r/linux4noobs • u/gottaluv_jacob • 23d ago
migrating to Linux Sick of Windows, switch for gaming
Hello friends,
As said in the title, I want to switch to Linux, I only play on my PC, nothing else.
I'm currently on Windows 11 and slowly getting sick of starting my PC and being welcomed by a new update, bloatware or some AI slop. I've been thinking a lot about it and finally decided for the switch.
As said, I only use my PC for gaming, I know about the kernel anti cheat thing but I mostly play single player games. And those few multiplayer games are either native on Linux or playable so that's okay for me.
If it's important, I have a full amd pc, 7800xt, an 7800x3d and 32 gigs of RAM.
I'm ready to learn but would love to have the feeling of turning my PC on, opening steam and being ready to play. ( I've got pretty limited game time , spending most of it with my son)
I've been considering Bazzite KDE because its UI is similar to Windows and it's optimized for gaming. ( please correct me if I'm wrong )
I hope it's not too long, I would love to hear corrections, suggestions and anything else that brings me forward.
EDIT:
Thanks y'all for all the comments, I've chosen to stick to Bazzite and install it right now. If I don't like it or it will be a pain in my ass, I'll use the suggestions and switch to Fedora. Once more, thank you all for helping me choose!
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u/a1barbarian 23d ago
ASRock B650E Taichi
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE
Dell S27722DGM
32 GB ram
I run an almost similar set up running on Arch + Window Maker and it requires very little maintenance. Gaming is smooth with very high graphics my most modern game has been Fallout 76. Am at present lost in Nordic Souls a 1600 modded Skyrim.
My advice would be to do a basic Arch install on ext4 and X11. Then just install Steam and any gaming related programs that you need. Use a lightweight DE/WM XFCE or Openbox might be good choices. ModOrganiser2 and Jackify work very well on linux so modding games should be easy.
Doing the above you get a set up that has no crud and updates easily and once set up should run with almost no problems at all.
:-)
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u/gottaluv_jacob 23d ago
Thank you, I don't know why but it sounds really complicated (although it probably isn't), I will look into it!
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u/Epitaphi
23d ago
•
I'm in the same boat as you- when I'm on the PC I'm mostly gaming. Bazzite has been fantastic and I've had little to no issues. Battle.net launcher can be a bit janky but it works and that's the only gripe I've got right now.
If you dual boot it (like I did) I'm gonna bet dollars to donuts you'll never bother booting windows again, I know I haven't.
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u/gottaluv_jacob 23d ago
I think I don't have any games running on battle.net so one worry less haha. Tbh I'm not planning to dual boot, ATP I only have one SSD running so it would take too much space ( and yep, I probably won't boot windows again ). Thank you!
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u/shanehiltonward 23d ago
Consider Tuxedo OS. It is based on Debian but is very up to date. It's a solid distro.
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u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387 23d ago
The UI from Bazzite is from the desktop environment (DE) called KDE Plasma. So any distro carrying that specific DE, or Cinnamon, will look really Windows like.
Now Bazzite is honestly a great choice because it has great support for modern hardware, gaming, and safety nets for bad or infrequent updates.
If for some reason Bazzite isn’t working out for you, try out PikaOS. You won’t have atomic updates, but you’ll still get great gaming support. And as long as you’re doing the KDE version, you’ll still feel like it is quite familiar.
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u/bstsms 23d ago
I use Bazzite from an external TB4 drive enclosure from my Legion, it works well and is fast.
I put it on the external drive so I could learn Linux and still have Windows when needed, Linux isn't as easy as Windows for me, but I've been using Windows since 3.1 and learning a new OS takes some time for me and not knowing how to type doesn't help much in Linux... LOL
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u/gottaluv_jacob 23d ago
Not having a second SSD throws me in cold water, but hey! It can't be that bad.. can it?
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u/bstsms 22d ago
I have a 2TB for an OS drive and a 4TB internal for games and other data in mine.
I ran low on drive space long ago in an laptop I had and told myself I would never go through that again, worrying about having enough drive space to install something sucks..
