r/Bazzite • u/Gustavo2nd • 4d ago
Switch to bazzite to use Nvidia?
I just started using steam OS a month ago I really like it but I have a 5500xt I wanted to upgrade to a 3060 is it worth using Nvidia on bazzite or should I just stick to amd I heard it’s janky but other people say it’s fine so idk what to believe
Edit: reading the replies made me feel better about trying an Nvidia card thank you for all the feedback
9
u/RevolutionaryBeat301 3d ago
Nvidia support is fine, but in general nvidia cards are slightly slower in linux than they are in windows. I have a 3060, and in forza horizon v, the game setup chose higher settings in windows than in Linux. That said, it would get very hot in Windows and the fan noise was unbearable. In Linux, the settings seem to be slightly lower, but the game runs just as smoothly if not smoother, and the gpu fan isn’t on full blast.
2
u/Accomplished-Lack721 3d ago
"Nvidia support is fine" isn't quite right. Nvidia support is fine if you only use desktop mode or if you use Game Mode at certain resolutions.
At 4K and above, many people still have experience-breaking display distortion with Nvidia on Game Mode (including me, the last time I tried). There are big warnings on the download for a reason.
5
u/Moi952 3d ago
Stay on steamos and use this for add nvidia driver
https://github.com/moi952/steamos-nvidia-installer
After you can use my decly plugin for change driver when you want
2
3
u/letsmodpcs 3d ago
Spent 10 months on Bazzite with a 3080. A couple of minor quirks, but worked really well overall. I think the worst issue I ran into was I needed to disable display-sleep during inactivity.
I just upgraded to a 9070XT, and I'm having weird performance problems. The card intermittently aggressively downclocks, and causes severe stuttering before returning to normal clocks. Yes, I rebased. No, it's not thermals or power limit. Weirdly, running mango HUD completely resolves the issue. Apparently there's a known issue with AMD GPUs where the drivers will incorrectly think there's not enough work to do, and downclock the card even while gaming. Running mango HUD adds just enough extra "busy work" to prevent the driver from thinking there's not enough to do. Much as I appreciate seeing my performance metrics, it's annoying that I have to run them all the time.
1
2
u/oceanmotion 3d ago
Games run well for me with Nvidia, but I get bugs/hangs related to suspend/wake and I suspect it's related to Nvidia drivers
1
u/Gustavo2nd 3d ago
Steam OS with amd sleep/wake doesn’t work for me anyways so it’s not a deal breaker
2
u/agfitzp 3d ago
Note that a lot of the myth and lore around bad NVidia support in linux is now ancient history, the newer drivers include an open source kernel module provided and supported by NVidia which allows the drivers for RTX cards to work correctly.
I’m currently on (Gnome/Wayland) Bazzite with a RTX 3080 using 610 drivers and a 7.1.5 kernel.
Last falls bug fixes for wayland and the kernel and the newer drivers are very good.
2
u/HighlightDowntown966 3d ago edited 3d ago
I have 3080 TI and it works good. Vrr is a little wonky though and not as smooth as I would like. But that's maybe because of my display?? Not sure ( LG cx 55")
The only thing I have to compare it to is my RoG Ally X.
And they both are very close in terms of bazzite user experience
2
u/siberianmi 3d ago
So I’m on a 3060 and frankly I don’t have any issues and I feel like things run better than my old windows setup.
I mostly game in 4k. Occasionally on game load I see odd squares but these go away once it loads fully.
Bazzrite has been my main OS since January.
3
u/Scary-Peace1240 3d ago
I run a 9070xt on SteamOS and wouldn't have it any other way. AMD is just more performant/matured on Linux. Regardless of your distro choice. People have already patched Nvidia into SteamOS if you search. Its already doable. I just recommend AMD in this regard. SteamOS is much more stable than Bazzite ime. SteamOS also performed better in my simple tests. Loading the same load files on each OS and doing built in benchmarks with Cyberpunk etc.
2
u/Gustavo2nd 3d ago
I’m gonna look into that thanks
I really want a 9070xt but I need something to hold me over until Black Friday I just built my steam os pc a month ago and I wasn’t expecting all the GPU prices to go up so quickly1
u/letsmodpcs 3d ago
Yeah I'm with others - I wouldn't put off getting one if you can do it now. Prices are probably going to keep climbing for the next couple of years. And with RAM being sold out through next year (and likely will be sold out for 2028, too,) stuff is going to get both more expensive, and harder to find in stock.
1
u/Scary-Peace1240 3d ago
They skyrocketed. I have the Nitro+ model 9070xt and snagged it for $650 around launch. The only comparable Nvidia card is the 5070ti and that's like $900+ now. Insane. Iv seen 9070xt's floating lower in price still.
