Linux and mac gaming experience

[Busbar man]

Budget (including currency): SGD $3000 maybe

Country: singapore 

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: most modern pc game 

Other details 

Looking for a build that is well optimised for linux gaming(4k / 1440p). I had experience issues with proton gaming such as game not opening up and audio cracking issues. Not sure how other people managed to get it running seamlessly. I was also thinking maybe it might be my hardware issue because is rather old. Some distro i tried had issues with wifi Bluetooth. Not to mention vulkan shader compile is required and it takes a very long time. Can anyone share how to make linux gaming less headache as possible. I dont mind spending more money on a better build if i need to. 
 

Also for mac uses, how seamless is crossover and getting it to setup for mac? I want to know well before considering purchasing it. I willing to spend around those M pro series chip.
 

All in all I also hope that i can run game natively and not using some upscaling technology.
 

Thank you 
 

 

[Donut417]

9 minutes ago, Busbar man said:

Can anyone share how to make linux gaming less headache as possible.

If you want to use Linux get used to tinkering to get stuff working. If you dont want to tinker then use Windows. Because my experience with Linux hasnt been sunshine and rainbows. Ive had to work to get some things working. Its just the nature of how Linux works. 

[Eigenvektor]

Really depends on the games you play. My experience has been fairly straightforward on Linux, but I mostly just stick to single player games on Steam. I also use an AMD GPU, which has proper open source drivers. But judging by other's comments on here, I seem to be in the minority with this.

[Fasauceome]

21 minutes ago, Busbar man said:

I had experience issues with proton gaming such as game not opening up and audio cracking issues. Not sure how other people managed to get it running seamlessly

I agree with @Donut417 regarding that using Linux requires some troubleshooting skills, ones that you will have to develop. In my opinion, it's worth it. 

 

I recommend dual booting for this exact reason. Buy one SSD for windows, one for Linux, and you will always have a backup for when your game isn't working, and you just wanna play. I have been an on-and-off Linux user for a few years and I still have consistent issues, so I have not fully migrated away from Windows. Linux comes with learning, it's for the better but it is work. 

[Eigenvektor]

4 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

I recommend dual booting for this exact reason.

Seconded. I've still got a dual boot system, even though I stick to Linux 99.9% these days, just in case.

 

I initially started using Linux for everyday stuff, like browsing the web or watching YouTube videos. I still switched back to Windows for most games. Over time I tried more and more games on Linux and these days a surprising number of them just seem to work. But as I said, I almost exclusively play single player titles on Steam. Multiplayer games with kernel-level anti-cheat are a big issue (see https://areweanticheatyet.com/).

 

Your hardware choice can also have an impact. The more common, the more likely it's supported properly. I'd also recommend to stick to distros that have been around for a while. "Gamer" distros might promise (and maybe even achieve) a tiny performance improvement, but I've read so much stuff about them breaking suddenly, I don't think it's worth it.

 

34 minutes ago, Busbar man said:

All in all I also hope that i can run game natively and not using some upscaling technology.

Games that natively run on Linux are few and far between. Most require Proton or Wine.

 

Many modern games require upscaling for good performance, that's not a Linux thing as such. Though some games might not perform as well as they do on Windows, so you might need to use it more often.

[Mark Kaine]

4 hours ago, Donut417 said:

If you want to use Linux get used to tinkering to get stuff working. If you dont want to tinker then use Windows. Because my experience with Linux hasnt been sunshine and rainbows. Ive had to work to get some things working. Its just the nature of how Linux works. 

I'ma be honest, it took about 2-3 years to make my windows install do what I want and do it how I want it to be done (which mostly consistent of renaming waasmedic in the end, but there was more to it...*) 

So yes, that's how operating systems usually work (not well) the thing about Linux is that there are apparently "rolling distros" (aka never finished) and in general updating is encouraged (just like in windows) so I'm not sure it's actually a good alternative, even though I also think you can make it really lightweight without all the typical ballast that plagues ALL OS's typically.

