I don't wish to provoke distro-wars so which WM/DE is most suited to reliably performant gaming on Linux? I've seen this topic tackled on Phoronix and other sources and I'm intrigued that environmental complexity does not necessarily equate to detrimental performance.

However these comparisons do not take into account other factors such as screen tearing and such like.

So tapping the collective wisdom (?) of those that have been there, done that, what's the best combo for smooth, fast Linux gaming?