If you’ve read the FAQ and still have questions like “Should I switch to Linux?”, “Which distro should I install?”, or “Which desktop environment is best for gaming?”, this is where to ask them.
Here’s a link to this subreddit’s FAQ document (which attempts to answer many common questions).
This thread is not meant for asking frequently asked questions. There is a pinned monthly-ish “Getting Started” thread for those.
You can post suggestions for improvement below, though! Just please explain what you’re talking about. The number of FAQ editors has been 1 (one) for a while now, and that one’s a dummy that doesn’t use 95% of the fancy gaming stuff y’all do.
Reposted as an Old Reddit link because New Reddit, in addition to being generally confusing, does not display the table of contents.
So I installed Steam and I'm testing a few games, but what else should I install? What packages do you recommend installing to get the best experience?
An AI suggested these:
- GameMode: Automatically activates high-performance profiles (CPU governor, I/O priority) when a game launches.
- MangoHud: An overlay to monitor FPS, temperatures, and GPU usage. Helps identify bottlenecks.
- Gamescope: A micro-compositor that lets you cap FPS, apply upscaling (FSR), and isolate the game window for a smoother experience.
In before Rito bans that latest workaround because that's how it is with this company. Just like it happened with old hyperv workaround. Peps need to understand Rito wants to have their rootkit in your box, direct access to your kernel and they won't allow any potential security holes.
I really enjoy playing games like COD, ultimately it would be great to have multiplayer working! Is there any hope on the horizon for compatibility with Linux via Proton?
Before I begin, I'm a total Linux noob. If I get something wrong please correct me, and if you can contribute to this somehow, please do so! Also this guide is made specifically for FEDORA KDE 44 since it's the distro I use...
I've always had some weird performance "issues" (honestly just weird general behavior) when it came to games on linux. I have an IdeaPad 1 15IAU7 with I5 1235U, 24GB of ram and Intel iris xe. I know I shouldn't expect too much from a setup like that (specially from a laptop), but I can get a good experience out of light and moderate gaming on windows, unlike Linux.
What even was the problem? Every time I'd try to game on Linux (on Fedora KDE 44 which is the distro I currently use for almost a year) I'd get kinda frustrated because the general framerate on games was bad when compared to windows. I didn't expected it to be better or something like that, but I was getting almost 70% less fps in some games... Zelda BOTW on cemu to be more specific, which was running at 23 fps on Fedora compared to 40-50 fps on windows in the same area!
I'm using Intel p-state (active) with HWP. changing governors from powersave to performance would actually make things even worse: on powersave frequency was usually limited to 1,3ghz (because turbo boost was off) and on performance the frequency would be able to go up but the fps was horrible. I thought it was an autocpu-freq problem, but not really?
Anyway, here's what I did to fix performance issues (or at least mitigate the problem):
Installed CachyOS kernel + addons(not really necessary but may be beneficial): I originally only did this because of a problem I was having with Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 Remix on Fedora in which I tried switching to cachyos and it was able to play the game normally, so I decided to use the cachyOS kernel + addons. You can easily find tutorials explaining how to install it, but it's not hard to follow the official fedora copr link I've attached here.
X.X.X is the version of the current cachyOS kernel.
You can check if it's installed just by doing sudo grubby --info ALL. You're gonna see /boot/vmlinuz-X.X.X-cachyos1.fc44.x86_64 somewhere if it's installed.
You can easily set the cachyOS kernel as you default kernel with sudo grubby --set-default /boot/vmlinuz-X.X.X-200.fc44.x86_64 (basically copying the path of the cachyOS kernel gave by the output of the first command)
Then reboot and check your default kernel with sudo grubby --default-kernel.
If you see /boot/vmlinuz-X.X.X-cachyos1.fc44.x86_64 at the output, it worked.
Switched from i915 to XE driver (EXPERIMENTAL): Doing this actually improved my performance quite a bit. the official intel compatibility table for i915 and XE drivers states that the Intel Iris Xe only officially supports the i195 drivers. doing lspci -nnk | grep -A3 -Ei 'VGA|3D| shows Kernel modules: i915, xe. So, even though the official documentation only states support for i915, Xe can be used. A quote from the Arch wiki Intel graphics page:
First-generation Intel Arc GPUs (Alchemist Arc A-series discrete GPUs) and Xe-based integrated GPUs in Tiger Lake, Rocket Lake, and Alder Lake processors are officially supported by the i915 driver, but can also be run with the newer experimental Xe driver.
so you if you have Tiger Lake (2020 11th gen mobile processor), Rocket Lake (2021 11th gen desktop processor) or Alder Lake (2021-2022 12th gen mobile and desktop processor) you can use the Xe driver in an experimental way. Newer cpus will PROBABLY (doesn't hurt to search for xe driver your cpu) have official support to it. Anyway, here's a detailed guide about how you can force the use of the XE drivers on fedora, way better than anything I could explain here. Just skip the "install kernel 6.18" step.
