I switched from windows to Garuda about a month ago and as others are saying it’s very usable out of the box, even stuff like steam and proton come pre installed.
That said, if you’re using multiple monitors you’re probably going to want to right click on the desktop of all non-main monitors and add (iirc) the default panel. Out of the box only the main monitor has the bar at the top of the screen that allows you to enlarge/close/move windows that are at full screen. I get the aesthetic choice there, but it was bad for my usability.
Other than that, if you’ve got an Nvidia graphics card make sure you’re using the right drivers for it otherwise sometimes it might go wonky (though I’m hoping my recent update fixed that).
Also, learn how to use AUR and terminal at your own pace, but don’t neglect it. As a new linux user there’s a lot more in terminal than I expected but the more I use it the less scary it is. Similarly there’s a lot that’s only available for Debian/Ubuntu or fedora based distros, but AUR often has an arch hack to it
Hiya, tbh I don’t think there’s much to do besides installing specific software that your require out of the box, I think garuda is basically plug and play so not much fiddling to do, which version of garuda you got ? I think even the ones like the qtile versions come with mostly everything ready to go but I’m not sure. Myself I’m used the sway flavor but removed almost everything sway related and replaced it with hyprland and there was not much to do, also remember that if you are really newbie you can use the garuda assistant to install software from a gui
I agree with top comment. The point of Garudo is to be usable out of the box. Only thing left to do is install software, games and optionally tools to manage Proton/Wine versions. To summarize: Steam + ProtonUp-Qt (to download protonGE for Steam), Heroic Launcher for Epic+GOG games and/or Lutris/Bottles for everything else.
Performance was 10% worse, and frametimings were less even, but it was certainly playable. This was just how Unity 3D works in Vulkan on Linux, so there was no way to solve it.
Certain parts of this game have geometry that is close together, and on Linux these would flicker. This is because Unity 3D does not support a reversed z-buffer on OpenGL or Vulkan (or DirectX9). This problem is not present in DirectX11+, or Metal. And it’s not present when Proton or WINE convert DX11 commands to Vulkan.
Other than that, everything was the same on Linux as it is on Windows or OSX. We’ve had a native Linux build of this game for its entire life up until recently, just as all of Arcen’s titles have had a native Linux build for the last decade.
So this all feels very strange. But Unity 3D’s support for Linux, and in particular their implementation of Vulkan, is notably inferior to what is going on with their support for DirectX11 and Proton/WINE’s ability to bridge across.
To me, that’s a testament to the work that the Wine, DXVK, VK3D, and Valve (I feel like I’m missing someone else that should be credited) have put in to make gaming on Linux possible.
Emersion put a lot of work into Gamescope for Sourcehut, too. It doesn’t have anything to do with this scenario, but I use Gamescope regularly enough to be grateful for it.
Unless you are getting a good deal on a used model (which technically would not come with a license anyway), I strongly suggest avoiding windows at all at this price range. That is going to be a significant chunk of your 250 USD budget, even at OEM rates.
I would also be rather shocked if you could find anything with even “last gen” gaming performance at the 250 USD range without getting a really good deal on a used office computer. Which isn’t bad (if you shop local, you can get decent specs for closer to 100 USD), but will still need a GPU. Because yes, you can “game” on integrated graphics. But even for older games, I strongly discourage it. it is a MASSIVE drop in performance (AMD’s APUs are only a large drop in performance) and, especially for older games, you may run into quirks of the drivers/OS that having a bit more power would have gotten past.
So unless you really know what you are doing (and, no offense, your post doesn’t make it sound like that. And there is nothing wrong with that), I would really suggest saving up for another month or two and going more for the 400 USD range. Then just get a Steam Deck (optimally a refurb if any are in stock). Won’t have Windows without some (honestly not that bad) shenanigans and the upgrade potential is weak. But it can more than play “previous gen” games and most of the remasters are going to either be explicitly or implicitly targeting it. And if Windows is the priority, you might be able to get a GDP or Aya or ASUS equivalent on sale/used.
The minisforum 773. About 400 dollariedoos and has decent gpu performance and very good cpu performance. Full speed pcsx2. Gas igpu The lenovo 715 gen2 has a ryzen cpu with okay integrated graphics and it’s 140 usd
Mini all-in-one PC are expensive, just buy a used/refurbished regular PC. If you want, you can get them in SFF (Small Form Factor), which are still upgradable and a better option than AIOs. Here are some results on eBay for reference.
I’d recommend getting AMD because of their excellent Linux support and overall better gaming performance. Also, you don’t need a dedicated GPU for playing old games, even more so since AMD’s integrated GPU is a lot better than Intel’s, and works better on Linux too.
But it you want to play current games, you’ll need a dedicated GPU, and that $250 budget isn’t going to cut it unfortunately. However, you always have the option of buying a cheap used GPU later on, when you’ve got some cash to spare. But for now, if you focus on older games then the integrated GPU on an AMD will do fine.
Thanks for the thorough explanation! This was very helpful. I was about to ask about why AMD over intel, and this gives me confidence that I won’t run into issues with setting up linux. I don’t really have any interest right now with current games except for the remastered versions of the aforementioned classic games, and if thos will work with dedicated GPUs, I should be good.
In that price range the best you can get is probably something with a Ryzen 5500U. If you were to go up to ~350 then you could get a significantly faster 5800H
It’s not a console, exactly, and it isn’t a PC, either. It’s a hybrid you can connect to a TV or monitor and it will work with your old PC games. I’d see if anyone I knew had one to have a look. But, then again, nothing beats a hunk of junk that still works at a yard sale. I love finding stuff like that.
As great as AMD is with open source (comparatively), RADV has been a singular source of headaches on distro that install it by default. Many vulkan games wouldn’t launch and I hear performance is worse than the community Vulkan driver.
RADV is the default community Mesa driver, made by Valve engineers.
AMD's own Vulkan implementation is called AMDVLK, which is just a port of their Windows Vulkan libraries repackaged for Linux. AMDVLK usually moves faster than RADV and got raytracing much earlier. And even though RADV added raytracing as well, RADVs raytracing is much slower than AMDVLK. Maybe this changes will finally close the gap?
RADVs raytracing is much slower than AMDVLK. Maybe this changes will finally close the gap?
One of the commenters claims this:
the perf uplift from this PR is huge in a few games, out of the ones I own lego builders journey gets a 2x improvement in performance. Control gets an additional ~5 fps at 1080p, Minecraft RTX (education edition) gets ~10 fps more. When paired with the monolithic pipeline MR it completely blows amdvlk out of water.
Tested on my rx6800.
So hopefully that is the case. I’ll add that AMDVLK vs RADV has been pretty mixed over the years, and there have been times where RADV has been ahead (particularly with vkd3d-proton support) and usually catches up to and exceeds AMDVLK performance, with the exception of RT.
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