So I was thinking of switching my desktop to linux. I have been running fedora on my laptop for 3 years and I really like it. My main question now is just what distro works best for gaming (considering my specs) and can I use VMs in any of the gaming oriented ones (mostly because I don’t wanna keep dual booting).
Edit: I have gone with Bazzite for now and it seems to be working fine. Some games don’t rrally work acceptably (I expected that) so I will keep dual booting for a while.
I can’t believe that no one has asked you this question yet (fucking fanboys…):
Do you mind losing access to most features on your GPU, including (but not limited to): RTX HDR, Shadowplay, the Nvidia App, the Nvidia Control Panel and everything it offers, including the 3D Settings page?
If any of this matters to you, you may want to consider switching to an AMD GPU first before you consider Linux. Nvidia does not support it nearly as well as they support Windows. You get a driver that lets you run games, and that’s about it.
Yeah I only kinda really use shadowplay anyway. I don’t have a hdr monitor at all. Firstly I just want to see if my games run well enough. If not I will wait a couple years and then upgrade to an AMD card and then switch for good.
Afaik AMD isn’t fully supported either
And you lose the ability to run tensorflow if you like to do AI
DO IT.
JUST DO IT.
The only thing that kept me booting windows for gaming was destiny 2, which choses not to support running on linux.
The current expansion “edge of fate” is terrible though, so it’s full time linux gaming for me.
I really hope Bungie changes their stance at some point. The new portal in Edge of Fate seems perfect for quick sessions on a Steam Deck, if nothing else.
the portal is a good idea, but how they tied (or rather didn’t) it to the rest of the game is currently terrible.
the whole game feels like a broken plate that someone glued together again… So, i would not expect great things from them currently…
Coming from a Steam Deck, I was really happy when I learned about Bazzite. I tried installing it and stuck with it for a few months now and I’m excited to have gotten rid of Windows. It’s fast and works well out of the box. Plus I have the SteamOS experience without fuss.
Bonus points for you, it’s Fedora based and easy to install on top if Fedora.
Notably I had tried Ubuntu before this and had issues with VRR and a couple of other things. Bazzite is built for this, and it works well.
i love bazzite, just got a new app store too
Does the rockstar launcher run? I’d like to move over but always wonder about losing access to quite a few games in the process
I think I got to install & launch GTAV without modifications or additional software. I’ll confirm and get back
From my experience on SteamOS, I’m launching RDR2 through the steam app but I own RDR2 on Rockstar game launcher. I used these steps to get it running: https://expertbeacon.com/can-steam-deck-run-red-dead-redemption-2/
I can only assume it’s similar on Bazzite but I haven’t tried.
I just went straight with a bazzite install since fedora literally did not want to work on my pc
linux mint.
Linux Mint Cinnamon was is my first Linux distro coming away from Win10, and I have no issues with it. Mint uses Ubuntu as its codebase, so it’s essentially Ubuntu with a different desktop presentation/look/feel.
Agreed. Mint is a very ‘new Linux user’ friendly distro, and has everything you really need. I’ve got some recent converts from Windows and even the gamers I’ve set up are happy with it.
Nobara is good, it’s fedora but with better nvidia driver stuff out of the box.
Of course you should - Do a dual boot as a test on whatever rig you’re currently using. Easy to undo and it costs you exactly zero.
Hi I recommend against using an Arch based distro like manjaro or cachyOS ( arch by nature demands active maintenance ) also depsite the brand name ubuntu is a very bad place to start ( due to them forcing snap packages ). Go for something like fedora kde or bazzite, most of the app you need can come from flathub.
For games you got Steam, Heroic ( for epic games ), lutris ( for everything else ). You will have to quit the habit of hunting .exe file online, most of your apps will come from your store ( discover in your case ).
Vms will not let you bypass anti-cheat stuff so keep that in mind. Check for game compatibility on protondb if needed. Don’t be afraid to ask question ( even dumbs one ).
Thanks for the first part.
I know how apps and that works I have been using fedora for 3 years on my laptop.
VM is meant for apps that do not work with wine like photoshop.
I use Nobara on my laptop which has rtx 3060 6gb with ryzen 7 5800h. Sure Nvidia sucks on every linux distro, but you will get many quality of life improvements when using linux instead of windows.
Btw, Nobara is just Fedora with some good gaming related chages.
You should go with Fedora.
Believe me I tried. It just will not let me finish the setup process
Oh you have Nvidia ? Try out PopOS, they have a special ISO file with Nvidia drivers
Garuda dragonized gaming will get you everything out of the box and you can change the theme after. It will walk you through a lot with assistants, which is nice to learn things on an arch based distro. Its an easy switch from windows, plus, now I can use fish konsole htop and paru alright.
My husband built me a gaming computer and wanted to install the OS. Told him he probably wouldn’t be able to as I had picked out an arch based distro. I’d never installed arch myself. He’d never installed any linux. He had no problem putting dragonized garuda on there. It’s been nearly 3 years now and I still haven’t changed the theme tho.
Edited to add: I ain’t got any nvidia anything in that PC, so can’t speak to that.
Ah I have two nvidia GPU laptops running it right now and its great!! A 2070S and one even older tho. Nothing considered modern by todays standard.
Second time tonight I have heard of this distro - I may have to check it out.
since you already have experience with fedora, you might wanna look at nobara, which has an nvidia-specific installer available. i’m running it a bit longer than 7 months now, and don’t have any issues with it, and i have a pretty similar hardware config to you (a ryzen 5 instead of a 7, and a 3070 Ti instead of the normal one)
I also run a windows 10 VM, mainly for stubborn installers from cracked games that won’t run correctly under wine and for my mouse/keyboard software (they have onboard profiles, so i pass them through to the vm to configure)
Currently installing bazzite. If that turns out bad I will try nobara.
This env variable might help with your cracked installers
‘’’ WINE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE=1 ‘’’
thanks, i will test it next time i encounter issues. But at least the Kaos Repack installers have some other issue, the UI buttons of the installer don’t work as intended, they just don’t react at all after clicking the install button.
I see bazzite mentioned a lot here, but wasn’t there a post here a while ago saying that it might stop existing if fedora pushes through with the decision to ditch 32bit support? Did they decide not to do it after all?
The proposal to ditch 32 bit support was withdrawn
I think they decided not to, with some (IMO fairly) snarky comment on how that was just a proposal and people were getting needlesely outraged.
