You've inspired me to try out a few older games on my old ThinkPad T440s, on a rolling-release distribution (openSUSE Tumbleweed). I had mixed results, but I think I know why: technologies like DXVK require Vulkan support, which only became commonplace with the sixth generation if Core i-CPUs. So if you want to do some cheap, low-end Linux gaming, 6th or 7th gen Intel CPUs or their AMD equivalents might be the sweet spot. Now I need to find out when dedicated GPUs started supporting Vulkan.
I was excited to see some low-end linux action, but was surprised by AAA gaming- if this is low end, what is my thinkcentre with an i5-3570 and a GTX 770 O-O?
The GPU is a 7 year old mid range GPU which is outperformed by iGPUs nowadays, paired with a 9 year old dual core entry level CPU. I think you can definitely call that low-end, but I guess there is always a even lower end 😂
Ubuntu 24.04 uses the 24.0.9 Mesa graphics driver while 24.2.2 released yesterday. You would have to use something newer like an Arch-based distribution to see if a newer driver improves your performance or an updated Mesa repository on Ubuntu. It could also be possible a newer kernel may improve performance which would come with an Arch-based distro. I would suggest something like CachyOS. Otherwise I would say try Fedora as that comes with 24.1.7. I would have said OpenSUSE Tumbleweed but they've been holding back the Mesa version to 24.1.3 I believe. Manjaro could also be another option. Arch-based but they slightly hold back from the latest however 24.1.7 is still very recent and the default kernel is a bit never than that of Ubuntu 24.04. It may be that these options improve the performance for RE4 Remake. Just keep in mind that CachyOS in particular has various tweaks and packages that may also change things so it may not reflect a typical experience. Fedora would be the most vanilla and fairly up-to-date way to experience Linux. Some would suggest using Fedora derivatives like Nobara Linux or Bazzite but I think standard Fedora or Fedora KDE would be perfectly fine for these tests.
Very good points, you know your stuff :) I'm planning on making a video in which I'll respond to some of the many good comments, and I'll definitely include yours.
@@LowBudgetLinuxGaming Thank you. Honestly it's from a lot of trial and error. An example of why this could be more complicated for some is how Linux is always developing while people look out for a standard distro in the space. For a very long time it was Ubuntu but the increased interest has been in gaming for Linux and some feel Ubuntu doesn't meet their demands. I find Fedora to be a good balance. There are gaming derivatives of Fedora and their work is fantastic and contributes a lot to the space. I just feel starting with something more vanilla like Fedora itself gives a better impression to those new to Linux. For example, Nobara uses its own package manager app yet does the average user use that? This isn't the case for all but when I tried Nobara recently the package manager would keep crashing when installing a package I got from an external repository yet I could install it via the terminal without issue. It wasn't a good experience for me and it led me to do something I'd have to have done on Fedora anyway. It's why Linux people typically tell people to use the terminal when doing something a bit more advanced because it's to avoid a broken experience while also giving the user information. Fedora like with Ubuntu is pushing sandboxed apps lately through a software store to avoid users taking more advanced actions while cleaning up the experience. The developer from an app gets the bonus of not having to rely on a distro having the right packages this way as they choose exactly what versions of packages they like for their app. The onus is then more on the developer rather than the distro and the casual user. Truth is though that the package I wanted couldn't be what they call a Flatpak or a Snap because it was more system related but who would do that other than advanced users anyway? I think a softer introduction is better first then with time people may move to something more advanced, tweaked or experimental. AMD hardware is very well supported with open source drivers so your experience should be quite good with most distros. It's just that Ubuntu isn't so up-to-date with Mesa. I've been having issues finding a stable experience for my Dell XPS 9570 as it has Nvidia graphics. The drivers aren't open source and aren't fully stable for what is called Wayland (a display server) where I've had issues with the latest driver making my system completely freeze when using some apps like Firefox. I've been using Manjaro as they seem aware of these issues and have held back from using the latest driver along with other packages. My issue may be the latest Nvidia driver not switching between the Intel graphics from my CPU properly in some scenarios being a laptop with hybrid graphics. Most people from what I can tell aren't having my issue but I appreciate that the Manjaro team have held some things back that has given me a good option for now rather than me having to mess with packages as much as I'm used to it. Fedora may be ok for me and has been in the past but I just like Arch a lot. They have something called the AUR where users build nearly any package you can find so I'm sticking with that for now. This is why distro-hopping is common with some proclaiming their individual experience and love for one as gospel yet the truth is that it's about one's wants and needs while avoiding issues. If Valve gets a general version of SteamOS out then on the gaming side of things we may all finally have something more solid to all pool together with that appeals to the less advanced user and a wider audience. The people who then want more can go with something more advanced and bleeding-edge as they always have. Sorry for explaining a lot there but I think the user experience is very important when bringing people into the Linux space and to grow it.
