New updates to the Linux kernel are being developed to improve how video memory is managed, with a focus on giving games higher priority access to VRAM.
The work, led by developer Natalie Vock, includes patches for DRM device memory cgroup controller support and updates to TTM memory management, which handles how memory is allocated and removed.
Alongside kernel changes, new user-space tools have been introduced to support this effort.
One tool, dmemcg-booster, runs as a systemd service to manage device memory limits and prioritize foreground games. Another component, plasma-foreground-booster, is designed for KDE Plasma and helps ensure that the active application, such as a full-screen game, gets priority access to VRAM.
For users not running KDE Plasma, similar functionality can be achieved using newer versions of Gamescope.
Together, these kernel and user-space changes ensure that the game currently running receives priority access to dedicated video memory.
This reduces the likelihood of game data being moved to system memory, which can impact performance. On systems with around 8GB of VRAM, such memory transfers are common under the current default behavior, and games may not always receive priority over background applications.
According to a blog post by Natalie Vock, these improvements have already shown results. The changes enabled smoother performance when running Cyberpunk 2077 through Steam Play on Linux using a graphics card with 8GB of VRAM.
At present, the easiest way to test these improvements is through CachyOS, where the patches and tools are already integrated.
Over time, these changes are expected to be incorporated into the main Linux kernel and adopted by official KDE packages and other desktop environments, making VRAM prioritization more widely available for Linux gaming.