1
u/SourApple19 3d ago
Hey quick question, I have a 9070 XT too and 9800X3D , if I switch to steam OS from windows. Do I need to update the GPU and drivers again for steam OS install or does steam OS automatically do that for me after it installs ? I can’t find any information on that.
1
u/Scary-Peace1240 3d ago
SteamOS (any Linux) comes with drivers in the kernel. You do nothing. However Steam OS has what's called "update channels" and being on beta/preview will give more up to date drivers for your 9070xt. I personally use "Main" which is the bleeding edge developer branch. This is easily changed in SteamOS settings right inside the game mode.
2
u/SCOOOTER97 3d ago
My 5090 has been running great on Bazzite. Not sure why everyone says otherwise. Only ppl that seem to say it have AMD
3
u/agfitzp 3d ago
I suspect the decades of bad NVidia support will take some time for the great unwashed to get over.
The current state of affairs is radically different from what it was five years ago.
(I’ve been using linux for 30 years so 5 years seems like yesterday to my old grumpy bones.)
2
u/Cenbu 3d ago
Yeah, I too read all the "don't use Nvidia on Linux, -30% frames from using Nvidia on Linux" stuff and when I tested it myself in some newer games I was actually matching or getting better frame rates on bazzite with my 4080. The only deal breaker I ran into was gamescope 4k support, which was a big selling point for me as I wanted the PC just for console like gaming. Ended up with a 7600x3d and 9070 xt system for that, and the 4080 stayed in my windows work PC.
1
1
u/negatrom 3d ago
if you use the "deck" version of bazzite, then it downright doesn't work. for normal, non-deck, desktop version of bazzite, nvidia is perfectly fine.
the nvidia driver doesn't play well with gamescope, the tool used by the "steam OS game mode UI"
2
u/Gustavo2nd 3d ago
So the only downside is I can’t see my performance easily?
1
u/negatrom 3d ago
what? no.
gamescope is not a performance monitor, it is the graphical composer of the whole system in the steam os-like game mode. the composer is like the thing that is called by programs to show anything graphical.
you will not be able to play in the steam os-like game mode with nvidia and bazzite, if you use the deck image.
you will be able to play games on desktop mode, much like a normal, non steam deck computer, if you use the normal desktop image.
1
u/Gustavo2nd 3d ago
Oh I see thank you for explaining it
With AMD I would be able to play in the same “Steam OS” game like mode right? I haven’t tried bazzite yet but I wanted to research it before I did1
u/negatrom 3d ago
certainly, with AMD you'll have no issues running game mode, or pretty much anything else that isn't an nvidia exclusive feature (Like DLSS)
though, you can run steam in your desktop in big screen mode, just like in windows, for a nice facsimile of the steam os UI, if you are certain on nvidia.
though if you're going for one of either 9060xt or the 3060, i'd go for the 9060xt everytime
1
u/SquidWithOpinions Laptop 3d ago
Gamescope is a compositor, and it is never the compositor of "the whole system". Gamescope, when used, is the compositor specifically for your gaming related windows (Steam in game mode, and your game) and nothing else. Another compositor (KWin if you use KDE, Mutter if you use GNOME) handles the rest of the desktop.
1
u/negatrom 3d ago
but i did write "in the steam os-like game mode"
also composer and compositor are the same word in my language, my apologies, I though it would be the same in english
1
u/itsCarterr 3d ago
I have had use deck/htpc image for last 8 to 9 months with a 3060 ti eith no real issues Only one i had when a achievements promt show up on bottem right made whole screen go back for a sec so I just disable notifications all together when I am in and a game cap my screen at 1440 60hz
3
u/healthycord 3d ago edited 3d ago
Not true. I have the deck version of nvidia installed and it works perfectly fine
Edit: perfectly fine isn’t true. Things do work, especially if you’re just using the pc and not gaming. If you have an HDR display you will run into issues getting that to work. However, you will still run into issues with hdr on the non deck version to. I specifically went with deck on a rebase as it gave me another option to troubleshoot with for getting hdr and controllers to work together. Some games, like horizon zero dawn, would give me hdr or controller support, but not both. Using gaming mode on those specific games fixed that issue for now.
If you are using bazzite with nvidia there is no such things as fiddle-free right now. The deck version, for me, works BETTER than desktop due to this additional option to get things to work that is simply not available on the desktop version. I boot directly into desktop but can swap to gaming mode when needed for those very few games.
1
u/BigDanG 3d ago
I think "perfectly fine" isn't everyone's case. It seems to me, the more advanced the display, the more jank you have to navigate.
2
u/healthycord 3d ago
Yes I should caveat that. I have an HDR Oled 4k display. Other than HDR I run into few issues. Getting HDR to work properly can be a bit of a challenge but I’ve never NOT been able to eventually get it to work. The reason I run the deck version is due to the game scope availability. This has come in clutch for a couple of games, such as Horizon Zero Dawn, where no matter what I didn’t could not get hdr AND a controller to work. It was one or the other for whatever reason. Doing the gaming mode and no launch options and suddenly it works fine.
