Should I use Linux for gaming?

D1craig

D1craig

D1craig

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Well I have the a computer that will be just sitting there doing nothing once I upgrade. Should I/can I put Linux on it?

The computer is half decent the only other option is to bin it. Don't like ebay so selling the parts isn't for me. The horror stories are scary lol.
 
I would take a look at the games you are likely to play and see if people have those titles running well on a Linux distro. There is a good selection now on Steam such as CS:GO, Football Manager 2016, War Thunder... but still a way off from what you can get on Windows. I would definitely give it a go but get ready to play around with PlayOnLinux and Wine to get some games working.
 
ok thanx for the help guys. i may aswell do it because the computer will just be sitting there unable to go online as i only have one windows key and that will be getting moved to my new computer when i build it.

what i have spare as of now is-
ssd and hdd
gtx 770
cpu i7 2600
motherboard - asus p8z68
and all the other essential parts needed to have the thing run.
 
You consider that setup only worthy of messing about with Linux or binning? You're either clueless or have more money thn sense. :( :rolleyes:

My main PC has an i7 2700K and a P8Z68-V Pro, and it will trade blows with brand new kit with the overclock I have applied! I was going to upgrade to Skylake and DDR4 but didn't bother as the gains would be practically unnoticeable.
 
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looked at prices for the parts i listed and they are still reasonably high. i might see if i can sell them. where can i get packaging from for them? static proof bags are probably the most needed part.
 
Many people say stick with nvidia, however, both my Linux Laptop and Desktop, are ATI based and they are near perfect running all my games without issues.

That said, I have just knocked up another PC based on the A10 CPU and thats having issues, but only with a couple of Windows games through wine, and these are issues that I dont have on the other 2 Linux machines.

So, yes, go for it. you will be pleasantly surprised at just what you can do with Linux and gaming is a lot better than many people seem to realise it is, and sure, its still nowhere near where Windows is, but its a lot further than people say it is.

As for using an ubuntu based distro, Im not entirely sure on that one.

my Desktop is MiNT and that is ubuntu based yes, but my Laptop is much better, more reliable, and faster and its Sabayon, which is Gentoo based.
 
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Performance on catalysis and cards was historically poor, I ditched my 280 XT for a 750 ti as it was better might of changed, I only said Ubuntu based for an easy life :)
 
kkelly said:
Performance on catalysis and cards was historically poor, I ditched my 280 XT for a 750 ti as it was better might of changed, I only said Ubuntu based for an easy life :)
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Oh you are absolutely spot on on both counts.

nVidia has always had better Linux support, and even today, many people still argue that it does... I however, have kind of been forced to use ATI ( Mostly because I just prefer them to nVidia ) and as such, I have just found that its nowhere near as bad as many make out.

Now, I just dont think about it because there is nothing to think about because it just works right away and I do nothing... You cannot get easier than that!

As for ubuntu. Again, you are absolutely spot on. Ubuntu is by far the best choice for a newbie, but again, my input was also saying that sometimes, people just want a distro that works perfectly, and they dont want to have to faf about.... Ubuntu loses its advantage when other distros are so stable, that you simply dont need to worryt about what is under the hood, because they simply just work.
 
Not helpful at all but the latest nvidia drivers on my work fedora machine are buggy to the extent that opengl doesn't work at all, so had to roll back. They don't get it right all the time!
 
Should I use Linux for gaming?
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I would say it depends on what games you play & also what else you use your pc for

NATIVE games are fine

The whole "gaming on linux is in early stages" thing is rubbish
Many people have been gaming on linux for years (since before 2000)

Drivers can hold back performance on some newer intensive games but that depends on the card.

If you want to play lots of directx games when they come out obviously it's not worth it but if you play something native like DOTA2 then there should be no problem.
 
I game almost exclusively on Linux now. I don't get any real problems with the NVidia drivers for my GTX970, it mainly comes down to me doing something stupid with sudo as I'm still a hell of a Linux Noob.

