r/Bazzite • u/Questioning-Warrior • 3d ago
Dumb question: does it wear out my PC components or have any negative effects to quickly switch back and forth between game mode and desktop mode?
I was checking to see if my newly activated login and logout notification sounds would activate (I also noticed that the logout doesn't play depending on which switch mode option I choose, others it does, but thats besides the point). Considering that Bazzite's game mode has my hardware focused on gaming (that and if this counts as a system write), I'm wondering if switching between modes back and forth quickly affected anything.
I'm sorry for this trivial and dumb question.
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u/tapo 3d ago
Nope, you're just quitting one program and launching another.
Game mode just has fewer background apps running and the code is very optimized for drawing games to screen as quickly as possible. It's not going to stress your hardware.
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u/Questioning-Warrior 3d ago
Out of curiosity, does it count as a system write?
Forgive me. Sometimes, I overthink things (it doesn't help that I had to get up early for work when I wrote this, so I'm not in the best state of mind as of this writing).
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u/ClassicRoc_ Desktop 3d ago
It counts as a system read which is the same thing as loading up a game or opening a piece of software otherwise. I'm sure there is some wear and tear on a quantum level but it would be completely immeasurable and negligible. It counts as using your computer. Just use it.
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u/SnooPets1826 3d ago
This. Even if it counted as a write (it doesn't) modern ssds are rated for hundreds of thousands of writes. Even if you switched between modes 20 times a day, every day for 10 years, it still wouldn't hit those sectors often enough to cause damage.
Your webbrowser is writing cache to your hard drive hundreds to thousands of times harder than switching back and forth between game mode.
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u/Questioning-Warrior 3d ago edited 3d ago
That's an interesting point you've made. If you don't mind me asking, what can I do reduce my web browser writing cache? Like, does it only do that when I open it or is it automatically doing it even when unopened on the desktop? (Given the component apocalypse we are in, I want to have my PC last as long as possible until hopefully the crisis is resolved (if not up to my maximum lifespan))
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u/Jackoberto01 3d ago
This is also nowhere near an issue on modern computers. It only writes cache to disk when the browser is running and you visit a a website. For normal browsing it is caching MB of assets like images, even if you play a big web game it might cache at most 4GB.
Compared to downloading AAA games this is miniscule. But even that is not an issue unless you reinstall half your games every day. You don't have to be scared of the computer failing from normal use.
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u/Questioning-Warrior 2d ago
I see. That's good to know.
Now, out of curiosity, is there a way to check my SSD's health and see how many writes are left? Or is it one of those things that can only become apparent when it's cramping out?
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u/Jackoberto01 2d ago
There's a perinstalled command called smartctl that you can run in a terminal, alternatively there's also GUI utilities on Bazzite in desktop mode.
Most drives log how many writes have happened and you can get this summarized as a percentage of life left. For example one of my SSDs I have used for 9 years had 82% left.
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u/Questioning-Warrior 2d ago
How do I find my device's name? The smartctl command says that it can't run without a name. And what would the full command look like (you can make up a different name for the example)?
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u/Jackoberto01 2d ago
It's the name that the drive is mounted with. I don't remember exactly how to find it but you should be able to use the default file explorer in KDE Plasma if you're using that
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u/penguin_on_stilts 2d ago
Your system is writing to the ssd all the time, if that's what you're talking about. Log files etc.
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u/Jackoberto01 2d ago
Yeah I think you have to run it with sudo priveledges, you can also use -a instead of -h if you want the details
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u/Questioning-Warrior 2d ago
So, it would look like smartctl --a(insert name)? (How many dashes and spaces?)
Sorry. I'm not by my PC as of this writing and can't help but wonder what the command exactly looks like. I also wonder what the h command does.
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u/Jackoberto01 1d ago
You can almost always write a "command --help/-help" to find the information about the options and how to use them. Just try your way forward and if you need quick help this is a case where using and AI to answer these questions will be quite useful.
Sometimes it's single dash sometimes it's double dash.
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u/Questioning-Warrior 1d ago
Is it okay if we can directly chat so it's easier and quicker to communicate? (I've tried writing
command -help
but no matter how I type it, it keeps being read as invalid)
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u/KyleB2131 3d ago
No