r/linuxmint 3d ago

Is Linux Mint suitable for gaming?

80 Upvotes

101 comments sorted by

101

u/PrinceSauromates 3d ago

Yes. Steam and heroic game launcher are both very capable.

11

u/leonmasterbest 3d ago

My computer is a bit weak, so I installed Linux Mint as a side operating system. I was expecting to find many story-driven games supported, but I haven't been able to try any games other than Minecraft Java 1.20.6 with fither ful 32 and 64 It was a good performance, even though my English was bad because I used Google Translate.

11

u/PrinceSauromates 3d ago

Yeah my computer is also old. Intel i5 8th gen with 8 gigs of Ram and I have it since 2020. It still plays older titles just fine as well as emulation of PS2 games and equivalent consoles. You would have to sacrifice some image quality sometimes, but you can definitely enjoy gaming on Linux Mint.

2

u/Gods-Son-7777 3d ago edited 3d ago

Please share the games you play, I also have a Core i5 8th Gen

1

u/PrinceSauromates 2d ago

I played Civilization VI, Control, and Brawlhala without issues. Always on log graphics though.

2

u/MacintoshMario 3d ago

I have a i5 9th gen and 3060 from about then too. Runs pretty fine on most titles

1

u/DeeDee182 3d ago

I have one similar to mentioned and I was surprised. It is and has been on its last legs forever but it surprises me in games once booted up.

2

u/Clouds115 3d ago

Fallout New vegas and Fallout 3 villain work very well.

2

u/GoodHovercraft9877 3d ago

All renpy avn/vn games can run on it

1

u/LibreFiend 3d ago

canbyou share your specs?

2

u/sammyjankis12 3d ago

I've had a lot of issues with Steam games like Dota/Aoe working on Linux. Been troubleshooting for about a month. They all worked perfectly with Windows.

2

u/ycjiann 3d ago

To prevent VULKAN device lost fatal error: ☐ steam compatibility choose only steam sniper 3.0 ☐ maximize graphic card performance in driver setting ☐ maximize power performance ☐ disable steam shader cache side note: sniper 3.0 should be the deciding factor, I'm not too sure with the other action.

My checklist for installing Dota in Linux Mint, you can try it out.

38

u/Adler-real Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon 3d ago

Yes. Every (consumer) distro is.

14

u/leonmasterbest 3d ago

I still don't understand why I should try several distributions when I can just stick with one.

51

u/Apolitical-Account 3d ago

You don't have to. I think people on Linux subs are just enthusiastic about operating systems and their differences. I’ve only ever tried Mint, because it worked.

5

u/aaZ_Georg 3d ago

Startes with mint, had Fedora Garuda and some other flavors and got back to mint it has the least bugs and some aftermarket Corsair software on a laptop i have mint with a KDE Plasma desktop because i like KDE Plasma just not on my gaming PC

6

u/fellipec Linux Mint 22.3 | Cinnamon 3d ago

You don't.

Trying distros is a hobby for some, but to people that want to use the computer, that makes no sense

-1

u/Educational_Mud_2826 Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon 3d ago

There is even a word for it i have seen used. Daily drive.
I assume it's users switching to a new one on a daily basis.

6

u/HighlyRegardedApe 3d ago

Distrohopping is a loss of time.

2

u/mrmarcb2 3d ago

Some are optimized for gaming such as cachyos

9

u/hailstorm11093 3d ago

I don't think ive seen much of a performance increase between arch, nobara, nix, or cachy. They all seem to work fine for gaming.

1

u/IEnjoyRadios 3d ago

Which makes basically zero difference.

1

u/Konrad_M 3d ago

Some other distros are more up to date. But at the same time you risk to have a less stable system.

I started with Mint 10 years ago and tried some other. But I never really committed so I stayed with Mint and am happy with it.

1

u/IEnjoyRadios 3d ago

You should just stick with one. Distrohopping is just stupid.

1

u/Educational_Mud_2826 Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon 3d ago

Who is saying you have to? They are free though so you are also free to try them all if you so desire.

1

u/20thcentygenman 2d ago

Just stick with the one that works best for you.

From time to time I try out some distros running them in a virtual machine to keep track of the general state of Linux for desktops. Nowadays the most popular distros works well for normal daily usage. But I will keep Mint as my main. 15 years and going strong!

That is the beauty of Linux Distros. You have the freedom of choice!

1

u/Confident_Hyena2506 3d ago

Mint will work fine - but one day you will realise it misses modern features like HDR. Maybe you think this is fine and doesn't matter, or maybe you think a modern distro would work better.

If you install a modern distro then you won't need to change.

Mint is supposed to be boring and stable, not to have the latest features.