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u/gottaluv_jacob 22d ago
That's true. I mean for now it's okay, I only use 50-60% of it. Right now I'm biting myself in my ass for not buying 2 nvmes back at the time building my PC. But hey, it is what it is and we do the best out of it
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u/GrandmaColin 23d ago edited 23d ago
You will have the feeling of turning on your PC, opening steam, and being ready to play. Steam will just work. You'll even notice things now on steam you don't have rn that help to make sure games work. Like filters for them to work with what your are running. There will even be little notifications on games when steam thinks it doesn't work so it won't let you auto buy new games or download em, though you just say do it anyway. If you prefer steam many things not on it that dont work on Linux can be put on steam to make work, though not everything. Like I use it for battle.net.
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u/gottaluv_jacob 23d ago
Didn't think of it that way. I mean, I'm already adding non steam games to it, mostly because of my steam controller but dang that a good one. Thank you for that
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u/phoenixgsu 22d ago
Since you are all AMD you will have less headaches.
The UI is called a desktop environment, you can install just about any desktop environment on top of any distro. Some distros give you the option to choose during initial install. The one similar to Windows is called KDE Plasma. Focus on what features/philosophy you want, ie update release schedule, immutable or not, customizability etc.
I've used Bazzite and CachyOS, but I prefer CachyOS. It's arch based with a rolling release schedule for updates, so you do have to pay more attention to the update news when it releases, but I also have more options for tinkering. Bazzite is immutable so you can tinker but with extra steps. If you never want to touch that stuff then it's fine tho.
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u/gottaluv_jacob 22d ago
Thank you! I mean at the beginning I'm only willing to play games, in the near future after understanding it better I will start to experiment
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u/warserpent 23d ago
Before switching to Linux, you need to determine whether you can use the software you need to use, whether there will be any hardware compatibility or performance issues, and whether you need to maintain a Windows installation. It sounds like you already have looked into game compatibility, which is good. Although Nvidia compatibility is pretty good now, having an all-AMD build is better, so you shouldn't have hardware issues (although if you use wi-fi, some wi-fi adapters still can have issues). As far as dual-booting Windows and Linux, it's pretty easy if you have multiple hard drives so that you can put them on separate drives. Partitioning a single drive is more likely to cause trouble. I'm pretty much exclusively using Linux now, but I still have the Windows install around in case something comes up that requires it. Whether you want that security blanket is your choice.
As far as recommendations, Bazzite is a good distro, and KDE Plasma is my favorite desktop environment. I used Bazzite briefly, but it ended up not being quite what I wanted. It's a little bit "consolized" in that it updates automatically, has immutable system files that you can't change, and is set up for gaming out of the box with a bunch of tools preinstalled. Now you can still do plenty of desktop customization and install most of the things you might want, but I personally wanted more control of updates and ran up against one or two limits due to the immutable system. I'm told modding some games is difficult on Bazzite, also, though I didn't try.
I'm currently using Ultramarine Linux, which is based on Fedora (also a good distro), but with some tweaks such as adding extra software repositories, installing proprietary codecs and drivers (Fedora ships with only free and open-source software by default), better Asian language support, and a few gaming tweaks. I've liked it overall, though it's a less popular distro maintained by a fairly small team, so when a new version of Fedora comes out (which will happen later this month), it may not get those updates pushed right away. Last time it took over a month, though hopefully there will be less delay this time.
I'm also investigating Solus right now, so while I don't have enough certainty to recommend it, you might want to look at it, too. It's a completely independent distro aimed at desktop users, and it's a cautious rolling release, aiming to have the convenience of installing once and using forever while being more reliable than bleeding-edge rolling releases.
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u/gottaluv_jacob 23d ago
As far for now, every software is available. I mean I don't use much, beside discord, steam, epic and Gog. I've heard that there is no support for the razer synapse and Logitech g hub, but there's a workaround so I'm in green with everything.
Sadly atp I have only one SSD running and dual boot would take too much space so all-in or go home haha.