 

Basically a kernel and a window manager, end of story... The Holy Grail, but getting there might not be easy.

 

*let alone you can't even do that before you [legally] stole all the codecs from windows store (fun without an account but oddly it works) that you need for media playback etc because killing waasmedic also kills the store (a blessing, but also a problem lol)

 

So yeah, I definitely expect Linux to be very similar and similarly cumbersome actually.

 

 

 

[Donut417]

6 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

the thing about Linux is that there are apparently "rolling distros" (aka never finished)

Depends on the distro. Because Ubuntu LTS versions tend to be more "Stable" and have fairly long term support. Where as some distros are rolling releases like MacOS and Windows. Of course with LTS versions of Linux you might lack support for newer hardware without updating the kernel. With rolling release you might get access newer hardware and to more bugs. You have to choose your poison. 

[Mark Kaine]

3 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Depends on the distro. Because Ubuntu LTS versions tend to be more "Stable" and have fairly long term support. Where as some distros are rolling releases like MacOS and Windows. Of course with LTS versions of Linux you might lack support for newer hardware without updating the kernel. With rolling release you might get access newer hardware and to more bugs. You have to choose your poison. 

Yeah I know not all releases are rolling, hence I'll probably try bazzite or CachyOS first ... CachyOS might be rolling, but I think it also has rollback function (the thing that never seems to work on windows lol)? I'm that case it's fine and well it's not gonna force me to update either AFAIK? 

[Doobeedoo]

Many very popular gsmes don't even work on Linux or Mac so Windows only an option in that case. Again, depends what exact games you plan to play, especially online ones and those with anti-cheat well those just won't work at all.

[Busbar man]

Thanks for all the reply. However if my option is either spending $3000 on a gaming PC with Linux or a Mac which will be a better experience? 

@Donut417@Doobeedoo@Mark Kaine@Eigenvektor

[Donut417]

3 hours ago, Busbar man said:

Thanks for all the reply. However if my option is either spending $3000 on a gaming PC with Linux or a Mac which will be a better experience? 

@Donut417@Doobeedoo@Mark Kaine@Eigenvektor

Linux would have the highest compatibility of games compared to MacOS. 

[Ha-Satan]

I don't know how CrossOver compares in terms of running Windows games on Mac vs. using Proton to run Windows games on Linux, but regardless I don't think getting a Mac makes any sense in your case.

 

If you build a standard x86-based PC, then you could run Linux on it, you could run Windows, you could run any number of other operating systems if you wanted.

 

If you buy a Mac, you are pretty much stuck running MacOS, and MacOS is just not set up to be good for modern gaming so I don't know why you would do that. Yeah, you could run Windows in a VM or try to install Asahi Linux on a Mac, but those are just not going to be as good for what you in particular want to do with your PC compared to building a standard x86 machine.

 

So I wouldn't even consider a Mac if I were you.

[Busbar man]

On 3/10/2026 at 10:37 PM, Ha-Satan said:

I don't know how CrossOver compares in terms of running Windows games on Mac vs. using Proton to run Windows games on Linux, but regardless I don't think getting a Mac makes any sense in your case.

 

If you build a standard x86-based PC, then you could run Linux on it, you could run Windows, you could run any number of other operating systems if you wanted.

 

If you buy a Mac, you are pretty much stuck running MacOS, and MacOS is just not set up to be good for modern gaming so I don't know why you would do that. Yeah, you could run Windows in a VM or try to install Asahi Linux on a Mac, but those are just not going to be as good for what you in particular want to do with your PC compared to building a standard x86 machine.

 

So I wouldn't even consider a Mac if I were you.

hmm maybe you are right. Because from youtube tutorial gaming on mac via crossover seems alot easier and smooth compare to linux.Beside there are games that is natively available now.

[Ha-Satan]

1 hour ago, Busbar man said:

hmm maybe you are right. Because from youtube tutorial gaming on mac via crossover seems alot easier and smooth compare to linux.Beside there are games that is natively available now.

