What's up, guys, gals, and non-binary pals? I switched from Windows 10 to Linux Mint back in December 2024, and I catalogued my experiences in these posts:
- Alright you nerds, I made the jump to Linux.
- Alright nerds, I installed Linux Mint on my MacBook Pro
Just wanted to let you nerds know that everything has been running flawlessly. I can play any game I have, and none of my productivity is blocked. Doesn't matter whether it's all my ROMs I archived, my Steam games, GOG games, whatever. Linux plays them, and performance is fantastic. I don't play any anti-cheat games as the only one I do play periodically is Overwatch, and it runs perfect.
I can without a doubt now say that I will never go back to Windows. Should have switched years ago!
Build specs (the full list is in my first post linked above):
- CPU 9800x3d
- GPU RX 7900 XTX
Here are some issues I still can't solve on Linux Mint:
- Can't control my GPU fans
- Can't control my case fans
- Can't bind my case fans to ramp up with GPU load
I've tried CoreCTRL and so many other solutions I read online, and none of them work. Problem for another day! So all I've done for now is increase the count of intake fans I have and set it to a good speed to move plenty of air (but also set my exhaust fans higher to help counter and ensure proper positive pressure airflow. I have too many fans to get the ideal balance of neutral air flow). GPU runs with OEM fan speeds.
Edit: There's a bug in pasting instance agnostic links, so I just added direct URLs to my instance posts.
I've used "Linux for work" and "Windows for gaming" for a long time, about twenty years now. Got fed up with Windows shitting itself on a regular basis, and made myself a new year's resolution to try Linux-only gaming for a bit, see if it would work for me, and I never went back. That was in 2021, and it's just been getting better and better.
Linux Mint has always been an easy install, and putting Steam on top to get Proton is pretty trivial. A few things have made an amazing difference:
installing the official NVidia drivers used to be a pain in the arse. Download them, stop your display manager, blacklist Nouveau, install them from the command line, restart and hope for the best. Awful. I've gone fully AMD, but I understand they're pretty much a non-issue now.
Proton keeps getting better and better. Seriously, they fix compatibility with about 99% of the games that were broken every year, basically everything runs now. Maybe leave off buying anything with a tech-demo engine for a week, and accept that you won't be playing stuff with certain anti-cheat, and it's all good.
DXVK gets overlooked, but it's amazing. Basically frame-for-frame with Windows on every game, and on some it's better as it fixes intrusive stutter by precompiling. Can't argue with that.