Thinking of switching my gaming desktop to linux. Should I?
-
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)
wrote last edited by [email protected]This env variable might help with your cracked installers
‘’’
WINE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE=1
‘’’ -
I can’t think of any modern distro that doesn’t just have Nvidia drivers as a package in the repos.
Very true, they do ofc exist there. Nobara just gives you a first-time install-wizard which lets you one-click condigure it. I was more thinking of a use-case as OPs where you wont need to tinker too much after the initial installation.
But yes, basically all distros do have the drivers in their package repos, so any would work.
-
Just use Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Mint if you want a hassle free, secure, and stable Linux distro that supports everything and works out of the box.
Don't use those gaming centric distros like Bazzite. It's not worth it. Don't use Arch or other bleeding edge distros unless you want to keep troubleshooting your system because of problems or vulnerabilities.
Take it from me. I've been using Linux since 2001 and Ubuntu based distros have always been the best choice for a secure stable OS.
I would actually recommend the nvidia image of bazzite since it takes the potential driver module and kernel mismatch problem out of the equation which IMO is one of the most annoying problems an nvidia user can face, and if it somehow bugs out anyway rollback is one or two keypresses away depending on if you hide grub or not.
Virtualization is possible with the boot flags and vfio if needed setup using the "ujust setup-virtualization" script. qemu/kvm, probably not virtualbox which also requires kernel modules iirc.
-
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.
-
Bazzite is a Fedora Atomic based immutable distro focused on gaming, this means...
- out of the box support for Nvidia cards
- ships with a lot of useful gaming utilities
- very hard to break as you should primarily be installing Flatpaks and can do rollbacks
Basically all modern Linux distros have virtualization support, so does Bazzite, of course. Actual performance differences between distros is also negligible, so feel free to choose whatever you like.
https://bazzite.gg/ if you're interested.
Always seeing the Bazzite recommendation. Just converted my kid over, 2 weeks ago. 0 complaints which is pretty amazing.
-
I would actually recommend the nvidia image of bazzite since it takes the potential driver module and kernel mismatch problem out of the equation which IMO is one of the most annoying problems an nvidia user can face, and if it somehow bugs out anyway rollback is one or two keypresses away depending on if you hide grub or not.
Virtualization is possible with the boot flags and vfio if needed setup using the "ujust setup-virtualization" script. qemu/kvm, probably not virtualbox which also requires kernel modules iirc.
I have had ONLY NVidia cards since my first ever own PC in 2000 when I started college.
I've used Mandrake Linux for a while then switched to Ubuntu when it came out in 2004 and have used that ever since.
I've NEVER encountered any problems whatsoever. In fact, it made using an NVidia card easier because of its built-in third party driver installation tool that takes care of everything.
If something doesn't work, it's very probable that it's because the user messed around with something and caused it to happen.
-
I last tried it like a year ago.
Didn't try it but FYI maybe PhotoGIMP could make GIMP usable for you!
-
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.
CachyOS since you're using fedora for 3 years
-
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.
The amount of these posts make me happy.
-
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.
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.
-
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.
Unless you play anything by Riot or Fortnite, YES
-
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.
If you have to ask someone else whether you should switch then you should not switch.
-
I have had ONLY NVidia cards since my first ever own PC in 2000 when I started college.
I've used Mandrake Linux for a while then switched to Ubuntu when it came out in 2004 and have used that ever since.
I've NEVER encountered any problems whatsoever. In fact, it made using an NVidia card easier because of its built-in third party driver installation tool that takes care of everything.
If something doesn't work, it's very probable that it's because the user messed around with something and caused it to happen.
Yeah back then I was in elementary school. I chased single percent performance gains from bleeding edge because I couldn't just buy better hardware. If you wanted the latest versions of anything ubuntu couldn't do it without iffy unofficial repos and dependency hell. I did it anyway and it sucked.
If you compiled the kernel but forgot to rebuild the graphics modules you had to live cd in, because a 64mb usb stick was like 300 bucks back then and booting off usb wasn't really a thing yet. Then next would be some janky terminal instructions off someones blog printed at the library because phones weren't even moto razr and arch wiki didnt exist yet, then pray it worked and that there was enough time left in the day to do whatever stupid homework needed the computer.
I never liked the nvidia installer and it's control panel that seemingly needed root then somehow fucked up the monitor config while not even applying the driver config, but it was all I knew as I never had a radeon until after the amd acquisition of ati. I also have no idea if the driver was always in kernel or if that was more recent but being able to compile a kernel with some silly buzzword feature that probably only situationally added 2fps to maybe one or two games and not risk graphics related boot failure was a game changer to my broke ass in the early days of working.
Anyway that was peak ubuntu era as I remember it. I mainly used ubuntu with spots of opensuse and some others here and there until whenever the r9 280 came out and then primarily used arch until the the early immutable distros showed up. Now even my dad and grandparents are on bazzite and my mom on aurora and its literally the best thing ever because they actually don't fuck it up anymore and I don't spend every waking hour on call for tech support.
-
If you have to ask someone else whether you should switch then you should not switch.
I am asking if my hardware will enable me to have a good experience since I know nvidia has issues on linux.
-
Didn't try it but FYI maybe PhotoGIMP could make GIMP usable for you!
Peobably what I heard of before. Thanks for the link, will take a look.
-
I already installed fedora but games just don't get stable framerates. might have to do a clean install and try again.
I switched to CachyOS on a 5700X3D/3060 combo 6 months ago and have had zero issues gaming. CachyOS has a custom fork of proton and it has worked like a dream. Lutris and Steam have been rock solid after some mild setup and my framerate has been as good as/better than it ever was on Windows. I've run a couple VMs to test and also had no problems there. Definitely check ProtonDB for the minor tweaks necessary for some games to run but most have just worked out of the box once setting steam to use compatibilty.
-
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.
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.
-
If you have to ask someone else whether you should switch then you should not switch.
They're asking based on their specs whether Linux will run fine for them. Not whether they should switch based on usability. Having to ask if your specs can run Linux fine is not a reason not to switch.
-
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.
wrote last edited by [email protected]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.
-
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 just went straight with a bazzite install since fedora literally did not want to work on my pc
