What are people running for gaming?

[U2ername]

Looking to maximise performance and compatibility.

 

I have an Intel 14th gen system i5 with an AMD XTX 24GB. 1440P 180hz.

 

So this is CachyOS, I have so far got mangohud set up and Lutris with Steam too and custom GEproton.

 

The OS is way faster than 11, (using GNOME stock).

 

 

 

Crysis remaster on it with an FPS cap of 90 (Mangohud) at 1440P maxed out settings.

 

Check the 1% low, on Windows it would consistently drop to about 47 FPS and felt choppy.

 

 

[Poinkachu]

8 minutes ago, U2ername said:

maximise performance and compatibility.

Windows

Because extra 200% performance doesn't mean anything if compatibility is an issue.

[U2ername]

2 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

Windows

Because extra 200% performance doesn't mean crap if compatibility is an issue.

Yeah asked in the Linux section for a reason though, I don't care about multiplayer, too many cheaters and a zero sum game.

[Dedayog]

1 hour ago, U2ername said:

Looking to maximise performance and compatibility.

 

I have an Intel 14th gen system i5 with an AMD XTX 24GB. 1440P 180hz.

So you're asking what version of Linux to run for gaming?

 

May want to change your title to be more clarifying, as people may not notice this in the not Windows subforum.

[Eigenvektor]

2 hours ago, U2ername said:

Looking to maximise performance and compatibility.

The major difference between distributions is the kernel version they come with out of the box.

 

Newer kernel versions can often have features that improve things (e.g. NTSYNC), but of course cutting edge could also break things. Personally, I'd stay away from "gaming distros", they often seem to have issues in other areas, like breaking on major updates. Most of the gaming focused things they bring along can be installed on other distros just as easily (and aren't really necessary, more nice to have).

[emothxughts]

I'm running Linux Mint 22.1 myself, for single player games on Steam. And Win11 for gacha games (they refuse to run on Linux, coz anticheats). It's about a 60/40 split. Also I'm using the RTX 4060Ti and the version 550 proprietary drivers.

 

My games work just fine on Linux, in fact I swear that for example Borderlands 3 runs much better and crash free on Linux than the crash fest that it is on Windows.

[Ralphred]

8 hours ago, Eigenvektor said:

The major difference between distributions is the kernel version they come with out of the box.

When you are talking about gaming with AMD GPU's, the packaged versions of mesa and vulkan are a consideration too << This is where (along with the kernel) the AMD devs "commit their code". This is where meta-distro's that allow the mixing and matching of stable, testing, and bleeding edge package types allow you to reach maximum stability and compatibility at the same time. The downside is meta-distro's have a "higher cost to entry" due to the amount of config and learning you have to do yourself to make them work.

[Eigenvektor]

3 hours ago, Ralphred said:

This is where meta-distro's that allow the mixing and matching of stable, testing, and bleeding edge package types allow you to reach maximum stability and compatibility at the same time.

Sounds like you'll spend more time playing with the system, than playing actual games. No offense, but not for me, and not really something for someone who's new to Linux.

 

I'm using Manjaro, which is fairly cutting edge. If I have to wait a week or two for the latest features to arrive, so be it. At least I don't have to manually manage my package dependencies. I just install Steam, install my games and play them.

[Ralphred]

17 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Sounds like you'll spend more time playing with the system, than playing actual games.

Meh, I only tinker for new hardware nowadays.

18 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

and not really something for someone who's new to Linux.

I did acknowledge that.

21 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

At least I don't have to manually manage my package dependencies.

That's why I said meta-distro and not LFS, the package manager handles all that.

24 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

I just install Steam, install my games and play them.

Same, my character is literally idling in the hotel in Lies of P listening to the records* collected this play though, while I type this. (*other players of the game will know why)

[wasab]

SNES emulator is something i like. so many good classics on there. i had play a game called radar wars or at least that's what i remember, i cant find it nowadays. 

[ewitte]

I'm about to play around with Bazzite which is pretty seamless with AMD cards.  I wouldn't main it for gaming not even all of my preferred settings are available.  The only AMD option I have is an 890m IGP though.

[m9x3mos]

On 5/23/2025 at 6:48 AM, ewitte said:

I'm about to play around with Bazzite which is pretty seamless with AMD cards.  I wouldn't main it for gaming not even all of my preferred settings are available.  The only AMD option I have is an 890m IGP though.

I have been using fedora with steam for a while and haven't had any problems. I have it running on a aero 15x that has a 1070m in it. 

[Vishera]

I am running Arch (LTS version) with XFCE and use Lutris to run games with Proton GE

[Potatoes2241]

Been daily driving Linux for like 9 months now, first on Ubuntu then on Fedora. Can't say there are any major differences between them in games and I assume not much difference between "gaming" distros either. 

