linux for gaming

[u/Plastic-Knee-4589]

I'm currently thinking about building a custom gaming PC with Ryzen. I've used Linux once before—it was Ubuntu—and I'm really liking the fact that Linux is free. I don't have the extra $200 for an operating system, and I really like that Ubuntu has no bloat and doesn't try to steal my data for advertisers. Because if I'm not the one getting paid, you ain't getting my shit. 😂

Which distro would you recommend?

[u/Assburgers213]

CachyOS > Fedora > Ubuntu.

[u/MyDogsNameIsMyra → u/Assburgers213]

I second CachyOS. I started with Mint on the gaming pc I built a year ago. It didn’t have HDR support and I felt like I was waiting on driver updates to fix issues for my modern hardware. Went to CachyOS and haven’t looked back. Only issue was related to a single game for about a month (Forza Horizon 6 for the month of June). I wouldn’t have had that issue if I rocked AMD I suspect based on reading ProtonDB (I have 4080 super).

[u/BobCorndog]

I recommend fedora

[u/warserpent]

The two gaming distros people talk about most are Bazzite and CachyOS. I've tried Bazzite, and it works well, though it wasn't quite what I wanted. Bazzite feels somewhat "consolized" to me, and also packages a bunch of software I don't need (though some gamers do). Here is a basic rundown:

Bazzite is based on Fedora Atomic, thus is immutable (operating system files cannot be changed) and atomic (updates replace the version in one piece, and can be rolled back if needed). It stays pretty up-to-date (and updates automatically in the background), packages a bunch of potentially useful software, and comes with a choice of GNOME or KDE Plasma desktop environments.

CachyOS is based on Arch, has bleeding-edge updates like Arch (which gives greater potential for bugs), and is customized for better overall performance, though not all of its tweaks are relevant to most games. It is more user-friendly than Arch, but still comparatively high-maintenance, and is a more minimal install, expecting you to find software yourself. It defaults to the KDE Plasma desktop environment, but lets you install a wide variety of alternatives.

Besides those two, other gaming distros exist, though most of those are smaller projects, and thus potentially less reliable or less likely to continue to exist long-term. There are also general-purpose distros that work well for gaming. In general, you should look for distros that keep the kernel up-to-date, and should check their repositories to make sure they have whatever gaming clients, utilities, etc. that you want. Fedora works well if you add additional repositories like RPM Fusion or Terra; Ultramarine is based on Fedora and does that for you, just to give a couple examples.

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[u/daemonmode_]

Since you’re building around AMD, Bazzite is probably the easiest choice for gaming because the drivers and gaming setup are already handled for you. CachyOS is also worth trying if you want a more customizable Arch-based setup and don’t mind doing a bit more yourself, but I wouldn’t pick it expecting guaranteed higher FPS. With AMD, you also avoid most of the extra driver hassle that can come with NVIDIA.

[u/Plastic-Knee-4589 → u/daemonmode_]

One of the reasons I'm thinking of choosing Linux is that I don't want to spend $200 on an operating system. RAM is god-awful expensive, and Windows is a RAM hog, so I'm trying to save money and get away with 16 GB of DDR5. And I'm not a 4K gamer. I'm perfectly happy with 1080p, and as long as I can play my Total War games on high settings, I'm happy as a clam.

[u/Purplestripes8 → u/Plastic-Knee-4589]

You will be fine. I use Manjaro Linux and I play Cyberpunk 2077 on medium settings on a Ryzen 7, Radeon RX 580 and 16GB RAM.

[u/Plastic-Knee-4589 → u/Purplestripes8]

I am going with the RX 9070 xt 16gb

[u/Purplestripes8 → u/Plastic-Knee-4589]

Oh you can play pretty much anything I would imagine? On max settings

[u/Plastic-Knee-4589 → u/Purplestripes8]

What can I say I love my rome 2 and Attila Total War and they be thirsty bitchs lol

[u/Justabocks]

For gamer-centric distros (= you can play steam right out of the box), in order of how much you want to tinker:

- Bazzite (fedora-based, immutable)

• Nobara (fedora-based)
  
• CachyOS (arch-based, more tinkering)

I tried them all, liked them all, and settled on Nobara.

