this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
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Linux Gaming

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Debian for Linux gaming? (lemmy.world)
submitted 10 months ago by AlpacaChariot@lemmy.world to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world
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I've ordered myself some parts to build a PC for Linux gaming. In the meantime, i'm deciding on which linux distro to use.

For the desktop environment I typically use KDE.

I have used Ubuntu in the past but i'm ruling it out because of snaps and other such annoyances. This also applies to Ubuntu based distros that use the same repos (KDE Neon etc).

I see the wikis recommend Nobara, but I'm reluctant to use a Fedora based distro because I'm so used to Debian/apt (both as a desktop and server distros). I'm not ruling it out completely though.

Any reason why I shouldn't just go with Debian + KDE and install Steam? Will I be missing out on lots of performance improvements or is this easily addressed by using an additional repo for a tweaked kernel and proton version or whatever?

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[–] Impound4017@sh.itjust.works 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Fwiw I switched off of Pop onto Debian cause I was annoyed with some of Pop’s bloat and I’ve been loving it. I game pretty heavily on Debian and it works just fine. I do mostly play the same older games rather than buying new releases, however, so mileage may vary if you’re looking at cutting edge games, as driver updates can significantly boost performance in that case.

Make no mistake though, when I say ‘bloat’ I’m mostly nitpicking. Pop is a perfectly valid choice and a good option for gaming.

[–] AlpacaChariot@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm also mostly interested in slightly older games like Rome Remastered, I probably won't be playing many brand new titles.

Might try and get Age of Mythology working as well as I have so much nostalgia for it!

What kind of games are you into?

[–] WalrusByte@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I love Age of Mythology! It might take a bit of tweaking to get working, but I don't see any reason why it couldn't on a Debian system. I'm on Gentoo, and I just had to swap around the proton version and force the correct resolution and now it works flawlessly.

[–] AlpacaChariot@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I might have to ask you more questions about this when I'm up and running!

[–] WalrusByte@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I spoke a bit too soon. Played the game and it ended up crashing. It works pretty well most of the time but I wouldn't say it's flawless anymore.

But yeah, go ahead and ask some questions! Your experience might be different depending on your hardware, though.

[–] ono@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

mileage may vary if you’re looking at cutting edge games, as driver updates can significantly boost performance in that case.

If you're playing games in Steam, Flatpak, or any other tool that provides its own runtime, the graphics driver updates that tend to affect performance (e.g. Mesa) don't come from your base distro.

(Unless maybe you have an Nvidia GPU and a distro that packages its proprietary drivers? I'm not sure in that case, since I quit Nvidia years ago.)