 

Gaming-wise there are two main issues I have experienced so far:

1) Like many others have said, some games straight up do not support Linux, mostly for lame arse reasons;

2) If running Nvidia - expect some performance and stability issues with DX12 games. Vulkan, DX11 and earlier are perfectly fine. Nvidia overall has issues in Linux, talking memory overflows, desktop crashes, visual artefacting etc etc. You can deal with it but it's a subpar experience to be fair.

 

Apart from that, in 99% cases at least for my library of Steam/GOG/Appropriated/Retro games, it just works. For non-steam games its mostly a matter of getting around launchers and Wine wrappers, and for Steam it's mostly just plug and play (maybe some launch parameters would be needed). So unless the game explicitly forbids you using Linux it should be just fine. It does require some tinkering from time to time but in hindsight it's about the same amount of tinkering required to keep windows 11 in an agreeable shape, just looks scarier cus it's new.

 

Meanwhile saving up for a 9070xt because Nvidia on Linux is just pathetic. 

[U2ername]

Been using CachyOS, it's easy and games run awesome on it.

[Ha-Satan]

I'd like to try Linux for gaming and just using Windows in a VM if I encounter any issues with a particular game in Linux. That said, I'm a little hesitant to move over since I am running a 2070 Super.

 

I've been seriously considering attempting to find somebody who will trade me a 6600/6600 XT for my 2070S. Even with a slight downgrade I'd prefer to have an AMD card so I can have an easier time in Linux.

 

I don't really want to buy a new GPU outright unless it's a big upgrade from my 2070S, and I don't really have the budget for a full system upgrade this year before Windows 10 loses support, so I'm flailing around a bit for options.

[Potatoes2241]

1 hour ago, Ha-Satan said:

I'd like to try Linux for gaming and just using Windows in a VM if I encounter any issues with a particular game in Linux. That said, I'm a little hesitant to move over since I am running a 2070 Super.

 

I've been seriously considering attempting to find somebody who will trade me a 6600/6600 XT for my 2070S. Even with a slight downgrade I'd prefer to have an AMD card so I can have an easier time in Linux.

 

I don't really want to buy a new GPU outright unless it's a big upgrade from my 2070S, and I don't really have the budget for a full system upgrade this year before Windows 10 loses support, so I'm flailing around a bit for options.

Firstly, I'd suggest going for dualboot instead of a VM, because you won't get 100% performance in a VM compared to a proper OS install, and dualbooting is not that hard/dangerous. You'd always have windows to fall back to if something goes wrong on Linux side of things or if you need a breather, in my opinion it's easier to get used to Linux this way.

Secondly, if you really wanna try before moving to AMD I can suggest keeping to distros that still run X11 instead of Wayland - Nvidia has *more troubles specifically with the latter. And, probably try keeping away from KDE as your desktop environment - it's awesome (and my favorite one) but again Nvidia is having troubles with it. I'd say Linux Mint may be worth a shot - I suppose they are still on X11 and have a GNOME-based DE.

 

And honestly if you really wanna try anyway then go for it, maybe it'll be tolerable for you. I mean, I have 4070 running under a KDE distro with Wayland compositor, it pisses me off sometimes but I still daily drive it with mostly just annoyances. Just a lot of them 

[U2ername]

Opening post edited.

[Ha-Satan]

12 minutes ago, Potatoes2241 said:

Firstly, I'd suggest going for dualboot instead of a VM, because you won't get 100% performance in a VM compared to a proper OS install, and dualbooting is not that hard/dangerous. You'd always have windows to fall back to if something goes wrong on Linux side of things or if you need a breather, in my opinion it's easier to get used to Linux this way.

Secondly, if you really wanna try before moving to AMD I can suggest keeping to distros that still run X11 instead of Wayland - Nvidia has troubles specifically with the latter. And, probably try keeping away from KDE as your desktop environment - it's awesome (and my favorite one) but again Nvidia is having troubles with it. I'd say Linux Mint may be worth a shot - I suppose they are still on X11 and have a GNOME-based DE.

 

And honestly if you really wanna try anyway then go for it, maybe it'll be tolerable for you. I mean, I have 4070 running under a KDE distro with Wayland compositor, it pisses me off sometimes but I still daily drive it with mostly just annoyances. Just a lot of them 

I wasn't aware that the Nvidia issues were mostly with Wayland. If X11-based desktops work better with Nvidia then I'd be happy to try - do you have any recommendations for distros/DEs that are still X11-based? Mint 21 Cinnamon is still X11, right?

 

For some context, I already use Linux for basically everything other than gaming - my daily driver laptop runs Mint XFCE, and my home servers all run various Linux derivatives (TruNAS/Ubuntu Server/RPi OS).

