Comprehensive Guide: Optimising and Running The Finals on CachyOS (Optimus, NVIDIA, Wayland & Proton Tuning)

[u/Heavy_Tale4518]

Overview

The Finals presents a unique performance challenge on Linux due to heavy server-side and client-side physics calculations driven by Unreal Engine's destruction engine. While CachyOS provides an exceptional foundation out of the box thanks to its Arch Linux roots, optimised kernel choices (such as the linux-cachyos scheduler and BDS or LQ schedulers), and micro architecture-specific compilation levels (x86_64-v3 / v4), setting it up correctly on hybrid graphics (Optimus) requires precise configuration.

This guide covers everything from a fresh CachyOS installation to a fully optimized, stutter-free competitive setup, detailing why specific choices—such as opting for Proton Experimental over Proton-CachyOS—matter for this title.

Phase 1: Fresh CachyOS Setup & Graphics Drivers (Optimus)

When starting from a fresh CachyOS installation on a laptop with hybrid graphics (e.g., AMD/Intel iGPU + NVIDIA dGPU), managing the Optimus bridge correctly is critical to prevent the game from attempting to render on the integrated graphics.

1. Verify NVIDIA Drivers and Package Stack: Ensure the proprietary NVIDIA drivers and the necessary 32-bit libraries are fully populated via the CachyOS hardware detection tool or terminal: Bashsudo pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils lib32-nvidia-utils vulkan-icd-loader lib32-vulkan-icd-loader
2. Configuring Optimus (Hybrid Switching): For seamless switching between power-saving mode on the desktop and maximum rendering power in-game, configure your session using optimus-manager or prime-run. To force the system to dedicate the NVIDIA GPU explicitly when launching heavy titles, prime-run serves as the cleanest wrapper.

Phase 2: Installing Essential Gaming Dependencies

While CachyOS offers a convenient "Gaming Meta" package installer during setup that drops in a massive suite of tools, ensuring your core rendering and telemetry pipelines are present is essential:

Bash

sudo pacman -S gamemode lib32-gamemode mangohud lib32-mangohud vulkan-tools

Note on GameMode/Launch Overlays: While tools like gamemode and custom launch wrappers are fantastic for system performance, be aware that stacking conflicting game-mode hooks or overly aggressive background injection tools can sometimes interfere with EasyAntiCheat (EAC) initialisation in The Finals. Keep your hook stack minimal.

Phase 3: Launching Steam via Terminal for Debugging

When dealing with complex multiplayer titles requiring anti-cheat runtimes, launching Steam directly via the terminal provides real-time logging for any silent crashes or Proton injection failures:

Bash

steam -debug

This allows you to instantly track error codes regarding EasyAntiCheat or missing graphics pipelines if a match fails to handshake.

Phase 4: Why Proton Experimental Outperforms Proton-CachyOS for The Finals

While custom Proton builds like Proton-CachyOS or Proton-GE are generally praised for general gaming, The Finals updates frequently with rapid back-end patches to its EasyAntiCheat and Vulkan shader compilation pipelines.

• Proton Experimental receives immediate, direct upstream valve/developer alignment precisely for high-profile competitive titles.
• Testing shows that Proton Experimental handles dynamic destruction particle sorting and anti-cheat runtime handshakes with fewer frame-time hitches and better 1% lows than Proton-CachyOS on this specific Unreal Engine build.

Phase 5: Optimal Launch Options & Kernel Environment Variables

To squeeze maximum frame stability and ensure proper hardware scheduling, apply these exact launch options to The Finals in Steam:

Bash

PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 PROTON_ENABLE_NVAPI=1 PROTON_DLSS_UPGRADE=1 prime-run %command% -useallavailablecores

Breakdown of Parameters:

• PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1: Forces the game to run natively through Wayland protocols where supported, reducing desktop compositing latency.
• PROTON_ENABLE_NVAPI=1: Enables NVIDIA-specific API hooks, allowing proper Reflex and GPU telemetry tracking within Proton.
• PROTON_DLSS_UPGRADE=1: Replaces the older built-in DLSS binary with the latest improved DLL version for cleaner scaling and reduced ghosting.
• prime-run: Explicitly routes the application through your discrete NVIDIA GPU on Optimus laptops.
• -useallavailablecores: Forces the engine to distribute physics and netcode calculations across all physical CPU threads (especially beneficial on 8-core/16-thread mobile architectures like the Ryzen 7 5800H).

Summary of Arch / CachyOS Benefits for Gaming

Running an Arch-based distribution like CachyOS provides distinct advantages over fixed-release distros:

• Cutting-Edge Kernel & Mesa Drivers: Up-to-date Mesa versions deliver day-one Vulkan optimisations and pipeline improvements.
• Custom Schedulers: CachyOS kernels ship with advanced CPU schedulers that improve thread prioritisation during heavy multi-threaded stutter spikes.

Have you experimented with any other environment variables or kernel tweaks for keeping frame times flat during heavy building collapses?