Patrick's XeSS-XMX-linux project enables XMX-accelerated XeSS on Proton

Open-source developer Patrick has released an experimental project that enables Intel XeSS super resolution and XeSS frame generation to run on XMX hardware via Proton on Linux. Because official Linux libraries are not available, the project uses a shim igdext64.dll based on Intel's dxvk-igdext to answer driver queries using Windows libraries. A patched Mesa ANV then compiles XeSS kernels with Intel's IGC.

Image: Phoronix

Reports say the project has been tested on the Arc B580, A310, and an ONEXPLAYER 3 handheld using an Arc B390. In Cyberpunk 2077, players noticed a 28% performance increase, though Patrick says XMX contributes about 5% of that gain while most comes from the new Mesa compiler. With 3x frame generation enabled, reports say frame rates increased by about 145%. In Forza Horizon 6, reports say the frame rate rose by 7% and the GPU frame rate by 16%.

The project requires the native Steam client and does not support the Flatpak version of Steam. It is currently experimental, meaning stability may vary between games and distributions. While an Intel engineer has submitted code to add XMX acceleration to Proton, those changes have not been merged.

Background In October, an Intel engineer submitted pull requests to bring hardware-accelerated upscaling to Valve's compatibility layer. Our earlier story