I'll admit that I haven't been gaming on Linux all that long (though I've been using Linux as a desktop OS for many years), but my experience so far with gaming on Linux has been very smooth. At least on Mint XFCE, most games I've tried from Steam as well as GOG/Epic through the Heroic launcher have just installed an ran with no issues. Obviously not all games, but the vast majority of those I've tried. I would be surprised if the compatibility with Crossover was actually better than Proton on Linux (but I haven't actually gone and compared tbh).

[Busbar man]

20 hours ago, Ha-Satan said:

I'll admit that I haven't been gaming on Linux all that long (though I've been using Linux as a desktop OS for many years), but my experience so far with gaming on Linux has been very smooth. At least on Mint XFCE, most games I've tried from Steam as well as GOG/Epic through the Heroic launcher have just installed an ran with no issues. Obviously not all games, but the vast majority of those I've tried. I would be surprised if the compatibility with Crossover was actually better than Proton on Linux (but I haven't actually gone and compared tbh).

Well for me is the opposite. I using linux mint too. Although I do have to note that I trying it on older laptop with an AMD Radeon R5 M330. Not sure is it because proton is for more modern hardware rather than this old laptop. Plus is not I like try to run AAA game. I tried gta SA and south park game. Both able to run but have audio issues. Some out right doesn't work like flatout 2. I was able to run these games on win 10 without issue.

[dabockster]

Quote

I using linux mint too.

Linux Mint is kind of an older OS at this point, tbh. You don't notice it when just interacting with the desktop. But it gets really noticeable when you start tinkering with it. It's more fragile than it looks.

I know you want Linux to work for you. But the reality is actually the opposite. If you don't believe me, go watch the recent LTT, GN, and other creators' videos about them trying to game on Linux in 2025/2026. It's far from where it needs to be, even under the best circumstances.

For your use case, it's honestly better to deal with Windows 11's mess than Linux's mess. Windows 11 is surprisingly moddable.

[Ha-Satan]

On 3/21/2026 at 10:04 AM, Busbar man said:

Well for me is the opposite. I using linux mint too. Although I do have to note that I trying it on older laptop with an AMD Radeon R5 M330. Not sure is it because proton is for more modern hardware rather than this old laptop. Plus is not I like try to run AAA game. I tried gta SA and south park game. Both able to run but have audio issues. Some out right doesn't work like flatout 2. I was able to run these games on win 10 without issue.

I doubt it's the age of your hardware, it might just be that your particular audio card doesn't play nice with Linux, or bad luck on game selection. Running games via Proton works fine on my two Mint systems with hardware that's just about as old (see the "desk gaming" and "laptop" lines in my sig).

 

Regardless, here's my point - yeah, Linux gaming isn't perfect yet, but it has a large and growing community of people and developers who are actively working to improve it, and it has the Valve pushing hard in the space to try to make it as good as possible.

 

I'll admit that I haven't used Crossover for Mac gaming, but what I do know is that it does not have anywhere near the same level of community or developer support as Linux gaming/Proton. So I think if you are expecting Mac gaming with Crossover to be a perfect experience and better overall than Linux, you're likely to be very disappointed.

 

That brings me back to the point I made earlier: if you just build a regular X86-based PC, you can use lots of different operating systems. You can try Linux and if you don't like it, you can switch to Windows. Or FreeBSD. Or fucking Haiku or any one of a whole bunch of other random operating systems. 

 

But if you buy a Mac and it turns out that Crossover doesn't work as well as you want, all you can do is get rid of it and buy a different computer. That doesn't make any sense to do.

 

If you want to build a PC and have it have the best chance of success on Linux, follow these guidelines:

 

-Use an AMD GPU

 

-If you need Wifi, use a NIC that has an Intel wifi chip (as opposed to Realtek or some other brand)

 

-If you have peripherals that require you to install software to get features you need (such as Logitech's mouse management software), do some research to make sure that software (or a functional alternative) is available on Linux. Alternatively, just use peripherals that don't require additional software to work the way you want them to.