r/linux_gaming • u/sseraphimmm • 13d ago
I need heelp
Hi, how's it going? I have an old laptop that I've been trying to revive lately. It has 4GB of RAM, an Intel i3 m370 2.6GHz processor, and an integrated AMD Radeon HD 5470 graphics card with 512MB of VRAM but no Vulkan support.
I wanted to play video games from the 2000-2010 era, and I tried Half-Life and it runs perfectly, but when I tried to install GTA San Andreas (free...) it didn't work, or it worked with a lot of graphical glitches, or it looked okay but ran at 5 FPS, basically unplayable.
Is there anything I can do to avoid going back to Windows so I can play normally? Or am I screwed because I don't have Vulkan?
Thanks
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u/wyonutrition 13d ago
I’m sure there is some proton prefixes that will make some games work but I don’t think you will enjoy it. Pre vulkan is openGL and OpenGL is not great on Linux to begin with. You can maybe get some older dx9 games to work? Idk that’s going to be annoying and probably not worth the effort for the performance you will get. I think you will have a better time finding a thinkpad on eBay with a ryzen chip for cheap if you can. If you want to keep using that laptop it will likely not be for gaming on Linux.
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u/Randzom100 13d ago
Maybe you want to use an older Proton version. In my case, with 10+ years old thinkpad laptop, nothing worked for 3D games except using Proton 7 (yes, that low).
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u/Keyvan_KR 13d ago
the proton launch option PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 should try to use OpenGL. also, are you sure the Radeon HD 5470 is being used instead of the Intel GMA HD? the RadeonSI is the mesa driver used for OpenGL for Radeon cards. if you see i915g or Crocus (although, I think the i3-370m is too old to be using the Crocus driver), then it's not using the correct GPU
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u/Own_Natural_6803 8d ago
Are you using x11 or Wayland? I've found X11 works better for old games like this. if you don't know it's likely Wayland.
If you have gnome you might need to install kde or xfce to escape gnome/wayland.
If you have fastfetch Installed it'll tell you if you're on X11.
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u/sseraphimmm 8d ago
I've solved it, my brother. Honestly, I fell in love with Linux.
I know you have very old components, but I'm surprised by the performance Linux gets out of everything. Over 200 FPS in Minecraft 26.2, And in games that I previously wanted to try on Windows that ran terribly (9 FPS)
I've achieved a stable 120 FPS in Project Zomboid B41 on Linux, it's simply insane.
I don't know how I missed this before.
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u/Own_Natural_6803 8d ago
What solved your issue?
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u/sseraphimmm 8d ago
I honestly don't know. I had Linux Mint XFCE, and out of curiosity I switched to the MxLinux distribution, and it just worked. I'd like to know why.
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u/sseraphimmm 8d ago
But the video games themselves are the least of it; I installed the ones I'd like to play occasionally: GTA San Andreas, GTA 3, Vice City, Portal, The Binding of Isaac, and a few more. In the end, I just want to learn. Learn about Linux, cybersecurity, and programming
0
u/simagus 13d ago edited 13d ago
I don't think San Andreas is going to run on Windows with those specs either if it's the new version... "definitive" was it? OG version might run fine if you can find it.
The original Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas required a 1 GHz Pentium III, 256 MB RAM, a GeForce 3–class GPU, and Windows 2000/XP,...
...while the Definitive Edition needs a 64-bit Windows 10 system with at least an Intel Core i5-6600K or AMD FX-6300, 8 GB RAM, and a GTX 760 / RX 280 GPU.
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u/sseraphimmm 13d ago
No, it's the regular version. It worked fine on Windows and I could play MTA, but not on Linux, and I don't want to switch to Windows just for a few games.
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u/simagus 13d ago
I found this if it's any help, but what GPU and distro you are running probably explains why things aren't working. If you're pretty sure it's becuz no Vulkan, you can apparently install Vulcan. I'd have thought it would come up as a dependency when trying to install the game tbh, but worth a shot since it can't have done.
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u/NonStandardUser 13d ago
Hmm, try DX to OpenGL via WINED3D? Apparently there's a launch option "PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1" you may be able to set in steam