NVIDIA's Results Of Conducting Wayland vs. X.Org Latency Testing

In addition to NVIDIA announcing their Display Config Server project at XDC 2026 in Toronto, at this annual developer's conference they also presented their findings on scientific testing of X.Org vs. Wayland latency.

X.Org vs. Wayland latency across different compositors and desktop environments has been a heated topic among passionate Linux desktop enthusiasts. Some argue in favor of classic X.Org delivering the lowest latency while others routinely share their own personal anecdotes and argue in favor of modern Wayland solutions. NVIDIA engineer Kamil Łysik took to a Wayland vs. X.Org latency comparison from key press to presentation. For ensuring accurate measurements, a micro-controller was used along with a light sensor for end-to-end measurements. Paired with software for repeatable and automated testing.

Testing with a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 graphics card and using the company's R610 driver branch, tests were done on KDE KWin 6.7.4 and GNOME Mutter 49.7 and the X.Org Server tests using v1.21.1.24.

NVIDIA's findings were that the latency results between X.Org and Wayland are very close with it being hard to conclude a clear winner. Some notable takeaways include that XWayland no longer introduces extra frame delays where it had in the past with an extra frame latency. Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) was also measured to "drastically improve" responsiveness and deliver roughly the same latency between both X.Org and Wayland based sessions.

Those interested can find the NVIDIA presentation this X.Org vs. Wayland latency topic embedded above.