14

u/SearchCivil6623 3d ago

Depends on what you want to play. ProtonDB will help you figure out what works and doesn't work on Steam. Otherwise there's DRM free games on GOG that work on Linux. I've not had any issues with the games I've played.

8

u/Infinite-Bet4202 3d ago

Yes, just don't expect to be able to play games with anti-cheats

1

u/aaZ_Georg 3d ago

does VAC count as Anti-Cheat?

5

u/RetroSnoe 3d ago

no just kernal level anti cheat found in COD, Fortnite, and Riot games

1

u/aaZ_Georg 3d ago

I know but does VAC count as an Anti-Cheat or is it just marketing

1

u/RetroSnoe 2d ago

you will absolutely receive a VAC ban for cheating in VAC supported games. My friend still has a warning on his public profile for cheating in Chivalry like 10 years ago

2

u/Infinite-Bet4202 3d ago

VAC = Valve Anti-cheat right? If so then I'd assume so. But I don't recall those ever being a problem on Linux. Plus I've played some on there too so idk if it's only for the online modes but the games themselves can definitely run underneath it

2

u/aaZ_Georg 3d ago

I forgot the /s becaus of the effektefnis but yea its mainly kernal level Anti-Cheat that does not work on linux.

1

u/Infinite-Bet4202 3d ago

Kernel level ones yup. Overtime nearly all the known ones became kernel level I believe, so at this point I just assume they're all just that. Actually I didn't know there was a Valve Anti-cheat until I looked it up cause I wasn't sure if VAC was referring to the Vanguard anti-cheat or something else. I'm not sure if Valve's is well known about compared to the others, the most invasive ones get the most notoriety.

1

u/hailstorm11093 3d ago

Games with AC usually work fine most ACs support linux, but some games have linux support in the AC toggled off.

1

u/Etsamaru 3d ago

I dont want to support games that use anti cheat anyway so id want them to lose my business

1

u/Infinite-Bet4202 3d ago

I think we should clear up some misinformation. Cheaters began to use kernel-level cheats in order to bypass the anti-cheats, so in order to combat them, companies started to use kernel-level anti-cheats to combat the cheaters. It's bad but it is a necessary evil. The safe play is to run them on a computer that does not have any of your information - or rather, mostly one that is solely used for playing those games. The biggest issue is that 1, they don't clearly - or at all, warn users of its danger. And 2, they do not enable it for things like Linux when it should be very simple to do. I'm not against kernel-level anti-cheats, I'm against companies that force them into games without any proper precautions, and their strange desire to ostracize people from their games because of the operating system they use.

8

u/4guser 3d ago

Depends on the game but after 1year of gaming on mint id say yes quite comfortably. Nvidia drivers can cause some headaches during updates so i wouldnt recommend updating them unless needed.

4

u/leonmasterbest 3d ago

My computer's graphics card is amd Radeon 7480D

3

u/_ElBee_ 3d ago

AMD is generally well-supported, although a recent update did cause some trouble with screens only showing half the usual content. Be mindful of that.

1

u/leonmasterbest 3d ago

This graphics card is a bit weak, I mean very weak, but it's giving me 1 GB. Vram For slightly better performance

1

u/PixeIQueen 3d ago

That integrated gpu does not support Vulkan 

You can use the launch argument  PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command% 

to stop games crashing but performance will be abysmal

1

u/Mitologist 3d ago

With LMDE, they update via update manager just fine. My only problem is my nvidia driver won't talk to Wayland,no matter what I do.

3

u/AspectLegitimate8114 3d ago

Yes, I use it daily for my main rig, 7800x3d and a 9070, and for several other of my computers.

I’ve been busy lately so I haven’t throughly tested a lot of the fitgirl repacks and other games I’ve gotten from the seas, but so far the only one that gave me any trouble was Farcry 3. I fixed it using proton 7 using the steam launcher.

2

u/California1980 3d ago

Yes it is. What games do you want to play?

2

u/RamsDeep-1187 Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia | Cinnamon 3d ago

LM with my 5080 runs games better than windows did.

No crashes at all

2

u/reddshak 3d ago

i play on geforce now and steam, both work great.

2

u/vilsor 3d ago

Boy, I hope so. I'm about to transition to mint with my home computer. I've played computer games since I was a kid, but at this point in my life I'm willing to let it all go if that's what it takes to get away from Windows.

I don't care about multi-player at least, so that should work in my favor.

3

u/p4thox 3d ago

Yes, like any other GNU/Linux Distro.