Install Throttled w/ custom settings + setting Thermald on adptive mode: This is the setp that helped the most. Throttled is a Linux daemon that prevents CPU throttle on some Intel cpus. It's the closest thing to throttlestop (freaking incredible tool for windows) available on linux afaik. The installation process is very simple as stated on their github page. The thing that matters the most is editing the config file with sudo nano /etc/throttled.conf since it's where we can set the pl1/pl2 and the trip temp. I didn't mess with the Battery profile since I only play with the AC plugged, so on the AC profile I've changed this:
I've only messed with pl1/2 and trip temp. Don't blindly copy my settings, this is what worked for me. You need to search for information on your cpu regarding the maximum power limit value, see what values work for you (will heavily depend if your cooling system is good), look up the TJMAX value of your cpu (basically the thermal limit) and search for tests on google or test yourself (you can look up throttlestop posts about your cpu, even though it's a windows tool it has the same functionalities as throttled). BTW, you can find the majority of this information on techpowerup. Just google techpowerup + the name of your cpu. Example with mine:
Now, about the thermald on adaptive mode, the throttled github page says that thermald can conflict with throttled, but you shouldn't simply disable it since some setups work better with thermald --adaptive. So basically you need to test what's best for you, in my case thermald on adaptive works nice so I'll just stay with that (I'm gonna test with it disabled later).
This is very optinal: install and tweak auto-cpufreq: I've installed this tool called auto-cpufreq because it manages cpu frequencies and governors automatically. Also, it helped immensely with my battery duration. The installation process is very straight forward, you can easily follow the github page. After installing it, just do a sudo auto-cpufreq --install to install and enable the daemon. Now to the tweaking (you can first test to see if the default configuration will work for you, if it does you can skip the tweaking part): The thing is that, the default auto-cpufreq configuration behaves very weirdly with my hardware: higher frequencies and performance governor will make the fps worse, and lower frequencies with the powersave governor. There's even a github issue about this. Throttled does help with this, but I found that making a custom config file helps even more (the github page explains better how to set up a custom configuration). The folder where you installed auto-cpufreq will contain an exemple of auto-cpufreq.conf-exemple. Open the file and you can mess with the configuration. Again, I only messed with the charger part since I only game with with a charger connected. What I changed:
governor = performance
energy_performance_preference = performance
energy_perf_bias = performance
platform_profile = performance
scaling_min_freq = 2000000 ----btw this is just 2ghz on khz, the value needs to be in khz.
and that was it. Now you just need to rename the file from auto-cpufreq.conf-exemple to auto-cpufreq.conf and copy it to /etc/ with sudo cp /path/of/your/file.conf /etc/auto-cpufreq.conf replacing /path/of/your/file.conf with the actual path of your file. It's not the only way to do this, but in my opinion it's the most foolproof.
You can confirm if you settings are working with sudo auto-cpufreq --stats
VERY IMPORTANT: IF WHEN YOU UNCOMMENT LINES, DO NOT ADD SPACES BETWEEN THE MARGIN AND THE TEXT. EVERY UNCOMMENTED LINE SHOULD BE LIKE THIS:
NOT LIKE THIS:
IF YOU ADD SPACES BETWEEN THE MARGIN AND THE TEXT, AUT-CPUFREQ WILL NOT APPLY THE VALUES YOU'VE SET
And that's it for now, I'll be updating this post if I find something new. Just for a metric, my fps on BOTW on cemu went from 23 to 40 on the same area as before. It's now closer to windows.
A month or two ago or so when I moved to Fedora KDE Plasma from Windows 7, I tried installing the native version of Steam, but it didn't work, so I installed Flatpak. Today I found out both of them apparently work. Obviously the games installed on Flatpak Steam are not installed on the native version.
I tried using goverlay and mangohud to figure out why my games have subpar performance (Got Lenovo Legion Y520 cheap from a friend, that is full of cigarette ash and smells like weed, so I assumed there's a hardware bottleneck), but couldn't get them to work on flatpak Steam. That was the original reason I tried the other Steam icon on my start menu... However, when I actually tried playing Imperator: Rome, the performance was buttery smooth. Like, insanely smooth. 60 FPS with decent graphics and short loading times, vs. 15 - 30 FPS with all the simple graphic mods and lowest settings that took ages to load. I'm now downloading DayZ again, that didn't go past the menu in the flatpak version without freezing.
