CachyOS does compile packages with the x86-64-v3, x86-64-v4 and Zen4 instruction set and LTO to provide a higher performance. Core packages also get PGO or BOLT optimization.
CachyOS utilizes the BORE Scheduler for better interactivity, and offers a variety of scheduler options including EEVDF, sched-ext, ECHO, and RT. All kernels are compiled with optimized x86-64-v3, x86-64-v4, Zen4 instructions and LTO to be optimized for your CPU.
I like the sound of that for my new gaming distro, but I really feel more comfortable in the .deb ecosystem.
Honestly you won’t notice any meaningful performance difference between a “gaming” distro and a normal one.
If you want gaming stuff configured out of the box try popOS. I believe pop also has a custom scheduler and kernel.
You could build Debian from scratch and use your preferred compiler settings.
Maybe PikaOS?
But, IIRC, they are not innovative like CachyOS is; CachyOS actually tries to push performance enhancements forward. PikaOS, on the other hand, only implements the improvements found by others (like CachyOS).
Shades of bootstrapping Gentoo and spending two weeks of compute compiling Firefox because reasons.
I don’t know of anything like what you’re looking for, but I have been using CachyOS for over a year now and I really like it. If you’re looking to get the most performance out of your machine for gaming I wouldn’t think you’d want such a stable release like Debian anyway.
Edit: like the other poster mentioned, I never did any testing or anything, but I also didn’t notice any major improvements when I switched from vanilla Arch to CachyOS to be fair.