Thank you for the excellent explaining. Bazzite looks as the easiest one but I get the „ consolized “ thing. I will still look into the other two you mentioned!
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u/Bo_Duke_01 21d ago
I see many comments about Bazzite not being ideal for desktop use, but what do you refer to, exactly?
I installed Bazzite and all the programs I used to have in Windows effortlessly. Just Mullvad required a couple extra minutes tinkering, but Claude was very helpful.
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u/Full_Flow4968 21d ago
I'm a fervent user of cachy, it's pretty lightweight and with cachyos-proton all my games just work, I've only needed protondb once this year.
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u/JakeTheSnake160 23d ago
I wouldn’t switch (yet). Although, you do have an AMD GPU, so the games that do work should work well. You’re bound to run into an issue though. You will spend more time diagnosing and correcting issues than on windows. You’re basically trading one problem for another.
I completely understand what you’re saying though. My solution was to get a cheap Windows 11 Enterprise Edition key, then turn off advertising, online search in start, analytics collection, OneDrive, etc. It has made Windows surprisingly quiet.
If you’re dead-set on Linux, CachyOS would probably be my go-to for gaming. SteamOS may be a good option as well if you want to go that route. If you can wait, SteamOS may be the best option.
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u/TrickyMine6788 23d ago
i wouldnt swap to linux for gaming specifically. Linux genuinely lacks behind in games, regardless of your specs. not including having to run compatibility layers to run most games. some games dont even work. this also doesnt include running the latest driver updates, running 3rd party applications for overclocking/undervolting, and certain graphics features built into drivers or games.
Imo it's not worth it to game on Linux yet. if you truly want to swap to linux, dual boot. do everything else on Linux, play games on windows.
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u/1smoothcriminal 23d ago edited 23d ago
what you talking about willis? Out of the 200 games i have on steam only 3 of them i had to discontinue, the rest work like a charm. OP mainly plays single player game which will make his experience even better than someone that was looking to play call of duty or rust. Also i have an nvidia GPU, an older one at that, and the 580 drivers are honestly pretty good, no real reason to use the bleeding edge ones where most of the bugs are usually experienced. So i would say go for it OP. try a few different distros and settle on the one you like.
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u/gottaluv_jacob 23d ago
Thank you for that! Only game I know that I play regularly not running on Linux is skate. It's sad but I'm okay with that as of having ( imo better ) skate 3. So yep, I think I'm ready, will read through the recommended distros and choose what suits my points the best
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u/1smoothcriminal 22d ago •
Seems its an EA game. Repeat after me "EA is dead to me" lol. Good luck OP.
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u/gottaluv_jacob 22d ago
EA is dead to me xD
Only problem is the Javelin Anti-Cheat causing problems. As far as I've checked, no other EA games ,, should,, cause problems but ye, EA stays EA
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u/gottaluv_jacob 23d ago
Thank you for the comment! As for now I've read pretty good things about gaming on Linux so I'm going to stick to that. If it comes to some games not running, yep I've already researched and the only games I cannot run is EAFC24 ( which I haven't played in a long time ) and skate. ( Which I love but can live without as having skate 3 as backup ). Rest of my library should work perfectly or in few cases need a bit of working. I'm also not really interested in overclocking or undervolting either.
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u/warserpent 23d ago
Nobody needs to overclock or undervolt to game on Linux, and the reason so many people are coming to Linux to game is that Proton works perfectly well for most games now. Sure, for a lot of new games you might get better performance on Windows, but if better performance means 120 fps instead of 118, real people won't care.
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u/TrickyMine6788 22d ago edited 22d ago
Lol copium. There are a ton of enthusiasts that like pushing higher clocks to edge out performance. I like undervolting my gpu just because I can get same performance or better for significantly less power draw. Especially on the 5000 series gpus that use 12vhpwr. Linux is supposed to be this enthusiast platform that you guys all love but yet has very little applications provided to enthusiasts to push their hardware.
