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Best Desktop Distro for Gaming?

I currently run windows 10 on my main desktop PC, and also have a steam deck that I sometimes use in desktop mode instead of my desktop. With the way Windows is going, and the way Linux Gaming is dramatically improving, I might consider ditching Windows, at least for the most part, on my next PC build. What would be the best distro to use for gaming, with casual use as well? Any suggestions?

kariboka ,

Garuda ftw

Presi300 ,
@Presi300@lemmy.world avatar

I’d go with nobara, it’s stable, yet not too old and has a lot of gaming oriented optimizations and should work well with Nvidia graphics cards.

Polyester6435 ,

I’ve used a couple different distros in my time on Linux (Debian, fedora, arch, artix, gentoo) and I could never tell the difference between the performance.

vernaso ,
@vernaso@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Little something from me: I’m using Arch Linux (linux-zen) with KDE and AMD GPU and for now it’s the best experience i had with linux distributions. Everything works so good, with obviously some configurations and etc. Already played Minecraft or Red Dead Redemption 2 with no problems and also i felt in love with pacman.

I was using Manjaro, Ubuntu, Mint but finally ended up on Arch. Maybe i will give a shot to Fedora or openSUSE in a future :D

Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever ,

If you have an AMD GPU: Pretty much any distro that would come up in any “best linux distro of 2023” video.

If you have an nVidia GPU: Ubuntu or Linux Mint (or probably any debian based distro?). You are going to want to make sure you use the proprietary drivers from nVidia, not the nouveau drivers. I suggest Ubuntu and Mint because they have a nice GUI to handle this and you don’t have to run any extra steps. If you don’t mind a bit more work, Fedora and its derivatives is really seamless and, honestly, seems less likely to break whenever you do update those drivers.

If you have an Intel GPU: I am so sorry.

In all cases? You are probably playing most of your games through Steam and Proton. So Steam itself handles almost all issues outside of drivers. There are ideological (and, to a limited degree, technical) reasons to prefer one distro over another. But Steam/Proton really makes most of that irrelevant for gaming use. If you have other uses (beyond browsing the internet and whatever) then you may need to do more research. But, for gaming, your big issue is the proprietary drivers (if you need them).

uis ,
@uis@lemmy.world avatar

If you have an Intel GPU: I am so sorry.

What do you mean? They have good support on every distro.

zyberteq ,

Pop OS has specific Nvidia settings as well. Works pretty good on my work laptop, though I don’t have gaming experience with that combination.

My own pc is and only and runs pretty good with Pop OS, in some cases better than Windows.

tmjaea ,

I’m using pop os Linux for some years now and like it a lot.

ShaunaTheDead ,
@ShaunaTheDead@kbin.social avatar

I think if you're coming from Windows, the closest thing to a Windows experience imo is Ubuntu. You can opt in to pre-release updates which is good for gaming as others have said. Also, basically everything can be done via GUI in Ubuntu while you learn to get comfortable with the terminal.

Arthur_Leywin ,

Nobara OS or Linux Mint if you’re converting from Windows. Flip a coin to pick one.

This_Guy_Fawkes ,

As a new Linux user coming from Windows I’d recommend Mint. If you have very new hardware and want better support go for something like Endeavor, openSUSE tumbleweed, or Nobara/Fedora KDE. Almost any distro with exceptions like Alpine and Qubes will probably be more or less OK.

visnudeva ,
@visnudeva@lemmy.ml avatar

I love to use cachyos for gaming because it is based on arch linux which is light, it is not a bloated distro and because of the BORE enhanced kernel which boosts performance.

cyborganism ,

This question gets asked every week on every Linux community. We should have a pinned thread for this.

UkaszGra ,

Nobara or Bazzite are gaming ready and easy to use.

angrymouse ,

Probably anyone that keeps updating a little to get mesa and nvidia updates frequently, even if you use testing or unstable should be great if you install steam from flatpak.

You only have to jump into arch or steamOS if you want to use literally the latest features of mesa driver (but you don’t have to for 99.9999% of the games) so just pick the one that you like and if it is more stable distro, install steam via flatpak.

I use endevourOS cause I’m maniac with updates, I like to use latest stuff everywhere, but uou should not have any issue with Mint, PopOS. Debian stable could stay on older graphics driver for longer andcan be a problem, but you can just switch to testing or unstable branches.

Diplomjodler ,

Mint works fine for me.

RedIce25 ,

Have SteamOS 3.0 released yet?

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