Best Linux OS for Gaming?

DeanFry

DeanFry

DeanFry

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Greetings OCUK Community

Currently building a pc and want to use Linux, I'm sick of Windows and it's time for a change however the main problem with this is that Windows has the biggest library of games currently and Linux is only starting to get the support so here is my two questions:

1. What is the best Linux OS for Gaming?

2. What software can I use to play Windows Games like Wildstar, Steam/Origin games etc.?

Thank you in advance

Dean
 
DeanFry said:
Greetings OCUK Community

Currently building a pc and want to use Linux, I'm sick of Windows and it's time for a change however the main problem with this is that Windows has the biggest library of games currently and Linux is only starting to get the support so here is my two questions:

1. What is the best Linux OS for Gaming?

2. What software can I use to play Windows Games like Wildstar, Steam/Origin games etc.?

Thank you in advance

Dean
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Unsure about origin but steam runs in linux. I had* it installed on my Mint partition.


*I say had as out of my pretty small steam library (11 Games) not one of them is linux compatible. The only thing I play that isn't a steam game is Minecraft which works perfectly fine. So I'm Dual-boot.

The other option is using WINE to run the windows excecutables but it is very hit and miss as to wether things install and run correctly.
 
Any of the modern Debian/Ubuntu derivatives works pretty well for native Steam - I'm sure Arch works pretty well too but it's not officially supported by Valve as far as I am aware.
 
Mint work fine for Steam, for at least the games they've converted to run on that format (most were still beta last time I looked but worked fine)

Problem I had though was graphics card drivers, the framerate drop compared to windows was horrendous, mind you that was an older card I've since gotten a 7950 but have yet to try it with Mint (SSD died and have yet to sort out a reinstall). Open source drivers were actually faster than AMD's own official ones, which is nuts.
 
I forgot to mention, expect terrible terrible drivers if you have an AMD graphics card. I tried using Mint a while back with the oboard HD4250 on my mobo, there wasnt even any support for extended desktop with multiple displays
 
Frozennova said:
I forgot to mention, expect terrible terrible drivers if you have an AMD graphics card. I tried using Mint a while back with the oboard HD4250 on my mobo, there wasnt even any support for extended desktop with multiple displays
Click to expand...

I'm not doing anything massively intensive but the fglrx drivers are working fine for me - had to update the Kernel because APU support didn't come in until a later Kernel than elementary ships with.
 
The best distro to use for Steam (according to Phoronix) is Xubuntu. I love Arch but for my gaming PC I decided that going with Ubuntu or a derivative (for now) was a good move, seeing as most things will run on it and setting up the drivers is a bit easier. Xfce has the lowest graphics overheads and you get the best performance out of Steam natively with it (about half the framerate loss compared to that Unity ****). Lubuntu is another good shout but steer away from Ubuntu and Kubuntu if you want the purest performance (on native Steam at least).

And yes the AMD drivers are pretty poor, I have an AMD HD6970 and it runs fine now but I have the "Unsupported Hardware" Logo on the bottom right of the screen permanently despite using the official fglrx drivers. AMD open-source drivers are good but free drivers are nowhere near as good as the proprietary ones. By the looks of things using Intel graphics will be the way to go for future linux gaming as they are pouring loads of time and money into getting their graphics drivers top notch.
 
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+1 For Mint, it works for me on my dual boot setup and the frames are perfectly acceptable (on a GTX670) although the only large game I've tried is TF2 I assume all other Source games would be equally okay...

There are always a few oddities though. The weirdest one for me was Mint not being able to detect the resolution of my 2nd monitor - after trying several things to get it working it eventually turned out that, wait for it..... the cable was too long for the EDID signal from the monitor to be identified (I had monitor #2 plugged in using a 10 metre long extension cable, because the cable that came with it wasn't *quite* long enough and I didn't have a shorter extension cable than 10m XD)... It was fine in Windows though :S
 
currently threw ubuntu onto my laptop. I'm on it now, but having a horrific time trying to get Nvidia drivers installed. Linux seem a massive hit or miss sometimes. So im downloading Mint 15 right now and i'll try that. I can see me putting my windows hard drive back in before the night is over.
 
The other problem with Linux gaming is trying to get games that will work for it.
I had a look at Steam and the vast majority of decent games are for Windows only.
I really do think that if you like to play it's best having a dual boot system.
 
I've just dived into the world of wine once again, and this time with significantly more success than I had 5 years ago.

Its not exactly "put the CD in the drive and go", but there's plenty of help out on the web for getting an awful lot of games running. With the Steam announcement expected next week about a potential Linux based Steam box, I anticipate (hope?) that Linux gaming could get a big shot in the arm, which can only be a good thing for us Linux users.

Having said this, the specific game I've finally got working (LOTRO) still seems to hang every now and then. I'm hoping its my graphics drivers (AMD 6970), so going to upgrade to an nVidia 780GTX and hope that helps - I've heard a lot of good things about the nVidia proprietary drivers of late in the press.

On the choice of distros, I think I'd strongly encourage a Debian based OS as that's what the majority of developers seem to be releasing on at the moment. While Mint would fall into this category, its worth bearing in mind that the developers of native Linux games are unlikely to test on all, or even many distributions. The cost of testing is just too great.

With this in mind I'd encourage plain old Ubuntu, which feels to me at least like the best 'formal' home Linux distribution at the moment, even if distrowatch currently has Mint pegged in front in the popularity stakes.
 
Mint isn't so much a fork. It's a custom selection of Ubuntu packages, with a couple of extras thrown in (artwork, update manager, etc). They use all of the base Ubuntu OS, including the kernel. Almost all of the packages you install are directly from the Ubuntu repositories.

The Nvidia drivers are superior than the AMD ones for gaming in Linux. AMD should get their act together soon though, as the Kaveri APU would make an ideal custom Steambox.
 
The AMD drivers have improved, but with Steam gaming I've found nvidia to be better. It's purely a driver issue of course, and if Valve decides to go with AMD graphics, they're going to be as good as the Windows ones before long.
 
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