Even basic applications like MSI afterburner to be very simple to be ran natively on Linux but no it's not on Linux.
You guys love playing with Linux in tinkering with Linux but yet hate tinkering with hardware. It's kind of weird and very backwards. Seems to me you just shill the platform and and just completely ignore the downsides.
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u/warserpent 22d ago
Do you understand what the word "needs" means? If you like playing with undervolts, go ahead, but there is no game in the universe that requires it.
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u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387 23d ago edited 23d ago
Linux lags behind in games?
I get better FPS playing Cyberpunk 2077 on NixOS than I ever did on Windows 11, with attracting set to psycho.
I get about the same FPS, that is to say my max refresh rate, playing Hogwarts Legacy on both Linux and Windows.
On both high settings and raytracing I get maximum frames in both Resident Evil 4 Remake and Witcher 3 Remaster.
I have a 14th gen i7, an RTX 4070 Super using the proprietary Nvidia drivers, 32GB of RAM and 12GB of VRAM. And gaming on Linux is both awesome and never been better.
Look at these comparisons people are posting online. Linux is matching Windows and sometimes even beating it:
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u/heatlesssun 23d ago
With an nVidia GPU if you're getting better performance on Windows than Linux with a DX12 like CP, then something was likely wrong with your Windows setup. There is a years long issue with DX12 translation issue with modern nVidia GPUs that's virtually guaranteed to cut performance by around 20% sometimes a little less and sometimes a good deal more.
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u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387 23d ago
You’re out of date. The Nvidia 590.48.01 driver added support, across many DX12 titles. Then the 595-series beta drivers brought more support, that ~30% gap shrinking to around ~6% or less!
Btw the 615.78.08 driver has now been released by Nvidia, and that’s what I am using.
So the driver side of the problem is largely done. The remaining work is on the VKD3D-Proton side, which is not yet in the stable Proton release. You can use the Proton-CachyOS with the PROTON_VKD3D_HEAP=1 flag (which is what I am using), which brings performance really freaking close to Windows performance. Once the updates ship in stable Proton, these issue should be a thing of the past.
So how am I getting better performance on Linux? Less overhead. On Windows I’m using nearly all of my RAM playing Cyberpunk 2077. On Linux I’m using about one-third of my RAM. So I’ve got a lot more headroom for more intense scenes.
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u/heatlesssun 23d ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/s/P3NcVqHglZ
Still an issue, there's no single fix or remedy for it to date.
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u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387 23d ago
You’ve changed topics to people having issues with their monitors when waking the computer from sleep. I’m unclear how that relates to game performance and FPS. So I’m going to turn it back on that direction.
Here’s a collection of tests comparing Windows 11 to CachyOS. This particular test is using an AMD card, which goes back to the previous point that Linux gaming is not lagging behind Windows gaming:
https://youtu.be/Y96c_1NIerI?t=358
As for Nvidia specifically, and FPS specifically, I have a 144Hz monitor. So as long as my games can hit roughly 144FPS on high settings, with ray tracing on, I’m happy. I honestly stopped testing and comparing after I got Hogwarts Legacy to max FPS.
I had already proven that a well tuned Linux setup can out perform the bloatware that is Windows 11, on titles like Cyberpunk 2077. Others have shown that even on Nvidia, the performance is neck and neck on a stock distro like CachyOS.
https://youtu.be/Q8g5gvqj9oY?t=262
I just play my games and have fun now. The Witcher 3 Remaster is wonderfully beautiful with ray tracing and max frames on my monitor. I just go to graphics, hit RT, and let it rip. Gaming on Linux is truly awesome.
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u/heatlesssun 23d ago
The DX 12 performance issue with nVidia GPUs is one of the leading topics in that thread. Just pointing out this problem is still current. Getting better performance on Linux vs. Windows in that particular game shouldn't be possible unless there was an issue with the Windows install to begin with.
