Which linux do I have to choose for games

[VirusXD69]

I recently got confuse of which is better for  games, is it manjaro? Or ubuntu?

 

[Hugh54321]

Steam developers use ubuntu. But it depends on your GPU. I'm using arch linux coz I got a new GPU. Same goes for wifi cards. Look up when your drivers were added to the kernel, then look at what kernel version a distribution uses. If you have hardware over 12 months old then you cant go wrong with ubuntu.

[wasab]

Just use Ubuntu or fedora. Every other distros I've used got issues one way or the other. 

[lionsland]

On 11/28/2019 at 1:00 PM, wasab said:

Just use Ubuntu or fedora. Every other distros I've used got issues one way or the other. 

OpenSUSE is also a very viable option, more similar to fedora than it is to ubuntu but definitely worth checking out

[Talon_3361]

Ubuntu and its spins Mint, Zorin, and PopOS are pretty good. Fedora is also very handy with gaming. My rule of thumb is to stick with Debian-based distros as they've the greatest shot at compatibility and support. That's not to say others won't/don't, only that Debian is the most widely used/support for Linux gaming as a whole.

[Lithium_Niobate]

On 11/28/2019 at 3:12 PM, Hugh54321 said:

Steam developers use ubuntu. But it depends on your GPU. I'm using arch linux coz I got a new GPU. Same goes for wifi cards. Look up when your drivers were added to the kernel, then look at what kernel version a distribution uses. If you have hardware over 12 months old then you cant go wrong with ubuntu.

Don't forget kernels are not tied to distro's.

[RebelKhaotic]

If you're new to it, I'd recommend PopOS...
Manjaro I've heard is a great option too if you want access to the AUR without the "difficulty" of setting up Arch.

[elsandosgrande]

On 11/28/2019 at 8:00 PM, wasab said:

Just use Ubuntu or fedora. Every other distros I've used got issues one way or the other. 

Issues like...? Sure, I can definitely see your point when it comes to Gentoo (I still use it though, as I can withstand the time it takes to compile packages, even though it takes two days to build Mesa with link-time optimizations, one day for the 32-bit and one for the 64-bit target), but not with other distributions which are more popular than Gentoo and are not based on Gentoo (ahemArchahem).

[GCandy77]

PopOs works great as long as ure card supports the use of AMDGPU & DXVK.

 

Ive got a 290 and cannot so I use the Radeon drivers, I can run approx 95% of 200+ Steam games using WINE fine tho.

[elsandosgrande]

51 minutes ago, GCandy77 said:

Ive got a 290 and cannot so I use the Radeon drivers

From what I can tell, your generation, GCN 2 (Hawaii Pro), has experimental AMDGPU support.

 

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMDGPU-SI-Next-4.9

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_Rx_200_series

[GCandy77]

19 hours ago, elsandosgrande said:

From what I can tell, your generation, GCN 2 (Hawaii Pro), has experimental AMDGPU support.

 

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMDGPU-SI-Next-4.9

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_Rx_200_series

 

Yep u are correct - shame "experimental " means " it might work tho

The only way I have managed to force a card to use AMDGPU in the past was when I used to own a 270x (GCN 1 Pitcarn)

The 270x would not work with AMDGPU @ 1st until I installed my friends R9 280 - switch to AMDGPU & then re-installed the 270x into the pc - Sounds stupid, but it did work and allowed me to use AMDPU, DXVK & VULKAN.

 

 

[elsandosgrande]

Well... That's quite unusual...

[Chunchunmaru_]

Use Ubuntu LTS, if you got new hardware, use a more recent version of Ubuntu or even the development one

[elsandosgrande]

53 minutes ago, Chunchunmaru_ said:

Use Ubuntu LTS, if you got new hardware, use a more recent version of Ubuntu or even the development one

I would rather suggest Gentoo than a development version of Ubuntu. Of course, try Arch before Gentoo if you have hardware that new, as Gentoo is not for somebody without a lot of patience (at least if doing something more than the default setup, like using GentooLTO; this is not even mentioning the time it takes to compile packages).

[IdlePX]

Does Linux OS choice make any difference when choosing from Distrowatch's top 10? Been using Linux since 2004'ish, and stopped noticing any difference in performance around 2012'ish from the top distros. Unless you're on ultra-budget components and every MB is needed, what benefits would you get between Ubuntu and Manjaro?

[elsandosgrande]

Well, I would say that Distrowatch is not something to base your choice of distribution off of, since it simply track visitors of the site, so the numbers are not quite trustworthy outside of the metric "What is the number one userbase which visits this website?".

Ubuntu is good if you want an installation that does most of the work for you and don't mind having older packages for the most part (the latter is even more pronounced with long-term support releases). Manjaro is good if you need very recent packages which Arch brings, but also want the "does most of the work for you" comfort Ubuntu brings (how well it achieves that, I do not know). Of course, you may need to choose one over the other due to circumstances other than preference, but that is out of the scope of this post and requires hardware information to asses if there are no personal software requirements, like a certain application which is only available on Ubuntu or Manjaro. Also, on the latter note, the other difference between the two is that Ubuntu has personal package archives (PPAs), while Manjaro (and any other Arch-based distribution, along with Arch Linux of course) has the Arch user repository (AUR).

 

To note, Manjaro actually lags behind Arch a bit because they put most of the packages through a second round of testing, as far as I know at least. I never used Manjaro, seeing as I used Antergos (may you rest in peace; it was Arch-based, but used Arch's own repositories instead of having its own, like Manjaro) from September 2018 until April 2019, when I switched to Gentoo. I used Manjaro with testing repositories and use Gentoo with the testing package set, so I am not really all that qualified to talk about super-low-maintenance and low-knowledge-threshold setups (to be fair, I didn't have a hard time with the testing repositories on Arch and the only issues that arise on my Gentoo system are due to GentooLTO's GCC flags and ones that I have added on my own, such as hardening flags).

[pyntux]

I am using Manjaro, because of new software, but any linux should be good....

[IdlePX]

@elsandosgrande I agree Distrowatch has always been laughably unreliable on numbers and I understand the difference between distros. I was more asking, with reference to the OPs question of "which is better for games?" does it make any difference which distro you choose now, from any of the top 10 on distrowatch/most popular distros? They all have a package manager of some description. They all have roughly the same footprint on ram and processing power. Steams always a couple of clicks to install as well, now.

 

Back in 2005 when everyone was trying to squeeze every mb of ram out of a distro to strip it down, it made a difference. Heck, running compiz for fancy window dressing could have a massive impact. But now,  it's just a matter of personal taste or what works best on your hardware. "Which is better for games," is a kinda irrelevant question on Linux now.

[elsandosgrande]

Yeah. Sorry for misunderstanding the intention behind your earlier question.

Regarding your second paragraph, Steam is pretty simple to install on Gentoo, let alone something more mainstream, so I completely agree with you.

[Hogosha]

I have been using Manjaro for a long time and gaming fantastically. It comes with Steam pre installed and it does really well with the nvidia drivers. 

 

I also know a few people that use PopOS wit a lot of great results.