@@LowBudgetLinuxGaming Sorry but just one more thing... 😆 Many prefer KDE Plasma these days as GNOME has been a bit behind on some gaming related features until recently (VRR, VR support, etc.) so maybe Fedora KDE may be something to try out as standard Fedora uses GNOME like Ubuntu. The Fedora derivatives use KDE Plasma as their default as do Valve with SteamOS so it's generally accepted as the way to go. GNOME is mostly ok I think but I do prefer KDE Plasma myself. Plasma is closer to a Windows-like experience so I think that factors into some people choosing it. All the best to you and I hope you find it to be fun rather than frustrating as I have felt both over the years. 😆
Thanks for the detailed explanations! I had my first experiences with Linux over 20 years ago and my main job is developing software on Linux for Linux. I'm already past the frustration :)
Do radeon cards work better in Linux? Just asking. I tried Ubuntu and mint a few days ago with a GTX 1080 and was having a hard time with it. Should I give it a go with a Radeon card? Like rx5700xt?
TL;DR: NVIDIA cards work just fine with Linux with the exception of the 10xx series. Long version: The advantage of Radeon cards is that the driver is in the kernel. You don't have to install anything, you don't have to worry about anything, they just work. For NVIDIA cards, however, the driver has to be installed, but in most distros this works quickly and easily in the GUI. I had an RTX 3050 two years ago and had no problems with Pop!_OS and Fedora. The NVIDIA exclusive features such as CUDA, cuDNN and DLSS worked well. Gaming wasn't a problem at all. The only downside was that Wayland was very buggy and I was forced to use X. But Wayland with Nvidia cards seems to have gotten a lot better now. Howeer, NVIDIA GPUs with the Pascal architecture (10xx series) can have very poor performance in Linux gaming. As far as I know, this is a hardware problem and will probably never be fixed with the driver.
@@LowBudgetLinuxGaming understood! So I tried Ubuntu today with a 9700K and RX5700XT and I could not get both games I play to work. Helldivers 2 had a “win ready - debugger has been detected” and would not open. Monster hunter rise, would also not open. I tried another game I don’t play , tomb raider 2014 and that worked fine. I tried Linux mint. Both games work. M.H.R works like a charm! H.D.2, has a white box around the image, still playable but everything turned down in 1440p. 1080p played better. Both options are turned on in compatibility option in steam. And the force proton option for each game under their properties.
You can check whether the games work on Linux on ProtonDB. You can often find which tweaks are helpful in the comments. Here for example for Helldivers 2: www.protondb.com/app/553850 Some games that have problems with Proton run great with ProtonGE: github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom
@@LowBudgetLinuxGaming thank you! I got H.D.2 white box around the screen to disappear yesterday. Ended up doing a hot key shortcut for full screen that fixes it. Just start in window mode and then hit the hot key. I also dropped the resolution down a bit from 1440p and adjusted the settings. Works really good now. The only thing I would say is that my friend said my mic output sounds like a trash can over the headset.
not worth it. if you spend enough time modding windows 11-10 you get far better results than having to check on every app if it has a linux support version. I have Windows 11 Pro on a Intel Core2Quad 8200 2008 (3.00GHz stable OC 1860MHz ish DDR3 peak 1960MHz) with the Ghost Spectre mod , runs flawless , 0 issues whatsoever. not worth the 3 extra avg fps id get in some games just to not be able to play unsupported older titles. pushing linux on the average consumer MAINLY on the budget level isnt a good move and especially if they are beginners/ dont know what theyre getting themselves into. FOR RECAP: modding regular windows is more convenient with better support and way more beginner friendly.