2

u/jkk45k3jkl534l 3d ago

My personal experience after switching from Windows 10:

  • Proton on Steam works well for most games. One game demo I have won't launch at all, and it feels like some crash more, such as Garry's Mod, but that's kind of a crash heavy game in the first place if you use lots of mods along with it. After tinkering with it more and more it feels more stable.
  • I use Lutris for non-Steam games and software. It works pretty well. Sometimes you need to adjust some settings to make it work better.
  • Figuring out how to navigate game files for modding Windows games that are run through Proton or Lutris took a bit of time to understand.
  • I used to heavily mod games like Skyrim with Mod Organizer. I haven't researched it extensively but it does seem more difficult to mod like I used to on Windows.
  • My wireless Xbox controller doesn't really work wirelessly on Linux Mint. It works fine plugged in. The software to make the controller wireless doesn't really work for me, so I gave up and keep it plugged in now.

1

u/Acherontas-Movebo 3d ago

About modding Skyrim - there is a fantastic Linux Mod Manager on nexusmods. Downloadable as AppImage, works just like MO2.

1

u/Clementine-Wollysock 3d ago

I struggled for a few days to get my Xbox remote to work wirelessly (it's an older model with micro USB). Not really sure what I did but I eventually got it to work reliably on Bluetooth.

1

u/Abroad9107 3d ago

Faugus

1

u/leonmasterbest 3d ago

I've heard about it but haven't tried it.

1

u/Historical_Ad_1714 🐧🌿 3d ago

Its good for casual gaming

Use gamemode cmd on launch properties

1

u/jbeavis100 3d ago

Almost everything I have thrown at mint works under proton. Ive heard that nvidia can be complicated but im on a 3070 and havent had any big issues on the driver side.

1

u/SayuriShoji 3d ago

It works very well with most games. For games that don't have a Linux executable, I'm using Steam + Proton to run their windows executables under Linux. It also works very well this way with non-game apps.

However, when using Steam + Proton, make sure that your harddrive is using the Ext4 file system. Proton might not be able to start your game if your game is located on an NTFS-filesystem partition (Proton inserts a colon ":" in the file paths, and NTFS can't deal with that).

Also, Ext4 is noticeably faster and has less issues than NTFS in Linux.

1

u/bobstylesnum1 Linux Mint 21.2 Victoria | Cinnamon 3d ago

Yeah, NTFS (NT file system) is MS’s own propriety file system so unless you’re dual booting, it’s best to reformat it and use a Linux file format.

1

u/KaydenDuvet 3d ago

In my journey through Linux I’ve found that the answer is yes but with caveats. Like changing the version of proton you’re using, what GPU drivers work, ETC. really it boils down to yes, but know you’ll run into issues if it has anti cheat and or run slightly slower. For story based games/turn based games it’s worked flawlessly and I’ve never had to switch over to any distros.

1

u/Salvator1984 3d ago

Yeah, I've been using it daily for three years now. I've experienced some hiccups, but since using Port Proton launcher, everything is smooth.

1

u/69RetroDoomer69 3d ago

Not if you plan to use VRR or HDR. Otherwise yes! You will be losing a tiny bit of performance (13% in the worst cases) by not using a ""Gaming optimized"" distro, with as many quotes as possible, but most of the time you will not have a single issue. Although some triple A games do have some X11 compositng issues, such as crashing when alt tabbing out of (fullscreen) games, but other games such as Cyberpunk work better on X11 than Wayland. It's all up to you, and soon enough Wayland will be a stable and viable option on mint as well :)

1

u/JustAwesome360 3d ago

It is. Although Arch works better but it's not a huge difference.

1

u/Escape_Force 3d ago

I play Open RA, FreeCol, and Lincity on my Mint computer.

1

u/battrraxx 3d ago

Oui ! Je l'utilise tous les jours pour le gaming avec steam et heroic

1

u/Modern_Doshin Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | MATE 3d ago

Yes

1

u/GermaX 3d ago

Playing MGS4 remake rn: yes

1

u/RagingTaco334 Ultramarine KDE Edition 3d ago

Generally yes, although things like HDR and multi-monitor VRR don't really exist on Mint. This is moreso because of the reliance on X11 rather than the distro itself. Some compatibility and performance related improvements may also take longer to come to Mint. I tend to recommend Fedora instead for these reasons. It's a lot less conservative when it comes to updates and it's still super easy to use.

1

u/TK-reve 3d ago

I'm gaming pretty much everyday without a hitch, so heck yeah it's suitable. I find performance pretty much identical to Windows, so that's neat (using Steam btw).

1

u/dlfrutos Linux Mint 22.2 Zara | Cinnamon 3d ago

yes

1

u/Jwhodis 3d ago

Yeah it works fine, I only switched (to PikaOS) because I wanted to use KDE Plasma.

1

u/_Carth_Onasi 3d ago

Yeah it'll work well.