 

I'm still running Win10 on my gaming PC, but I use it for only gaming and watching shows (since it's hooked up to my TV). I do any actual work on my other machines.

 

My biggest concern with Windows is all the telemetry/privacy/Recall shit, and because I really only use my Windows PC for entertainment I'm not as concerned about whatever Microsoft could learn about me from it, but it's kind of the principle of the thing and frankly I'm just really starting to hate Windows.

 

 

[U2ername]

On 5/22/2025 at 1:02 PM, emothxughts said:

I'm running Linux Mint 22.1 myself, for single player games on Steam. And Win11 for gacha games (they refuse to run on Linux, coz anticheats). It's about a 60/40 split. Also I'm using the RTX 4060Ti and the version 550 proprietary drivers.

 

My games work just fine on Linux, in fact I swear that for example Borderlands 3 runs much better and crash free on Linux than the crash fest that it is on Windows.

Very believable since my experiences with Crysis on there vs Windows.

 

I have some others installing.

[Potatoes2241]

3 minutes ago, Ha-Satan said:

Mint 21 Cinnamon is still X11, right?

Yup, and I think XFCE is also still on X11, in fact I think XFCE in general is only experimenting with it. Actually both may give you an option to boot into an experimental Wayland session while defaulting to X11, and many other distros still work this way. Some specific ones like Fedora are moving to Wayland-only builds or defaulting to it.

 

As for Nvidia-Wayland beef in general, do keep in mind that there are some troubles with Nvidia even under X11 so can't say it would be that much better. Like for example DX12 games I tried had performance issues and frame drops both on my older Kubuntu (X11) install and on current Fedora (Wayland) install. And I suppose that idiotic memory leaks and troubles determining the remaining VRAM are still there on the driver side. But, small things like screen sharing, hardware acceleration of some apps, general DE stability seemed better on ye olde X11.

 

15 minutes ago, Ha-Satan said:

My biggest concern with Windows is all the telemetry/privacy/Recall shit, and because I really only use my Windows PC for entertainment I'm not as concerned about whatever Microsoft could learn about me from it, but it's kind of the principle of the thing and frankly I'm just really starting to hate Windows.

I feel you man, same story here. This and the fact I spend about the same amount of time debloating and reconfiguring my windows setup to get rid of all this BS as I spent taming the penguin.

[Ha-Satan]

2 minutes ago, Potatoes2241 said:

As for Nvidia-Wayland beef in general, do keep in mind that there are some troubles with Nvidia even under X11 so can't say it would be that much better. Like for example DX12 games I tried had performance issues and frame drops both on my older Kubuntu (X11) install and on current Fedora (Wayland) install. And I suppose that idiotic memory leaks and troubles determining the remaining VRAM are still there on the driver side. But, small things like screen sharing, hardware acceleration of some apps, general DE stability seemed better on ye olde X11.

Yeah, bleh.

 

The truth is that, at least for me, I'm planning on mostly switching my AAA gaming back over to console, mostly because I am tired of PC games always coming out half-assed and broken, so I'd much rather just get the relative stability of the console experience even if it means I have a lower frame rate. So my PC is going to be mostly for the big backlog of PC games I already have, which are mostly older anyway, and so I'm really not that concerned about performance loss. Like, I was even considering trying to trade my desktop for a mini-PC with an 890M because I'm pretty sure that would run all the games I intend to play with little to no issues.

 

I'm going to get rid of my Windows 10 install anyway before October because I'm not going to run an insecure OS, so I guess there's probably no downside to just trying Linux on it to see how it goes as I can always jump back to Win11 later if I'm really struggling.

[U2ername]

So, not sure how this is really possible, but my underclocked and undervolted 7900 XTX at 250w with 5.5ghz 14600K are outperforming a power unlocked 7900 XTX & 7800X3D system. In Assassin's Creed: Origins by a BIG margin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[xAcid9]

I'm on Manjaro and play lots of games via Steam, Lutris and system Wine. 
Bottles doesn't play nice with me.. YMMV though. 

 

 

 

 

[ewitte]

19 hours ago, Ha-Satan said:

Like, I was even considering trying to trade my desktop for a mini-PC with an 890M because I'm pretty sure that would run all the games I intend to play with little to no issues.

Just installed Bazzite in the 3rd drive slot of my Minisforum X1 Pro (890M with sodimms).  I only performed a small test with HL2 but it did seem to handle it better.  FPS was good in windows, but it was hitching every 10-15 seconds.  I didn't have that issue in Linux.  Looks and runs great at 4k.

 

As far as gaming on windows actually dedicating a machine seems to help.  I cleaned off a bunch of startup tasks, apps, etc. and keep it off unless I'm using it.