Just like Windows can be modded, you could also optimize Linux for gaming. But I compared stock Windows with stock Ubuntu. I doubt that it is easier to mod Windows and keep it running than to install Ubuntu and Steam with Proton where everything runs out of the box and is officially supported. But that's the good thing about technology, everyone can use what they like 👍
@@LowBudgetLinuxGaming New linux user here, could you make a video on how to optimize linux for gaming on low end systems, actually I am facing a issue on linux which was not there on windows I have potato pc ryzen 5 5500u and Igpu the tdp is not stable it drops from around 30W to 15W mid game than don't recover IDK what the issue is I am on Debian 12 also tried fedora but same issue
@@Abhishek__Parihar Actually a video about gaming optimizations is currently in work. It should be released in September. Regarding the problem you describe, set the power options from Balanced to High Performance. Depending on which desktop environment you use, this will be in a different place, but not difficult to find. In Gnome, for example, it is on the right in the top panel.
@@LowBudgetLinuxGaming Yeah I set it on high performance, even used ryzenadj to set --max-performance and set tdp to like 30w and tctl temp to 85 celcius, but it's same the tdp drops and also temp drops to around 60, tried defferent proton versions , heroic launcher ,steam after I am few minutes into the game tdp drops also asked some other person with same hardware he is also having same problem, this issue is only in games outside games everything works fine, so is this a proton issue, can I raise a this bug to developers somewhere ? tried on debian forums but got not response
If one is on a budget, it's nice to not spend 100$ for a license. And if we are talking laptops then I for example bought one without windows. It was about 130$ cheaper than the same model with windows home edition
You've inspired me to try out a few older games on my old ThinkPad T440s, on a rolling-release distribution (openSUSE Tumbleweed). I had mixed results, but I think I know why: technologies like DXVK require Vulkan support, which only became commonplace with the sixth generation if Core i-CPUs. So if you want to do some cheap, low-end Linux gaming, 6th or 7th gen Intel CPUs or their AMD equivalents might be the sweet spot. Now I need to find out when dedicated GPUs started supporting Vulkan.
please investigate the re4 issue
Done: ruclips.net/video/YaXMisWwetk/видео.html
I am surprised how I could run gunfire reborn smoothly on a t460 with arch btw. On windows it just struggled with anything
Thanks for the video!
I was excited to see some low-end linux action, but was surprised by AAA gaming- if this is low end, what is my thinkcentre with an i5-3570 and a GTX 770 O-O?
The GPU is a 7 year old mid range GPU which is outperformed by iGPUs nowadays, paired with a 9 year old dual core entry level CPU. I think you can definitely call that low-end, but I guess there is always a even lower end 😂
Ubuntu 24.04 uses the 24.0.9 Mesa graphics driver while 24.2.2 released yesterday. You would have to use something newer like an Arch-based distribution to see if a newer driver improves your performance or an updated Mesa repository on Ubuntu. It could also be possible a newer kernel may improve performance which would come with an Arch-based distro. I would suggest something like CachyOS. Otherwise I would say try Fedora as that comes with 24.1.7. I would have said OpenSUSE Tumbleweed but they've been holding back the Mesa version to 24.1.3 I believe.
Manjaro could also be another option. Arch-based but they slightly hold back from the latest however 24.1.7 is still very recent and the default kernel is a bit never than that of Ubuntu 24.04. It may be that these options improve the performance for RE4 Remake. Just keep in mind that CachyOS in particular has various tweaks and packages that may also change things so it may not reflect a typical experience. Fedora would be the most vanilla and fairly up-to-date way to experience Linux. Some would suggest using Fedora derivatives like Nobara Linux or Bazzite but I think standard Fedora or Fedora KDE would be perfectly fine for these tests.
Very good points, you know your stuff :)
I'm planning on making a video in which I'll respond to some of the many good comments, and I'll definitely include yours.
@@LowBudgetLinuxGaming Thank you. Honestly it's from a lot of trial and error. An example of why this could be more complicated for some is how Linux is always developing while people look out for a standard distro in the space. For a very long time it was Ubuntu but the increased interest has been in gaming for Linux and some feel Ubuntu doesn't meet their demands. I find Fedora to be a good balance. There are gaming derivatives of Fedora and their work is fantastic and contributes a lot to the space. I just feel starting with something more vanilla like Fedora itself gives a better impression to those new to Linux.
