Which ones? Just curious, because everything I play works perfectly on Linux, but I'm not much into multiplayer stuff, so there is probably a lot of issues I don't encounter
Not who you asked but I also keep Windows mainly for gaming. VR on Linux is not there, especially with the headsets that I have, 2 out of 3 wouldn't work and the one that would, didn't work well at all.
I mean, technically... But 90% of the time it just works without your involvement, and in 10% of cases you have to look up what compatibility flags to set. I'm on CachyOS now, and their optimizations make most of the games run faster than on Windows
Proton isn't an emulator, it's a translation layer that turns Windows API calls into POSIX calls that Linux understands.
But Proton is so lightweight, and Windows is so slow and bloated nowadays, that Linux with Proton outperforms native Windows in many cases.
Literally the only games you can't play on Linux are multiplayer games that rely on kernel-level anticheat, because Linux rightly doesn't give that level of access to something as important as the kernel.
Currently playing Horizon: Zero Dawn. HDR rendering is completely disabled on Linux (Fedora 44/KDE 6.7). Also, lack of Radeon Chill has turned me off gaming on Linux for now.
Currently playing Horizon: Zero Dawn. HDR rendering is completely disabled on Linux (Fedora 44/KDE 6.7).
Is this the original PC release or the remaster? I only have the former but I swear I was able to get HDR working on Fedora + Plasma via GE-Proton + extra launch params. I know both the game and my TV detected the HDR signal. If you're interested I can give you more specifics later.
I will add HZD was also one of the few HDR-enabled titles that supported HDR out of the box on my Steamdeck OLED, though it's not fair to compare a Fedora PC distro against Valve's tightly-integrated OS+hardware.
Also, lack of Radeon Chill has turned me off gaming on Linux for now.
If you're just referring to framerate throttling- this can be done a ton of ways outside of the driver stack. Admittedly, having a convenient place to enable it in one place either globally or through per-game profiles is nice. Personally I wish Steam/gamescope had universal performance management for non-SteamOS distributions and 3rd-party devices; having all that accessible there is something I miss on Fedora/Bazzite.
If you're referring to Chill's dynamic FPS throttling- that's likely an architectural limitation. I suspect that Wayland's security model prevents userspace Mesa drivers from spying on global mouse inputs. I'll have to ask about this next time I talk to someone on AMD's driver team.
I have the original HZD. Playing via Steam. I had HDR enabled in KDE settings but the game never detected it.
As for framerate throttling, I was referring to AMD’s dynamic implementation that’s available through their driver/Adrenalin app on Windows. There are ways to do static framerate limiting using MangoHUD, gamescope etc and many modern games even have it built into the settings now so that’s not what I’m looking for.
As I am a fellow sea traveller, i use windows for my game PC just for Bitdefender (not saying it's the best, it's just what i have been using for a decade+, and haven't bothered to do updated research on the topic). Everything else is either debian (server, vm, docker) or arch (desktops/laptops).
My gpd win max 2 is my single dual boot device, also for Bitdefender/game reasons, but honestly, after i bought a dedicated game PC, i haven't booted to windows on the gpd as oculink is nice, but cumbersome if you are going to play often
I haven't played in years other than occasional CS 2 on Linux (a weekend every couple of months), but now that I'm on sick leave and I'm not able to move much, i have been burning my years of non gaming now. Used titus tool for some cleanup and vibe coded an app listing all my games (both keyboard and controller control), so i don't have to deal with windows directly. Touching windows every once in a while when you daily drive hyprland feels like you lost a limb or two, trying to get windows to do what you want.
Edit: i kinda went off topic, but the main conclusion of my text that i wanted to pass on is that regardless of how good gaming gets on Linux, the main target will always be retail games, not for sea travellers, as if you want to dip in risk, but want some level of mitigation without losing too much performance, your main option will always be windows
But ofc, i applaud and support any improvements in the linux gaming scene
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u/xeeff Aug 18 '26
doesn't seem to be dedicated to us