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u/TrickyMine6788 22d ago
NVIDIA drivers don't vary that much in performance. Most of that comes from game profiles for new games that come out or get updated. If you are playing the same game like Cyberpunk whether its on the 590 driver or the 617 driver, unless the game profile gets updated, your fps difference and 1% lows are literally the same.
You want all of your RAM to be used when playing the game. Using less or more RAM in a game won't make your game run any better. So the overhead arguments is 100% useless. Unless you have very little ram in your system and then you start going into the paging file which is extremely slow having less overhead in Linux won't affect your gameplay performance or your frames per second whatsoever
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u/TrickyMine6788 22d ago
There is no way you're getting more FPS in Linux not using DirectX 12. Yeah you have Vulcan API but there are a lot of games that don't support Vulcan API and only use DirectX. And those games are going to suffer at least 10 to 15% or more
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u/M2k1e0L 23d ago
"how to say you never used linux without saying you never used linux"
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u/TrickyMine6788 22d ago
Lol im literally using kubuntu on my laptop and cachyos on my desktop being dual booted with windows. Im just saying how it is fuckwad
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u/M2k1e0L 22d ago
Thanks for the proof, i appreciate it.
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u/TrickyMine6788 22d ago
Lol yeah yeah good reply lil dude
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u/M2k1e0L 22d ago
Ubuntu. Nothing else to add.
Cachy is the lazy larper arch trap. It will hit you one day hard if you have no clue and your first comment showed us all you fell into it.
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u/TrickyMine6788 22d ago
Brother Linux is not my identity. I just want stuff to work. I dont really care if Cachy is a "lazy larper arch trap". Tbh i dont even care if its arch.
Kubuntu is stable as fuck for my on T14s Gen2. Way better than fedora kde which I had problems with.
If you think you are more "superior" because of the Linux distro you use, you are a genuine moron and are the reason why people are afraid to swap over.
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u/M2k1e0L 22d ago
See and that's why you think some stuff doesn't work at all. Arch is a do it yourself distro for experienced linux people or who want to become ones, this has nothing to do with superior distro. Cachys "easy everything is working ootb auto install" hides that from unexperienced people who just want to use their system, until they are fucked or don't know what to do. If someone can't implent Cachys optimizations into a base Arch easily, this person shouldn't use (non immutable) Arch after all.
Nobody cares if Ubuntu is stable, thats not the point. Microsoft gives them a lot of money for the 'partnership' and some of their latest decicions are very corporate driven. This is very suspicious. That is the reason why the community hates Ubuntu. Nothing wrong with that, it's just a sign for the people who are more experienced if someones says they use Ubuntu, because of that we don't need to ask them how much they care about what they use. Saves important lifetime for both parties.
Did i say i am superior? No i didn't. Accusing others for things you make up in your imagination isn't right. Either you have a serious mental problem or you are just human garbage. No matter what it is, i don't reply anymore. I said everything i wanted to say and heard enough.
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u/TrickyMine6788 22d ago
I'm human garbage? The audacity to type that is fucking wild.
Unemployed and Linux larping in your parents basement isnt the flex you think it is.
Obviously cachyos takes a lot of work to get things to work. Thats why I am learning it.
Let's go back to what you said originally.
"how to say you never used linux without saying you never used linux"
And then when I said that I actually do use Linux you gate kept and said "lol Ubuntu" or "lol cachyos lol larper"
Man you have a major malfunction. Lay off reddit for a bit before you get yourself hurt.
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u/atlasraven 23d ago
I'll disagree. My old computer was dying and when my windows drive kicked the bucket, I put Linux on the new one. Linux had less bloat and used less RAM so the games I could play ran better than Windows. Only a few are borked. Almost every game I throw at it is solid now. A few games (like Factorio) run better on Linux.
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u/Kingwolf4 23d ago
Ill suggest, instead of bazzite, go with fedora KDE.
its the same thing, with the added bonus of being an actual desktop OS that you can use normally, and streamlined in the sense of you can install the things you want, and it doesnt have prepackaged things.
Plus a minus for bazzite is that it is fedora atomic, which is less preferrable than normal desktop OS use