For example, Nobara uses its own package manager app yet does the average user use that? This isn't the case for all but when I tried Nobara recently the package manager would keep crashing when installing a package I got from an external repository yet I could install it via the terminal without issue. It wasn't a good experience for me and it led me to do something I'd have to have done on Fedora anyway. It's why Linux people typically tell people to use the terminal when doing something a bit more advanced because it's to avoid a broken experience while also giving the user information.
Fedora like with Ubuntu is pushing sandboxed apps lately through a software store to avoid users taking more advanced actions while cleaning up the experience. The developer from an app gets the bonus of not having to rely on a distro having the right packages this way as they choose exactly what versions of packages they like for their app. The onus is then more on the developer rather than the distro and the casual user. Truth is though that the package I wanted couldn't be what they call a Flatpak or a Snap because it was more system related but who would do that other than advanced users anyway? I think a softer introduction is better first then with time people may move to something more advanced, tweaked or experimental.
AMD hardware is very well supported with open source drivers so your experience should be quite good with most distros. It's just that Ubuntu isn't so up-to-date with Mesa. I've been having issues finding a stable experience for my Dell XPS 9570 as it has Nvidia graphics. The drivers aren't open source and aren't fully stable for what is called Wayland (a display server) where I've had issues with the latest driver making my system completely freeze when using some apps like Firefox. I've been using Manjaro as they seem aware of these issues and have held back from using the latest driver along with other packages. My issue may be the latest Nvidia driver not switching between the Intel graphics from my CPU properly in some scenarios being a laptop with hybrid graphics. Most people from what I can tell aren't having my issue but I appreciate that the Manjaro team have held some things back that has given me a good option for now rather than me having to mess with packages as much as I'm used to it.
Fedora may be ok for me and has been in the past but I just like Arch a lot. They have something called the AUR where users build nearly any package you can find so I'm sticking with that for now. This is why distro-hopping is common with some proclaiming their individual experience and love for one as gospel yet the truth is that it's about one's wants and needs while avoiding issues. If Valve gets a general version of SteamOS out then on the gaming side of things we may all finally have something more solid to all pool together with that appeals to the less advanced user and a wider audience. The people who then want more can go with something more advanced and bleeding-edge as they always have. Sorry for explaining a lot there but I think the user experience is very important when bringing people into the Linux space and to grow it.
@@LowBudgetLinuxGaming Sorry but just one more thing... 😆 Many prefer KDE Plasma these days as GNOME has been a bit behind on some gaming related features until recently (VRR, VR support, etc.) so maybe Fedora KDE may be something to try out as standard Fedora uses GNOME like Ubuntu. The Fedora derivatives use KDE Plasma as their default as do Valve with SteamOS so it's generally accepted as the way to go. GNOME is mostly ok I think but I do prefer KDE Plasma myself. Plasma is closer to a Windows-like experience so I think that factors into some people choosing it.
All the best to you and I hope you find it to be fun rather than frustrating as I have felt both over the years. 😆
Thanks for the detailed explanations! I had my first experiences with Linux over 20 years ago and my main job is developing software on Linux for Linux. I'm already past the frustration :)
Of course Windows was faster at 2:34. It only had to render a hat, not an entire bold head...
No Bazzite?
Do radeon cards work better in Linux? Just asking. I tried Ubuntu and mint a few days ago with a GTX 1080 and was having a hard time with it. Should I give it a go with a Radeon card? Like rx5700xt?
TL;DR: NVIDIA cards work just fine with Linux with the exception of the 10xx series.
Long version:
The advantage of Radeon cards is that the driver is in the kernel. You don't have to install anything, you don't have to worry about anything, they just work.
For NVIDIA cards, however, the driver has to be installed, but in most distros this works quickly and easily in the GUI.
I had an RTX 3050 two years ago and had no problems with Pop!_OS and Fedora. The NVIDIA exclusive features such as CUDA, cuDNN and DLSS worked well. Gaming wasn't a problem at all. The only downside was that Wayland was very buggy and I was forced to use X. But Wayland with Nvidia cards seems to have gotten a lot better now.
