So I was thinking of switching my desktop to linux. I have been running fedora on my laptop for 3 years and I really like it. My main question now is just what distro works best for gaming (considering my specs) and can I use VMs in any of the gaming oriented ones (mostly because I don’t wanna keep dual booting).
I can’t believe that no one has asked you this question yet (fucking fanboys…):
Do you mind losing access to most features on your GPU, including (but not limited to): RTX HDR, Shadowplay, the Nvidia App, the Nvidia Control Panel and everything it offers, including the 3D Settings page?
If any of this matters to you, you may want to consider switching to an AMD GPU first before you consider Linux. Nvidia does not support it nearly as well as they support Windows. You get a driver that lets you run games, and that’s about it.
Yeah I only kinda really use shadowplay anyway. I don’t have a hdr monitor at all. Firstly I just want to see if my games run well enough. If not I will wait a couple years and then upgrade to an AMD card and then switch for good.
Linux Mint Cinnamon was is my first Linux distro coming away from Win10, and I have no issues with it. Mint uses Ubuntu as its codebase, so it’s essentially Ubuntu with a different desktop presentation/look/feel.
Oh you have Nvidia ? Try out PopOS, they have a special ISO file with Nvidia drivers
DO IT.
JUST DO IT.
Of course you should - Do a dual boot as a test on whatever rig you’re currently using. Easy to undo and it costs you exactly zero.
Garuda dragonized gaming will get you everything out of the box and you can change the theme after. It will walk you through a lot with assistants, which is nice to learn things on an arch based distro. Its an easy switch from windows, plus, now I can use fish konsole htop and paru alright.
Second time tonight I have heard of this distro - I may have to check it out.
My husband built me a gaming computer and wanted to install the OS. Told him he probably wouldn’t be able to as I had picked out an arch based distro. I’d never installed arch myself. He’d never installed any linux. He had no problem putting dragonized garuda on there. It’s been nearly 3 years now and I still haven’t changed the theme tho.
Edited to add: I ain’t got any nvidia anything in that PC, so can’t speak to that.
Ah I have two nvidia GPU laptops running it right now and its great!! A 2070S and one even older tho. Nothing considered modern by todays standard.
since you already have experience with fedora, you might wanna look at nobara, which has an nvidia-specific installer available. i’m running it a bit longer than 7 months now, and don’t have any issues with it, and i have a pretty similar hardware config to you (a ryzen 5 instead of a 7, and a 3070 Ti instead of the normal one)
I also run a windows 10 VM, mainly for stubborn installers from cracked games that won’t run correctly under wine and for my mouse/keyboard software (they have onboard profiles, so i pass them through to the vm to configure)
Currently installing bazzite. If that turns out bad I will try nobara.
CachyOS since you’re using fedora for 3 years
You should go with Fedora.
Believe me I tried. It just will not let me finish the setup process
Surprised I haven’t seen Bazzite or Nobara recommended here, those are full desktop experiences with built in features for gaming. I use nobara because it has a version with pre-packaged Nvidia drivers.
What about Bazzite? It’s fedora based and made for gaming. I’ve only tried it on handheld like steamdeck and rog ally but it’s awesome, even better than steamdeck os.
I’ve used it on an old HP all in one and it made it useful again. The daughter tossed it because it lagged hella bad and her Roblox and Minecraft etc sucked, Runs Baldurs gate 1 and 2 just fine and all my older game emulators so I love to bust it out for Wii gaming night etc. The machine is pure crap with integrated graphics and a whooping 8gb ram. Thats gotta burn seeing all the stuff I’ve got going and knowing you threw it out. Then again I dont know if it’s noticed over TIk Tok
You don’t need a gaming specific distro. Those just mean some apps are pre-intalled, like Steam and Heroic (for GOG, Epic, Amazon games). If you like Fedora, keep using Fedora, it games just as well as any other distro.
Yes, if you want. If you don’t, no.
It actually doesn’t really matter.
The distro doesn’t. Getting off windows is a great idea.
It’s more personal preference and use case than anything.
Gaming dedicated versions are nice if you really only plan to game. Bazzite, ChimeraOS, Garuda, along others are available. ChimeraOS is what I installed on my stepson’s pc and outside of a network issue it has worked pretty well. He is happy and since he mainly uses his android tablet for web browsing and whatnot, it’s perfect for me to not need to do a bunch of troubleshooting issues. I’ve tinkered with Garuda but I’m not convinced it’s for me and I dislike anything with a Mac feel.
I use an Ubuntu based system (Ubuntu Cinnamon 24.04LTS) with a 5800X and GTX1080TI because I want stability and the ability to edit video, game, manage websites, manage our home services, along other things.
Instead of asking which one you should use go out and try some demos and look at your intended use case.
