It definitely has gotten a lot better in the nVidia driver side but it’s not on AMD levels yet. But this is my experience with a 960 and 3080Ti. My 6800XT and 5700XT have been smooth sailing.

I am someone that is a Microsoft professional by trade and have been for about 20 years. I have absorbed everything that Microsoft has ever done in the Windows, Server and Cloud ecosystems, but Windows 11 was what really broke this lovely glass dream.

Under Windows 10, I was ale to create a custom image and use advanced policies to block the crap, Windows 11 on the other hand you can still do the same but with every update, it reverts settings back to their “default” without notification or even recorded information.

I would say to anyone that has the “but Windows is better for gaming…” you are living in the 00s to early 10s! With the Wine program and Valves Proton program, I am able to run all games that I own (1000+ games… I am a Valve sales bundle addict alright?!?). I am able to play games such as Star Citizen, Planetside 2, PalWorld, Helldivers 2 with a few clicks of a button, and only a couple of clicks if the game is Proton gold or above.

From my testing on several distros I would say start with something friendly such as Mint Cinnamon or PopOS (linux die hards, remember not everyone wants to spend time figuring things out on a daily basis and these OS from my experience are the most Windows-esque - i mean I started with Garuda and I am stubborn to learn it instead of jumping to another distro). Then spend a bit of time just getting the basics of a Linux system of your choice, such as the file system and how to install packages (apps). Don’t forget you also have platforms such as YouTube that people will show you click for click on what to do!

But… yes there is a but… if you have an nVidia GPU your experience might not be as smooth. If you want to take a leap and have the best experience, have at least an AMD GPU and even better an AMD system. Unfortunately this is purely on nVidia still having their finger up their ass on open source drivers.

Ditched Windows late last year and jump to Linux as my main driver. I’ve had Linux servers for years but it is completely different when it’s your main driver.

I mainly play games and from the over 100 games that I tried to play only 2 had issues and I was unable to get them working (BattleField 4 and FaF Forever).

Honestly Wine and subsequently Proton is the true game changer when it comes to games BUT I’m on an all AMD hardware and had 0 issues with driver stability, however a friend of mine on an Intel/nVidia has had a couple of issues which were eventually resolved but took a bit of wait for fixes and updates.

Not on my PC but I will update later.

Thank you this is the kind of thing that I was after.

One of us, one of us. I did the same only 2-3 hours into my first ever Linux install.

I do enjoy a challenge and having to use cli is what got me into my profession. I did my research and found Arch to be one of the better distros out there, but I didn’t want to start at the deep end as I don’t have time like to fully delve into it like I used to.

I’m already thinking of Nobara…

I only launched the vanilla version but I haven’t installed connect manager and the near 200gb of as ones yet.

It is a noob answer, but I set the compatibility to the latest Proton 8.0.4 and after an update and verification I was able to launch to the launcher, sign in and play. I don’t think I changed anything else. Maybe something that is installed with the distro that enables it to work?

I have the same experience. It’s amazing how easy we to switch for gaming that is. I don’t really use my personal pc for productivity but I do some video and pic editing so I’ll cross that bridge then.

Being in a AMD ecosystem, serms to be a lot smoother transition than nVidia from what I’ve seen.

That’s the first distro that caught my eye for gaming. I’ll def be looking for other distros in the future, so thank you for the suggestion.

I only have a stability issue with a single game and it is one I gave an example on my op, Satisfactory but that is since the latest update so I’ll eat and see before I say it’s something to do with the OS.

Than you for the suggestions and I’ll look into them.

Thank you for the suggestions. I’ll def be looking at new flavour of distros as my knowledge of Linux expands. Garuda was just the first one that made me jump.

That’s an amazing jump and congratulations on doing it.

After contemplating for 3-4 years about switching my main rig to Linux, I did it on Friday just gone.

Note for the below, I have a full AMD system.

• I went with Garuda Dragonized distro as it is gaming focused and has all the game related stuff included.
• took me less than 30mins going from gaming on Win11 to Linux, but I did the research before.
• there are a few tweaks if you use Steam but you have Lutris to help you.
• of the 35 ish games installed, all of them work without issues, but they need updating once you enable compatibility to Proton.
• the default theme is too flashy but you can select to bring it down a few notches

Technical

• if you have secondary SSD or HDD, dedicated to games or files like I did, it is advisable to have them backed up to an external drive as you will need to re-partition them from NTFS to use them properly in Linux
• with Garuda Dragonized Gaming, all drivers are installed but follow the Wizard at the beginning and check all that apply to you. It will save you time.

Good luck and looking forward to having you on Linux!