Yes, Linux OS are usually lighter on hardware. But if we’re talking about gaming and other heavy applications usually have the same hardware requirements.

Windows Defender, update checker and other system services on Windows do tank performance by a few percent as shown by those “debloated” Windows images.

But DXVK also usually reduces performance by 5-15%, even more so for VKD3D. This outweighs the performance gains of less background services. Not to mention I’m (and I guess most people are) running apps like Discord, Spotify and Firefox in the background.

There’re games running better on DXVK than native D3D, but that’s usually because they are using an older graphics API that isn’t optimized on newer GPUs. Both GTA IV and Sims 3 use DirectX 9. Interestingly, running older titles om Windows with DXVK also results in performance gains.

I certainly didnt notice any difference […]

Me neither, except for a few games where my hardware was already struggling. Without direct comparisons I’d say a 10% performance overhead is negligeble too.