Is PopOS the best for easy gaming?

Hey folks!

Thinking of switching back to Linux. I was running PopOS about 1.5 years ago and was pretty happy with the gaming aspect of things, but I was playing a lot of VALORANT back then, and I got sick of dual booting. That is less the case now, so I would like to try going back to Linux for the majority of my gaming / streaming setup, and just use Windows for the handful of games like Destiny 2 that won't run on Linux.

I am fairly new to Linux. Don't mind learning some terminal stuff, but I am basically a noob so it does need to be pretty easy to start with. Got a NVIDIA 3080 and AMD CPU if that matters at all.

Recommend me a distro please fellow penguin gamers.

Kory,
@Kory@lemmy.ml avatar

I don't think there's a "best" but PopOS sure is one of the recommended ones. You might also find some answers in this post: https://lemmy.ml/post/1130762

hellerphant,

Thanks! I will check this out.

hschen,
@hschen@sopuli.xyz avatar

PopOS, Mint, Ubuntu are the main ones recommended for new users, just try them out and see what you think. I personally used Ubuntu for about half a year and then moved over to Archlinux and have been using arch for like 4 years now, but arch is too hard for new users so dont try it.

packetloss,

To be fair. I've never used Arch and thought I'd give it a try, their new "archinstall" utility makes installation a breeze. This includes driver and DE selection.

Was able to complete a KDE Plasma install in about 15 minutes.

hschen,
@hschen@sopuli.xyz avatar

archinstall is good yeah, it would be nice if it had a proper graphical install rather than the console ui. I think less technical people would be put off by it.

ticktok,

I wanted to go with arch but didn't want the install hassle, so I ended up going with Endeavour OS and I've been full time on it for about 2 years now with no complaints. All the benefits of Arch rolling distro, with the addition of a support community and a unified experience and preloaded nvidia drivers.

setInner234,

I've found Manjaro to be pretty good in terms of automated handling for Nvidia drivers and stuff. Fast and stable with rolling updates. Yes, the transition from Windows is rough for 3 months or so, but after that you'll wonder how anyone ever put up with Microsoft's BS

TPWitchcraft,

Recommending OpenSuse. Its not hard to set up your GPU there anymore, you are less gimped than with Ubuntu, and you'll have a more widespread and mature community than with PopOS, resulting in more software to be available.

hellerphant,

undefined> https://lemmy.ml/post/1130762 Thanks! I used OpenSUSE yeeeeears ago. Totally forgot about it until just now. Will check it out.

TPWitchcraft,

undefined> OpenSuse

You are welcome :)

original_ish_name,

I usually recommend linux mint for it's windows like aesthetic

Got a NVIDIA 3080

popOS has an ISO that comes with nvidia drivers but linux mint has a driver manager

my [...] streaming setup

OBS works on GNU/Linux

popOS has a lot of features/bloat and looks fairly different from windows. If you chose PopOS update your system before installing anything so the package manager doesn't uninstall your desktop environment

hellerphant,

Thanks for the tips. I liked PopOS' vibe, but I might check out Mint seeing it is recommended a bit.

setInner234,

Can vouch for Mint. Have it running on a laptop and it just works.

Magusbear,

While we are at the topic of Pop!OS...I'm about to install it on my laptop with AMD iGPU and dedicated Nvidia GPU. Can someone tell me if I should use the Nvidia iso in that case?

Sorry for hijacking your post ':D

hellerphant,

No problem! Glad you got the answer!

hschen,
@hschen@sopuli.xyz avatar

Use the nvidia one im pretty sure. I think it will come with the proprietary nvidia drivers preinstalled

Magusbear,

Thanks for the quick and easy answer! I'll try that one

Kory,
@Kory@lemmy.ml avatar

I was using Linux Mint when I made the switch and it was great cause everything was just working, no tinkering needed. I want to mention https://nobaraproject.org/ though, cause it's a modified Fedora version that works very well for gaming too.

apt_install_coffee,

Heads-up, Valorant won't work on Linux; Riot is borderline hostile to attempts to use Linux for their games. Plenty of other games work great on most distros, but not Val.

hellerphant,

Thanks, was aware of that. I have pretty much stopped playing Val, and if I ever needed to, I could boot back into Windows.