Why is this? I already removed the flatpak Steam, but I'm just wondering.
Recently reinstalled Cachy and went with Cosmic DE this time. The games that work are working better than ever. However, there is an odd issue with some games where the mouse will be sucked into the top left corner of the game window with the force of a supermassive black hole. Looking into this, it appears that Gamescope can be a potential solution and this works for Warframe. However I cannot get Guild Wars 2 to launch with Gamescope.
I have never used Gamescope before. Is there some configuration I need to do?
Does anyone else game on Cosmic, do you have this problem, and how do you fix it? Do I just need to switch back to KDE, and if so do I need to reinstall the OS or can I install KDE alongside without conflicts?
Hey guys, I’m new to this community. I recently switched to Linux, specifically CachyOS and, as the title suggests, I’m having trouble running the game.
I’m using an Acer Nitro V15 laptop:
RTX 3050 6GB
Intel Core i5-13420H
16 GB RAM
I’m using the CachyOS version of proton, but the game barely hits 40 FPS. This is strange, as I saw a video of someone with the same laptop model where the game was running at 90 - 100 FPS, the only difference being that they were using Windows.
I'm getting heavy stuttering when moving the camera in outdoor areas. This doesn't happen indoors. The GPU stays at 99% utilization the entire time (CPU bottleneck ruled out), but power draw drops significantly when I move the camera from my max TDP of 270W down to 210W or lower during the stuttering. The issue completely disappears when I stop moving the character.
I tested the game on Windows (dual boot) and it runs perfectly smooth.
**What I’ve already tried:**
- Different Proton versions (Proton Wayland, CachyOS, Experimental, and older GE versions)
- Gamemode
- Full system/kernel/driver updates
- Disabling any undervolt or TDP limits
- Disabling VRR
- Lowering graphics settings, disabling RT and FSR
- I’ve read about a kernel parameter workaround that can slightly improve performance, but it affects all games and I don’t feel comfortable applying it just for this one
In the video you can see the issue described above.
For those who don't know, drag clicking doesn't work on Linux by default. However, there is a way to enable it for distros that use libinput for mouse input (which most do). I have written a concise guide to enable it. If you want to enable drag clicking (especially minecrafters) you can check it out. (pls star)
What do you guys think? which is more useful for managing optiscaler installation for a game? obviously manual install is the most controlled, but also the most cumbersome. Which have you found best success with for games that have less than obvious setups etc? For example I noticed the goverlay command is actually a good idea to not use after optiscaler is installed as it will replace settings and customisation done within that games folder, optiscaler.ini etc.
no matter what i do the fps stays locked and yes before anyone says anything vsync is off and fps is set at unlimited, the only time the fps change is when i take it out of full screen ( the fps stays the same in border less too )
distro: cachyos
de: niri
quickshell: serpantinum
I've recently gotten a g502 for free but I dont see a good way to manage it's settings on linux. I had to change the settings on my windows laptop before plugging the mouse into my Linux pc
The game itself can run, and i know it for sure, but it Requires the EA launcher and that always just fails to install...
Using Northstar i can skip EA i think, however then i would play on Northstar servers.
Is there a way to either use normal servers thru the Northstar launcher, or just skip the EA launcher on the normal steam install?
I've been able to run UE games such as Marvel Rivals + Dragonwilds with no issue using Steam ever since the Proton Hotfix Steam patch in June. Randomly as of 4 days ago (around 10/14/26 5:00 UTC) after an update, it has crashed every single time I've run it after a certain period of time.
What ends up happening is that the graphics freeze but the audio still continues. Using Shift + Tab to bring up the Steam Overlay I can almost always cause the game to get past the first freeze, but on the second freeze the game stays frozen until it crashes. UE process crashes first, and then Proton. These freezes almost always occur to the same triggers, but not every time when these triggers pop up will it cause a freeze. This usually occurs after about 15-30min, but the longest period of time I was able to run one of these games was 42 minutes.
Triggers:
Map opening in Dragonwilds
Loading splash art screen in Rivals
Chat opening in Rivals
Card selection in the Infinity War mode in Rivals
Things I've tried:
Uninstalling + Reinstalling Marvel Rivals
Switching between Proton Hotfix, Experimental, and Stable
Uninstalling Proton Hotfix + Experimental + reinstalling them
Clearing caches
Using bare minimum settings
Making sure my system is up to date
Disabling Screen Tearing
I'm able to run other applications using Proton on Steam without issue, it's just UE games.
EDIT: Disable Steam overlay. Fixes the issue entirely.