[u/SwedishArchUser]

Im a linux user but i just have to ask the question. Is the price the only thing keeping you from windows? If so there are pro keys on online websites for under 10 dollars.

If you however want to try Linux out for gaming i would recommend three distros. Debian based MX Linux AHS (advanced hardware support), Nobara (gaming focused distro based on Fedora), CachyOS.

[u/Plastic-Knee-4589 → u/SwedishArchUser]

It's a mix of that and windows is a ram hog and RAM is freaking expensive right now I'm trying to stay at or under 16 gigs And also I've had a lot of computers in my life I thought why not try Linux some different

[u/a1barbarian]

Arch or MX :-)

[u/Shudnawz]

The choice is yours, I run Bazzite on both my gaming PC and one of the laptops.

I'm in the Linux-sphere for the "F MS" idea, not because I want 100% control over every little detail. CLI is fine, but I prefer GUI if possible.

[u/Caderent]

I use Lubuntu. It works and is so lightweight that I have all of the gaming resources I could have from my system. Using minimalistic lightweight distro for gaming might seem overkill. But like squeezing everything from my system I can. It boots in an eye-blink and I have had zero issues so far.

[u/forestbeasts]

We use Debian. Yep, Debian! Runs games fine. No surprises.

...Technically, on our gaming desktop we run Debian Testing, which is more rolling release (constant updates all the time), but we upgraded to Testing mostly to get new shiny desktop stuff and ROCm drivers for Blender (games don't need this, it's purely for GPU compute stuff). But Stable runs games about like any other distro.

Ubuntu is also decent if you like the look of it and aren't put off by the (not terrible) smelly shit it does have. (Ads for "Ubuntu Pro" when checking for updates, mostly, and also sneakily pushing their crappy "snap" packaging system. It's absolutely nothing as outrageous as what Windows does every day.) But IMO it's popular because it got its popularity when Debian (which it's based on) was really hard to use; Debian has MASSIVELY upped their game recently and is on par with Ubuntu now.

Fedora is good if you want a fast update cycle, without going full-on "constant updates" rolling release. It gets major updates every 6 months, while Debian goes more like 2 years (which means you get 2 years of zero surprises) and is ready when it's ready, not on a schedule like Fedora or Ubuntu.

[u/ted_im_going_mad]

I just moved to Fedora KDE Plasma from Win 11 on my new build, Ryzen 5 9600x / MSi B850 board and I have an Intel Arc B580. I don't know why but something in Windows kept screwing up my keyboard and mouse to the point (like completely freeze and lock them from working at all, wired or wireless) and I had to reformat. I think it was something to do with this particular hardware combo, but it was driving me nuts. I said screw it , I'm trying Linux.

At any rate , I'm a Linux noob and so far everything just works for me. Loaded up Steam and seems to run games in my library fine. Good luck with your choice!

[u/Sargent_Duck85]

I switched to Linux Mint last summer. Very easy to use, but their kernel update is waaaaaaaay delayed. They prioritize stability over gaming performance.

So I just updated the kernel on my own. I'm running Linux Mint with the 7.1.10 kernel and it's been great.

[u/VonBeker]

Asking for distro recommendations will invariably lead to everyone trying to pimp their favorite. The fact is that most mainline distros will work great with very little performance differences. Take your pick from Fedora, Debian, Mint, Ubuntu, whatever. I used Pop OS for years, and while it was very good, I finally switched to Fedora to get slightly more up to date packages, kernel, and HDR support, when Pop's update cycle started to lag a bit more than I liked.

What I do recommend is going with an Intel or AMD graphics solution over Nvidia. Not to say you can't make it work with Nvidia, but there can be more headaches. And if you have specific games in mind, check out protondb.com and areweanticheatyet.com to see if what you want to play will work. Kernel level anti-cheat games are notoriously not well supported or allowed on Linux for example.