correct and clean”
“This NTSync stuff is very impressive, but I haven't seen a lot of end-to-end numbers versus Windows.”
“That feature seems like way too over engineered for little gains.”
“Wine+ntsync is still a win, just not a 8x improvement”
“That said, Wine+ntsync is still a win, just not a 8x improvement”
“the performance gains are (with few exceptions) mild, usually in the lower single percentage range”
“ntsync allows efficient and correct synchronization usage that matches logic of Windows”
“a kernel optimized for your CPU, realtime patches, NTSync and a custom MESA build”
“this driver is genuinely useful even for Linux code”
“No such problem with ntsync.”
“It works better than esync, especially for Cyberpunk 2077.”
“it implements some system calls from Windows NT normally emulated via Proton in user-space to the kernel which should reduce overhead”
“I have yet to see it make an improvement of any kind.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.