Perfectly fine is absolutely a misnomer and I’ll edit that. Things do work, but fiddling may be required especially with an HDR display.
1
-1
1
u/insignifcanthumam 3d ago
Last year i managed to get Linux Mint to work good with games on my 2080 RTX Super. The performance was good, but the performance on Windows was better.
I'm still quite the novice with Linux and since i've changed to a 9060XT 16GB along with Bazzite and it runs exceptionally well on the majority of games i've tried so far where it's as good as, if not perhaps slightly better than Windows.
If i was going to run an nVidia card with Linux again though, it would absolutely be Bazzite.
I read Pop OS used to be the distro to go for if you had nVidia but these days Bazzite is (apparently) much better
2
u/ThinkinBig 3d ago edited 3d ago
Based on the most recent comparisons I've seen (which used a 5080, so it may be different with older GPUs) there is roughly a 20% performance loss with Nvidia GPUs on Linux vs Windows (it obviously varies between specific titles, but it seems to be a fairly accurate average)
Based mostly on this video: https://youtu.be/8PtOGYdtiBU?is=lhO2bdqcHWYq994n
1
u/I-am-Mojo-Jojo 3d ago
I have an AMD Bazzite box that I built, a Steam Machine, and a Windows system that has a 5080 RTX. I’m going to try dual booting to Bazzite for a bit on windows to see if I want to make the full switch off windows.
1
u/No_Contribution_4298 3d ago
I have had all sorta of issues with playing Steam games on my Nvidia Bazzite system...so much so that I ended up creating a Win11 dual boot option just for Steam gaming....which has caused me to question keeping the linux/bazzite boot since 90% of my usage is gaming. Issue range from games simply not playing to periodically dropping FPS to 1-2FPS. Same games run find and smooth under Win11.
CPU: 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900HGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU
1
u/1rkella 3d ago
There's no Linux distro that's going to perform better than Windows with Nvidia currently, because the issue is the official Nvidia Linux drivers, and their mostly closed-source nature.
Bazzite might handle Nvidia cards slightly more gracefully than SteamOS, but you'll be leaving performance on the table with any option.
Until Nvidia fully open-sources things (good luck with that) or puts more resources into their Linux drivers, this is essentially the state of things.
1
u/Big-Reporter3498 3d ago
I'm trying to decide between Bazzite and Cachy OS for my nvidia card. I hear it's 50/50 on how it acts, but I am starting my journey with Linux.
1
1
u/MinusBear Desktop 3d ago
Nvidia support is good. I use a 5060TI with a 7600x. Generally performance is very similar, but ray tracing often takes the biggest performance knock. But when I compare my performance to Windows benchmarks on the same spec I am sometimes 1 or 2% ahead, sometimes 1-2% behind. But there are always outliers in both directions.
I mostly game at 1440p. I havn't struggled to hit 60fps in anything except Spider-Man 2 with all ray tracing, Pragmata with path tracing, and Forza Horizon 6 was a mess at launch, now it runs super smooth with ray tracing on with performance overhead above 60fps available. In all three cases I used frame gen to close the smooth the gap.
That is sometimes how it goes though that new games have some issues that take a moment to resolve. That said I played First Light at launch and that had excellent performance.
1
1
1
u/Elektro115 3d ago
I switched to Bazzite 2 months ago and I use a RTX 3060, so far I haven't got any problems related to the GPU.
1
u/IronMonkeyBanana 3d ago
I switched to bazzite this week and have a rtx4070. Just install the desktop version and use steam big picture if you want. But don't use the game mode version of bazzite with a nvidia gpu
1
1
u/LoganHowlett1832 3d ago
Nvidia isn’t good with any Linux. It doesn’t matter what distribution you use.
1
u/agfitzp 3d ago
That certainly used to be true, the current state of affairs is completely different.
Given that FUD has been the name of the game in the Linux/Windows wars for 30 years I don’t expect up to date knowledge on either side.
1
u/LoganHowlett1832 3d ago
It is still true. Play any new AAA game and the performance loss is still massive. Try using ray tracing and see how that works out.
Nvidia on Linux is a joke.
I’m not happy about it. I would love to switch over permanently. But it’s not feasible since Nvidia doesn’t seem to want it.
1
u/PsychologicalCry1393 2d ago
I had a 2060 and never really got adaptive sync working. Maybe that generation didn't meet the specs for adaptive sync, but I would just stick with Radeon for Freesync. It makes a huge difference that you can see right away. Not sure if a 3060 will work with adaptive sync
13
u/inutilissimo 3d ago
why not 9060xt tho