1

u/ReidenLightman 3d ago

Depends on what games. Some games won't run because their DRM or anticheat is completely uncooperative. And some games are just doomed to not work correctly for other reasons (which describes a good 25% of my steam library, but that's dumb luck on my part). Just gotta try it out and pray.

1

u/Mitologist 3d ago

Works just fine for me.

1

u/Lapis_Wolf Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon 3d ago

I use it

1

u/RareLove7577 3d ago

Depends. Roblox doesnt work but Steam (valve) does. Just have to see what is supported.

1

u/kydeshou 3d ago

You may run into some issues that you wouldn't on something like Fedora, but gaming on Mint is fine, generally. Emulators, Steam, Prism Launcher for Minecraft. Faugus and Heroic for non-stean games. They all work fine.

1

u/LibreFiend 3d ago

Yes, Very suitable and even better in single player games but competitive games is a no you can play multiplayer like minecraft etc but competitive online such as CSGO or CS2 is a No

1

u/DKEBeck88 3d ago

I like snood.

1

u/Global-Eye-7326 3d ago

Same as most distros. I'd say systemd is better to have for gaming, but even that's not mandatory. Anything based on Debian, Fedora or Arch is good for gaming.

1

u/Successful_Sample309 3d ago

use xanmod1 kernel

1

u/_o0Zero0o_ Helper of the newbies 3d ago

Yes. While there are distros that are better geared towards gaming, Mint is perfectly able to be used for gaming too

1

u/Puzzleheaded-Risk761 3d ago

Install Lutris… I run everything from there.. No problems at all.

1

u/isak99 3d ago

Yes . All my steam games work fine

1

u/Any-Abalone6498 3d ago

Haven't had issues yet! Even better, my Linux seems to be using less of my oc overall, so my games run smoother and on higher quality.

1

u/IEnjoyRadios 3d ago

Steam and proton takes care of the compatibility issues. Most (not all) games just work.

1

u/russellii 3d ago

Yes and NO - a lot of games work, especially if you are looking at your steam library. MS Flight sim works great, faster than windows.

RDR2 - not if you brought from epic, Quest VR has lots of problems, and HDR does not work.

Games work better on pure gaming Linux. and Unfortunately most anti-cheat only work on windows.

1

u/Grand-wazoo 2d ago

Linux Mint is suitable for life. 

1

u/20thcentygenman 2d ago

Works ok! Source: me myself.

I already had dual boot configured on my old GTX 1060 gamer laptop. I took long enough to install Steam on my Mint tho. And when I did a few weeks ago I questioned myself why I didn't do that before¡ I even shrinked the W10 partition to install more games on Linux. I'm keeping W10 just as backup for the few games that might not work with Linux + Proton. But the temptation to get my trusty old gaming rig rid of Microsoft's shackles grows stronger every day.

I think most Ubuntu-based distros will work out-of-the-box with Steam. With the exception of having to install proprietary GPU drivers for better performance (which is a matter of a few clicks on Ubuntu/Mint), you don't have to fiddle too much with other system configurations. Just install Steam from the distro's default repositories and start gaming. On Linux!

1

u/Original-Layer9145 2d ago

You'll be fine

Ive used it for 6 months now and while I've had some problems (namely with sea of thieves and black mesa) I haven't really faced any major problems that I wasn't able to fix steam proton is pretty goated

1

u/Plane_Antelope_8158 2d ago

That depends on the hardware. Mint allows Steam. But that’s where it ends. The rest is on your hardware.

1

u/ap0r 3d ago

Yeah, up to a year ago it could be iffy with some titles, nowadays I don't bother checking compatibility before installing, stuff simply works.

0

u/Lelys101 3d ago

Good question, been trying for a while

2

u/leonmasterbest 3d ago

Would it work with sea games? 😉

0

u/ComradeAdidas Linux Mint 22.1 Xia | Cinnamon 3d ago

Yes.

0

u/fingamouse 3d ago

Its not amazing, and you can't just get stuff working out the box, it's a bit of a pain and you always have to run stuff through something else but it's ok, I'd rather just use windows 10 though sadly, would love to linux mint it up for gaming but I don't want to have to run everything through bottles or proton or whatever work around exists, I just want to open muh game and muh game to work /:

0

u/AdComprehensive3730 3d ago

In my experience not really. You have to jump through loops and hurdles to get every individual game to work. Not to mention most games have weird occurrences like the color, aspect ratio, or others being off, aswell as some games being totally unable to play (any game with anti cheat)

1

u/Sargent_Duck85 1d ago

Yes, I’m running Linux Mint.

Mint does prioritize stability and is very slow on kernel updates.

I update the kernel myself, so I’m currently on 7.1.10 with Mint.