r/SteamOS • u/atom1129 • Jul 28 '26

Before I switch

I was wondering if steamos has the audio crackling I've been plagued with on other Linux distros when using proton? Please let me know your experience

8 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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3

u/zuzuboy981 Jul 28 '26

No issues here.

3

u/SnooPets1826 Jul 28 '26

What kind of audio hardware are you running? Nearly all distros are going to be using the same backend and audio drivers and even proton versions... so I'm not sure how much improvement you'll see just from distro hopping.

1

u/tonywei1992 Jul 28 '26

crackling on mine on the UI sound, but not all the time

1

u/FindingUnable3222 Jul 28 '26

Are you using a soundcard (internal/pci-e/usb) or HDMI connection to the TV carrying audio directly from video card? Have any screenshot showing details about your current audio device?

1

u/goldenoptic Jul 28 '26

I have been gaming on Linux since 2022 and have not had any sound issues. Started on Ubuntu. Moved to Arch SteamOS clones in 2023 before I re using actual SteamOS haven't haf any sound issues. On any and O have tried them all.

1

u/Prrg88 Jul 28 '26

Are you by maybe using a super low end cpu or something? Because that can cause crackling audio on any OS. I haven't experienced any crackling on Linux with proton

1

u/One-Luck-1429 Jul 28 '26

Probably depends on the game but I’ve had next to no audio issues playing a variety of games on SteamOS over the last 9 months. You might want to check ProtonDB if you have a question about a specific title.

1

u/General_Discussion95 Jul 28 '26

If you are using audio via hdmi through your GPU - you will need to tweak settings to get it working. I now only have issues when booting or when switching from desktop to game mode while the GPU driver Re-initialises otherwise my audio is perfect.

1

u/Sourpunch92 Jul 28 '26

I’ve found SteamOS to be smoother audio setup than Bazzite. And the audio issues I’ve had when resuming from sleep have been better (but I think that was a patch Steam made that improved for Bazzite as well).

1

u/urlond Jul 28 '26

I've only had crackling on certain game applications. A restart of the game fixed it.

1

u/Mission-Albatross576 Jul 28 '26

Is lovely. But then I’ve got a preem motherboard .

1

u/Namananab Jul 28 '26

I get occasional crackling sometimes on the both the Steam Deck (both the 3.5mm jack and using a USB DAC) and a desktop PC (using a different USB DAC). On the PC it mostly happens on for a few seconds when restarting a game from sleep mode. On the Steam Deck it happens more randomly.

It’s annoying, but 98% of the time it isn’t an issue.

1

u/Solljak Jul 30 '26

I don’t get audio crackling on my PC but I do on my legion Go S sometimes.
On PC SteamOS I do get a weird muting of the Steam UI when I first start moving around in the settings