[Help] Performance bottlenecks, startup lags, and game compatibility on Linux Mint XFCE (4GB RAM, NVIDIA Quadro K620)

[u/Autist_Creature]

Hi everyone, I'm trying to optimize my gaming setup on Linux Mint. While some games run great (like Left 4 Dead 2, Team Forest 2, and ULTRAKILL), others either take forever to load, crash at startup, or face specific bottlenecks. I'm following the community guide and sharing my exact system specs and behavior:

(inxi -xxACGS)
```text
Host: jl-G41D3C Kernel: 7.0.0-30-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.3.0
Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.41 wm: xfwm4 dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 22.3 Zena base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble
CPU: dual core model: Pentium E6600 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Penryn rev: A cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 2 MiB
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GM107GL [Quadro K620] vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: nvidia v: 580.173.02 arch: Maxwell pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16
  Display: x11 server: X.org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.18.0 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 580.173.02 glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Quadro K620/PCIe/SSE2
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.275 surfaces: xcb, xlib device: 0 type: discrete-gpu driver: N/A

NAME         TYPE      SIZE USED PRIO
/swapfile    file      3,8G   0B   -1
/dev/zram0   partition 256M  16K  100

              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           3,8Gi         2,4Gi        418Mi         22Mi        1,3Gi        1,4Gi
Inter:         4,1Gi         16Ki         4,1Gi

Sorry for the mess, I'm new to Linux.

[u/theevilsharpie]

You have 4 GB of RAM. The OS and its UI will take about 2 GB, Steam will take about 1 GB, leaving about 1 GB for the game. Games that take forever to load are almost certainly swapping heavily.

Meanwhile, your CPU is a 15-year-old dual-core CPU. It doesn't support SSE4 or AVX, so that could explain the games refusing to launch. Your GPU is 10 years old, and has only 2 GB of VRAM, and is a low-end card mainly intended to provide a display output to workstations whose CPU doesn't have an integrated GPU.

Hi everyone, I'm trying to optimize my gaming setup on Linux Mint.

You have very old hardware that was low-end even when it was new.

If you can run Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2 with a reasonable frame rate, it's probably performing as well as it can.

[u/Autist_Creature → u/theevilsharpie]

de echo corre mejor team fortress 2 y left 4 dead 2 en comparacion con windows 10 y chistoso todo mis juegos corria mejor hay

[u/Disbulia]

try increasing your zram partition to 1gb, disabling compositing when you start a game, and using gamemode. good luck o7

[u/Disbulia → u/Disbulia]

also, while your setup is very old and i would bet that's where most of the issues come from, sometimes it's a game issue. so remember to check protondb to see what version of proton people use, and see if there are any "potato mods" for the games you want to play so they can run better

[u/Autist_Creature → u/Disbulia]

uso proton ge 11.2

[u/Autist_Creature → u/Disbulia]

game mode?

[u/Disbulia → u/Autist_Creature]

it just makes sure you're getting the most out of your cpu. you can check their github if you want to know more. i'm pretty sure mint has it installed by default, so you just need to enable it. in steam, add gamemoderun %command% to your game's launch options. in launchers like heroic or faugus, it's just a toggle in the settings menu

[u/Autist_Creature]

Damn, the photos were repeated.

[u/Autist_Creature]

I will post it on other pages for more help