ADHDefy,
ADHDefy avatar

You're gonna get a million different answers to this question. lol But yes, PopOS is a great option, for sure! I started my Linux gaming journey on PopOS and I loved it!

Another cool one is Nobara, a gaming-centric Linux distro based on Fedora. My one caution would be that it usually takes a month after Fedora updates (which is already slower than some other distros because of their release model), for Nobara to get those updates. Otherwise, it not only installs the necessary GPU drivers during install (like PopOS), but it has a bunch of gaming-related software pre-installed and pre-configured. You can basically just start downloading and playing games without any hassle.

With that said, PopOS is going to get much faster and more regular updates. It's stable, easy to use, and makes driver setup easy.

oishiiburger,

I've used PopOS as a daily driver on my gaming rig for about a year now. No real complaints and it was definitely great when I had an nvidia card.

(Though I am looking to switch to Arch soon, since I want to really avoid background processes that I ultimately don't need, and since I switched to AMD and their drivers are in the kernel, I don't need the nvidia help anymore.)

fallendusk,

endeavourOS! It’s pretty much Archlinux with a gui installer and some helpful things for new users. I recently installed it on a spare drive on my gaming PC with AMD/nvidia and everything just worked after installing steam.

hellerphant,

I will have to check this on out too! Thank you.

teruma,

Maybe this is a dumb question, but why not install SteamOS?

asexualchangeling,

Put simply, currently Steam OS doesn't have the hardware support of your average distro

teruma,

The posted install instructions say its just Debian. I would assume it would have Debian's hardware support?

asexualchangeling,

Ahhhhh, so not SteamOS 3, an older version

Modern SteamOS is based on Arch

teruma,

Oh, interesting. The new version didn't come up when I googled it. I'll dig a bit deeper.

Martinligabue,

there is unofficial support with holoiso

Moonrise2473,

There's no official installer for steamos, only a recovery image for the steam deck. Then, some people in their free time hacked that image to allow installing on other hardware (except Nvidia GPUs) but imho not very easy

teruma,

Huh? the first thing that comes up when I google SteamOS is DIY install instructions.

asexualchangeling,

Is that perhaps HoloISO? A community made version of SteamOS

teruma,

Nope, first party SteamOS

Contend6248,

This is an old version which was for SteamOS devices, the Steamdeck has a completely revamped OS which has not that much in common with the old one.

That SteamOS used Debian as base, the new SteamOS 3 Arch with countless of adjustments to make the usage of the Steamdeck a joy.

I really wouldn’t install the old SteamOS as of now, there won’t be an upgradepath because they use different bases, there are countless of better alternatives out there and maybe they will release SteamOS 3 for custom devices in the future.

teruma,

Got it, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the information!

SturgiesYrFase,
@SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml avatar

I've been using Garuda Arch with great results, though I've heard PopOS is also....popping off 😪

realbadawo,

@hellerphant I have no problems with Mint (on AMD CPU and GPU) - wont use Pop because of the idiotic name.

KanariePieter,

I'd stick with PopOS because it is noob-friendly and makes installing Nvidia drivers a breeze compared to a lot of other distros. If you ever feel more comfortable with Linux you can still make the switch to something else, but I don't think there will be many reasons to do so as long as you like PopOS and get everything working the way you want.

In the meantime you can just read about other distros and if you come across a good reason for switching, you can consider it then.

Fauzruk,

If you want something that just works, PopOS is a great option yes. If you feel more adventurous you can go on something more bleeding edge (they are called like this for a reason) like EndeavourOS which is arch derivative.

If you are running W11 with Secure Boot enabled, then I would recommend you to go with Fedora as I don't think either PopOS or EndeavourOS supports it.

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