I run Ubuntu with Steam for games, the only reason I still use a Windows 7 partition is for World of Warcraft, it runs nicely in Wine but a lot of the graphical features don't work. If I do play it in Linux I use OpenGL rather than Dx9 as it gives a really nice framerate but the OpenGL implementation is from like 2008 so it looks crappy compared to Dx.
 
Also, my main Laptops run Windows on the main one and Linux on my No2.

The Linux one is a 1.6Ghz I7 thats running ATI GFX and its fairly half decent but does struggle a little on Dawn of War when there is more than the most basic things going on.
The Windows one is a dual GFX jobbie running Intel and nVidia, and I have not been able to sort this out properly with this dual GFX mode, and with just intel GFX, its simply running so slow, that gaming is simply not possible.

If I could sort that out, then my Laptops will be 100% Linux.

I am at this moment, already using Linux more than Windows, and only have windows for... I will think of a reason, but I am only using Windows for that reason only. LOL.

With the combination of Steam, and Playonlinux with Wine, I can run everything I need, and with Microsoft heading in the direction that they are doing, I dont see myself putting up with them for much longer anyway.
 
kayomani said:
There was a recent article showing even with recent improvements that it's still around 50% slower than windows.
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Where? there is a article with no reference to hardware specs on arstechnica which links to articles contradicting the findings on the exact games they supposedly benchmarked :eek:
They also seemed to benchmark shadow of mordor which is primarily developed for directx :(
mortals said:
bledd. said:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/...gnificant-performance-hit-for-steamos-gaming/
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Sorry if I missed it but does that article reference what spec system (gpu, cpu etc) they used?

Seems like they link to other articles showing the opposite of what they found (phoronix showing quake faster on linux + article showing l4d2 faster on linux
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I suspect it was that one, it was from a while back so I don't remember the site.

The reality is that most games these days are going to be direct x rather than open gl so I don't see any issue that using that tbh.
 
kayomani said:
I suspect it was that one, it was from a while back so I don't remember the site.

The reality is that most games these days are going to be direct x rather than open gl so I don't see any issue that using that tbh.
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The article clearly cannot be taken seriously

Did they use NVIDIA, AMD or Intel GPU? (doesn't say)
Did they use opensource drivers or binary proprietary (also doesn't say)

Not sure if SteamOS comes with binary or opensource out of the box (think debian comes with opensource & SteamOS is based on debian)

Whoever wrote the article missed nearly every technical aspect of testing / comparison & even referenced articles contradicting his findings :rolleyes:

Being honest, anyone who dual boots linux can easily benchmark between windows & linux.
With NVIDIA you mostly find native games are faster on linux. (some games even run faster in wine than windows)

The problem with most of these articles is they are simple users who have little knowledge or experience with linux & have expectations of linux being windows.



There are also a lot more advanced things going on in terms of getting windows games on linux via direct hardware acceleration (with modifications & scripts utilizing UEFI) using virtualization (3DMark results are only ~3% slower than windows) but that seems a long way off being 'turnkey' so the average gamer will not be bothered.
Here is an example of QEMU 3dmark on 980ti (check 'Hard drive model')
 
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kayomani said:
There was a recent article showing even with recent improvements that it's still around 50% slower than windows.
Click to expand...

I have not bothered to run any benchmarks for some time, however, the last time I did, I actually found that the few games that I got running under Wine, were actually running much better under WINE, than they did under Windows, so, I would question the authenticity of those claims.

All I can say right now, is that the games that I need Linux to play are NOT that demanding on everything... They are a bit needy of power, dotn get me wrong, but I can get away with a mid-range card and mid-rance CPU to play the games at full quality and rez withotu having it struggle, THAT much, so whather or not it is or isnt better in MS or Linux, isnt really too much of an issue for me.

Although, I do have an APU and a compatible GFX Card for Crossfire, and I would love to get them to play together just for a giggle, and, as of this moment, I have not been able to.
 
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