Howeer, NVIDIA GPUs with the Pascal architecture (10xx series) can have very poor performance in Linux gaming. As far as I know, this is a hardware problem and will probably never be fixed with the driver.
@@LowBudgetLinuxGaming understood!
So I tried Ubuntu today with a 9700K and RX5700XT and I could not get both games I play to work. Helldivers 2 had a “win ready - debugger has been detected” and would not open. Monster hunter rise, would also not open. I tried another game I don’t play , tomb raider 2014 and that worked fine.
I tried Linux mint. Both games work. M.H.R works like a charm! H.D.2, has a white box around the image, still playable but everything turned down in 1440p. 1080p played better.
Both options are turned on in compatibility option in steam. And the force proton option for each game under their properties.
You can check whether the games work on Linux on ProtonDB. You can often find which tweaks are helpful in the comments. Here for example for Helldivers 2: www.protondb.com/app/553850
Some games that have problems with Proton run great with ProtonGE: github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom
@@LowBudgetLinuxGaming thank you!
I got H.D.2 white box around the screen to disappear yesterday. Ended up doing a hot key shortcut for full screen that fixes it. Just start in window mode and then hit the hot key. I also dropped the resolution down a bit from 1440p and adjusted the settings. Works really good now. The only thing I would say is that my friend said my mic output sounds like a trash can over the headset.
10xx and older cards are really bad on linux though proton vkd3d due less stellar vulkan support.
Try test native linux games on a low end machine and compare it with windows. And stress the cpu so we could see linux winning
Not the case when you have nvidia
Why are you comparing to Ubuntu instead of Debian? Ubuntu breaks quite a few packages.
Can you explain this in more detail. Which packages exactly?
not worth it. if you spend enough time modding windows 11-10 you get far better results than having to check on every app if it has a linux support version. I have Windows 11 Pro on a Intel Core2Quad 8200 2008 (3.00GHz stable OC 1860MHz ish DDR3 peak 1960MHz) with the Ghost Spectre mod , runs flawless , 0 issues whatsoever. not worth the 3 extra avg fps id get in some games just to not be able to play unsupported older titles. pushing linux on the average consumer MAINLY on the budget level isnt a good move and especially if they are beginners/ dont know what theyre getting themselves into.
FOR RECAP: modding regular windows is more convenient with better support and way more beginner friendly.
Just like Windows can be modded, you could also optimize Linux for gaming. But I compared stock Windows with stock Ubuntu.
I doubt that it is easier to mod Windows and keep it running than to install Ubuntu and Steam with Proton where everything runs out of the box and is officially supported.
But that's the good thing about technology, everyone can use what they like 👍
@@LowBudgetLinuxGaming New linux user here, could you make a video on how to optimize linux for gaming on low end systems, actually I am facing a issue on linux which was not there on windows I have potato pc ryzen 5 5500u and Igpu the tdp is not stable it drops from around 30W to 15W mid game than don't recover IDK what the issue is I am on Debian 12 also tried fedora but same issue
@@Abhishek__Parihar Actually a video about gaming optimizations is currently in work. It should be released in September. Regarding the problem you describe, set the power options from Balanced to High Performance. Depending on which desktop environment you use, this will be in a different place, but not difficult to find. In Gnome, for example, it is on the right in the top panel.
@@LowBudgetLinuxGaming Yeah I set it on high performance, even used ryzenadj to set --max-performance and set tdp to like 30w and tctl temp to 85 celcius, but it's same the tdp drops and also temp drops to around 60, tried defferent proton versions , heroic launcher ,steam after I am few minutes into the game tdp drops also asked some other person with same hardware he is also having same problem, this issue is only in games outside games everything works fine, so is this a proton issue, can I raise a this bug to developers somewhere ? tried on debian forums but got not response
If one is on a budget, it's nice to not spend 100$ for a license. And if we are talking laptops then I for example bought one without windows. It was about 130$ cheaper than the same model with windows home edition
What kind of monitor do you use?
Don't know the exact model, but it's an 27" LG 1440p 144 Hz monitor. The capture card is 1080p60